A ‘set and forget’ approach to strategy won’t keep you competitive. Clever marketers are shifting towards ‘adaptive strategy’, using their foresight, customer knowledge and leadership to steer a course for success and help B2B companies stay ready for anything.
Strategy has a reputation problem. It’s often seen as a long-term plan (or just extra fluff) and it’s usually created in a boardroom, packaged into a deck and shelved until the next planning cycle. But planning is not strategy.
Businesses feel obliged to have a strategy, but few actually activate it. Even fewer keep it alive.
It’s hardly surprising. In today’s fast-changing environment, most business strategies are out of date before the ink dries. But the moment you try to market without a strategy, you’re a boat adrift, doing stuff for the sake of it.
The winners in this space have made the shift towards ‘adaptive strategy’. This is about replacing static strategy with strategic motion – it ensures B2B businesses have clarity, alignment and become adaptive in an unpredictable world. And marketers have a crucial role.
This is about so much more than brand or comms – it’s about market sensing, market intelligence, framing narratives and helping the business make strategic decisions faster and with greater confidence.
The ‘market team’ is key
Marketing is the connective tissue between ambition and activation. Strategy can feel invisible until it shows up in the ‘market team’ – they’re the people (not just in marketing but also product, sales and beyond) who read the signals and understand the market. They are the power behind strategy and at the heart of four key forces:
- Signals: The market team will often see signals others miss. Trends, friction, feedback loops. Businesses can use the market team to stay alert, observe the environment and sense shifts. What’s emerging that could change the game?
- Bets: Marketing helps define and express the strategic angle of what we believe, what we’re building, why it matters and therefore the ‘strategic bets’ we’ll make in the marketplace. This turns insight into action.
- Motion: Marketing leads the way when activating the marketplace. They move first and remain the most adaptable – ever evolving, always aligned.
- Expansion: Marketing activates reach and repeatability. It feeds back into strategic intent, helping support business resilience. A key part of this feedback loop is what’s happening in sales, how the bets are driving real outcomes. This is the scale moment: you’ve read the signals, placed the bets, set everything in motion, now it’s time to refine and accelerate. The same applies across brand (long-term) and demand generation (short-term) – strategy for each can be sharpened by real-world results.
CMOs as boardroom leaders
Marketing leaders in B2B are often the first to feel change because they’re closest to the market. That’s why CMOs and marketing strategists should lead when it comes to strategic motion – they have a unique advantage in market sensing and foresight.
CMOs are first responders to change, so don’t spend your time in the boardroom reporting clicks and campaign metrics. Instead, translate what the measurements signal: behaviour changes, buying trends, market shifts.
CMOs are in a great position to provide that knowledge. They’re constantly collecting information about the buyer’s journey. And they reach across the business. The market team can talk about macro trends and cross-pollinate ideas to bring context and help the board see the world in a different way. AI can’t do that.
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Your human input also helps futureproof the market team’s existence. AI can generate a lot, but it cannot formulate effective strategy and have foresight about something it hasn’t yet seen, a future that has not yet played out. That’s why strategy will always be a valued skill.
Real market intelligence brings powerful strategic value. Boards care most about growth and potential, so they need to deeply understand the market and the company’s ability to create and capture it. A marketer’s job in the boardroom is to help the CEO provide confidence that resource decisions will maximise potential.
How to have the conversation
Use objectives and key results to frame the budget discussion: here’s what we can do with the budget we have, here’s what we could achieve if we had more.
The conversation might go: “This is where we’re going to play to win. Here’s what I see, and I’m going to place these three bets on the market, based on this information. This is the most powerful thing I can do with the budget I have. With a different budget, we could also elevate and accelerate these other things. Maybe that’s for the next horizon.
“But for now, this is what I can do. Is there anything else you want to see from me?” That’s the end of the conversation. And you’re fully in your marketing power.
Adaptive strategy is a rhythm, a team’s unifying focus. Great strategy prepares your business for the future – and you can be the one shaping it.
The B2B marketing strategy gap
Without strategic thinking, we see:
- Tactical overload and short-term focus: Many B2B marketers are lone wolves or in small teams. They get stuck in cycles of campaign execution, chasing quick wins and instant metrics at the expense of long-term brand building and strategic alignment.
- Budget and resource constraints: If marketers don’t link execution to strategic intent and business outcomes, CFOs, CEOs and boards are hesitant to trust and allocate resources.
- Sales-marketing misalignment: A disconnect between sales and marketing leads to unclear goals and inconsistent messaging. Without cross-functional alignment, marketing efforts often fail to translate into sales results.
- Bureaucracy and decision paralysis: Too many decision-makers and approval layers or a lack of clear objectives stifle adaptability. Analysis paralysis and risk aversion can lead to missed market opportunities.
Hints and tips
Cultivate an adaptive culture1
- Empower frontline teams: Let marketing managers adjust campaigns/activities based on local data without C-suite approval.
- Normalise experimentation: Allocate 10-15% of budgets to test new channels/tactics/messages/partnerships, with clear “fail-fast” protocols.
- Upskill continuously: Train teams in AI tools, agile methods and scenario planning so they’re future-ready.
Embed continuous learning and market signal detection
Modern marketing strategies require constant environmental scanning.
- Analyse market threats/opportunities using a framework such as Porter’s Five Forces.
- Use AI-powered analytics to detect intent signals and emerging trends.
- Conduct iterative customer interviews and feedback loops to refine value propositions in real time.
Adaptive strategy is a rhythm
You can’t futureproof your business, but you can help future-fit the strategy – even as a team of one.
- Set aside time each day to read the market and synthesise information. Think about how you’ll report back.
- Applying strategic thinking and foresight takes discipline and is cognitively draining. It’s a rhythm. But train that muscle: conversations become more powerful, infusing your company’s strategic intent.
References: 1. Companies that neglect culture see 70% of adaptive initiatives stall, according to achieveit.com/resources/blog/drive-plan-execution-alignment
This story comes from NZ Marketing magazine issue 83, Jun-Aug 2025. Why not subscribe? Get four issues a year for just $50 (including delivery) if you autorenew.
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