Beyond the Collateral Archives: April 2008
April 17, 2008
Retooling Compliance to Give Your Marketing a Leg Up
When it comes to financial marketing, maybe Warren Zevon had it right after all (even if taken out of context). Send lawyers to help review the 87,000 pieces of sales collateral that marketers churn out each and every year. Send money to pay all those filing fees and fines. And the guns? Let that be a tip of the cap to recently deceased Northwestern Alum Charlton Heston.
In an instant communications world—one that evolves second to second–the process for review and approval of marketing content hasn’t budged an inch in the last 20 years (much less a millimeter to our metric system pals around the world. Our props to inch and foot stalwarts Liberia and Burma! Yeah!). Not only does the process across most firms decelerate time to market on breaking news, but it completely undermines the ability to leverage most new media, including blogging and social networking. As the investing world becomes more transparent, the information advantage we’ve leaned on is fast evaporating. New media offers the opportunity to regain some of that lost footing.
Enabling the Marketer
As I see it, it is time that financial compliance organizations move beyond a role designed only to protect the firm in favor of one that does that while enabling the marketer. And I believe it possible to do both without putting the firm at risk.
For eternity, financial marketers have been held hostage to an absurd compliance process, leaving them with little choice but to negotiate for a shorter review window. 48 hours? 24 hours?
I say, how about 10-20 minutes.
The solution?
Position the compliance team physically along side the marketers, not upstairs with legal, and let marketing heads establish priority as news value dictates. Second, work to solve the challenges inherent in new media. Why can’t product managers blog?
Many today’s legal departments won’t allow this to happen for fear that the compliance team will fall under the spell of those fun marketing guys—a financial Stockholm Syndrome to be sure. But I don’t share that same concern.
Someone is going to get it right and then everybody will be falling in line. Why not be one of the smart firms and take the lead, when first mover advantage is still possible. Am I crazy?
