20. Marketing Flexibilities: Lessons from the Corporate

Earlier researchers talked about the flexibility construct and different classification frameworks on flexibility. They included functional flexibilities like finance, operation, marketing, international, managerial/structural, research and development, production, informational, geographical and human, cultural, and organizational flexibility. The idea was to have a wholesome approach to flexibility from all aspects. Marketing is an integral function in any organization, and relevance of flexibility in marketing area is extremely important for sustainable profitability, as has been proven by successful organizations. The author found that there is not much mention about marketing flexibility construct. This chapter proposes key dimensions for the marketing flexibility construct. Marketing is more than just a function; rather, all other functions actually help and support marketing to achieve organizational objectives, and thus it should more appropriately be called as a system. As a system, it will help the organizations to become more sensitive and adaptable to both internal and external conditions, hence making them more proactive and less prone to the devastating results of sudden changes. Thus, successful organizations have flexible marketing system, as compared to not so successful organizations. This chapter is based on the extensive literature review, and the lessons have been drawn from the corporate world to support this idea. Selected cases prove that such a system in any organization can help in sustainable growth by overcoming the challenges and the uncertainties.