In Times of Market Headwinds, Lean In
Our clients find themselves in yet another unpredictable market, where factors such as economic conditions, regulatory changes, technological advancements, geopolitical tensions, and socio-economic shifts create constant fluctuations. Stability is rare and adaptability is essential.
The Ward Group has had the good fortune of working in many different categories, and throughout our 30-year history, we’ve seen how the strongest marketing leaders innovate to stay ahead in challenging, turbulent environments. We have seen some of the most active, lean transformations happen in healthcare and financial services, where successful leaders exhibit characteristics of vision-setting, agility, calculated risk-taking, and bold creativity.
We’ve curated three recent examples of clients who exemplify these attributes, serving as real examples of active leadership in tumultuous markets:
A Telehealth Company Pivots Post-Pandemic
The demand for digital health technology skyrocketed during the pandemic, so as this mature, founder-led telehealth organization benefited from this demand, so did its competition. The company reached a crossroads, with the need to rethink its strategy and product offerings to stay ahead.
At a time when peers were cutting budgets, thus shrinking investments in people and products, company leadership invested in developing and hiring growth leaders. The newly hired Chief Commercial and Growth Officer was charged with evaluating the changing market dynamics and ensuring that the organization could meet the demands and opportunities. Following a rigorous assessment of product offerings and people, leadership created a new role to advance their growth efforts.
In partnership with The Ward Group, a new SVP of Marketing was recruited to develop a marketing strategy to support the vision of the organization while navigating ambiguity and driving growth of the new products. The market was not waiting for anyone, and the future of this organization is dependent on the investment in new leadership to bring the strategy to life.
Leading FinTech Upskills Strategic Marketing Leadership
While the trend toward outsourcing in the investment management business had been unfolding for some time, industry leaders felt 2023 would be a watershed year. Our client, a publicly traded provider of turnkey asset management programs to financial advisors, sought to elevate the impact of marketing in their firm while acknowledging the challenges inherent in doing so in what is a sales-driven culture. Moreover, this leader would need to focus on accelerating aggressive growth goals across a newly expanded product portfolio (and thus new competitive landscape).
We identified a collaborative but steadfast visionary with a stellar track record of transformational leadership coupled with the ability to transform a culture while simultaneously driving growth.
Healthcare System Positions for the Future with Marketing Team Build Out
Our healthcare provider clients are facing unparalleled financial and marketplace challenges. Many healthcare organizations are focusing on cost-cutting their way to viability.
One client, a major academic medical system, created and committed to a centralized model to both create efficiencies and drive growth initiatives. The newly centralized marketing team was charged with developing and implementing strategies to reach ambitious goals.
To do so, the CMO quickly assessed the existing talent and recruited new leaders to meet the changing needs of the organization. We partnered with this leader to recruit contemporary marketing talent, thus elevating the team in digital, brand, service-line marketing, and more.
By pursuing parallel paths of creating operational efficiencies and investing in marketing, the organization was able to maintain its status as a market leader while capitalizing on opportunities to become a national and global brand.
Conclusion
These three examples highlight that despite being very different organizations experiencing market turbulence, each took similar paths to success through bold decision-making, agility, and commitment to aggressive marketing and creativity.