What is Control Management?
The concept of control management stems from French mining executive Henri Fayol’s five functions of management (Planning, Organizing, Commanding, Coordinating and Controlling). In this sense, Controlling relates to ensuring that all the processes being undertaken – and their results – are in line with previously established standards. As Fayol himself said:
“Control of an undertaking consists of seeing that everything is being carried out in accordance with the plan which has been adopted, the orders which have been given, and the principles which have been laid down. Its object is to point out mistakes in order that they may be rectified and prevented from recurring”.
What Control Management Means for Marketing
The wide variety of standardized processes performed by marketing teams means that it is a fertile area for implementing and benefitting from effective control management. The constant monitoring and revision of how tasks are performed constitutes an “ironing out” process, whereby consistent incremental improvements deliver gains to productivity and workflow.
While systems vary among specific types of management – say, between budgetary control or change control management – they generally follow a step-by-step process:
Step 1: Creating or establishing the standard by which performance will be measured. This can either be from an industry average or be a running benchmark or high-water mark of how your team has recently performed. For example, if 100,000 new leads were driven to a client’s website last month, then that would be an appropriate standard to expect this month.
Step 2: Measuring how your team is performing. This should be consistent and use a variety of measurements, to ensure that innovation is not stifled by rigidly sticking to a few designated parameters of what success should look like.
Step 3: Comparison between the chosen benchmark and current performance. This can be effectively done using the dashboards and measurement facilities on project management software, such as Planview AdaptiveWork.
Step 4: Locating the cause of negative variations and areas for improvement. This is done by analyzing deviations from the planned process and how this affected performance.
Step 5: Implementing the necessary changes to the processes or protocols that are being used.
Types of Control Management
If looking to implement control management principles for your marketing team, here is a breakdown of some occasions when controls are used:
Pre-Action Controls: Also known as feedforward or pre-emptive controls, these are put in place to ensure risks are reduced and issues are prevented before they arise.
Steering Controls: Steering controls are the monitoring aspect of control management. They are used to oversee and constantly evaluate productivity, quality and general performance. This is the most common purpose of control management and includes the guidelines and practices expected of the team – for example, its decision-making process, lead evaluation or vendor relationship protocols.
Post-action Controls: These happen after something has occurred, effectively using feedback and hindsight to improve standards and performance.
Change Controls: Like many other controls on this list, change control management is one component of a larger system – in this case change management. Change controls are aimed at systematically managing all changes made to a product or system, like adopting a new SEO data analytics tool. Change controls ensure that changes are documented, minimize unnecessary disruptions, and optimize the use of resources.
Control management can deliver positive change to how your marketing team works. To make the most of it and keep track of how your team is performing, good project management software is essential. Getting started with Planview AdaptiveWork is simple – check out our advantage today!
