No shared understanding on the job of marketing
Only 23% of marketers say there is a clear, shared understanding of why marketing exists. In one company we found 28 different descriptions of the same marketing job.
Designing modern marketing operating models.
MarCaps is a boutique firm that helps marketing leaders design modern, effective, and fulfilling marketing organizations.
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Today’s challenge
We can do anything but we can’t do everything.
Marketing has more channels, tools, tactics, and talent than ever. That makes choosing, not doing, the hardest part of the job, and most marketing organizations were not designed for it.
Resources spread too thin
Without explicit choices about which capabilities to master, budget and talent disperse across everything the team could do instead of what it must do well.
Friction impacting the work
Close to 60% of large firms are experiencing high levels of friction in their work. Org friction is associated with higher operating costs, lower employee satisfaction and decreased performance.
The answer is a marketing operating model: a clear, intentionally designed way of marketing.
Source: The Marketing Operating Model Effect, MarCaps and MMA, April 2026.
How we work
We design it with you, not for you.
We work with your team from start to finish to create the right operating model for your business, your goals, and where you are today. Your team owns the model, so they are committed to making it work.
Based on choices, not slides.
We don’t work from presentation decks. We work with exercises and tools designed to clarify the challenges and give your team a defined set of choices, so they can design the right solutions.
Guided by high quality signals.
We inform the work using a combination of internal and external performance signals and proprietary benchmarks set to academic research standards.
A process that engages.
Leaders record their thinking individually first, then work through the options together in hands-on exercises that build alignment and excitement for the work.
Deliverables that enable action.
We have led marketing organizations and implemented operating models from start to finish, so what you get is built to be used.
What you will get
An operating model your team owns.
A marketing operating model has three parts:
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The job of marketing
Marketing’s unique responsibilities, KPIs, and deliverables; a mission statement that clarifies and inspires; and clear boundaries with other functions: what marketing owns, what it shares, and where it is not involved.
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The marketing playbook
Which capabilities to be best in class at, which to match peers on, and which to deprioritize. What to in-source and out-source, and what sits together or apart, with AI embedded across the model rather than isolated as one capability.
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The way of working
The practices to fix or adopt, clear decision rights, and shared methods, briefs, and handoff standards.
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Tracking: how the organization performs
An assessment of progress, the gaps still open, and a prioritized agenda for the organization.
How we do it
Three stages, four months.
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Diagnose
Through a combination of research and interviews we help you determine what are the key enablers and barriers to your organization’s performance. We assess the state of your mandate, marketing playbook and way of working. The work is based on a unique dataset of performance signals, including the study of internal artifacts and external actions, interviews with key leaders, and a survey of employees. The data is structured and benchmarked against peers to give you clarity and confidence.
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Design
Leaders and managers share their experience and suggestions through a set of structured instruments. They then participate in a series of sprints composed of focused and hands-on work sessions, where the project team crafts the necessary elements of their mandate, marketing playbook, or way of working. The result is a draft of the operating model’s choices and elements.
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Decide
We help you draft a first version of the model as one connected argument, with a sequencing plan and a handover plan. A final session finalizes the work, and you receive the marketing operating model in an easy-to-share form, along with the implementation phases, and recommendations for managing the change.
A year later, we assess.
Twelve months on, we return to measure progress and identify the gaps and challenges still to address. The result is your organization’s agenda for the next year, with priorities linked to the practices that drive performance.
Research
Backed by research.
Latest study · MarCaps and the MMA
The Marketing Operating Model Effect
What marketing operating models are, why they matter, and how to build one that works, drawn from 843 marketing organizations. Compared with the weakest operating models, those in the top quartile were:
- 12.8×more likely to be top-tier performers
- 2.4×more likely to have grown revenue by more than 5% last year
- 5.5×more likely to have people who would recommend the marketing team
The MarCaps framework comes from academic research and our own benchmark of 843 marketing organizations, not just conventional wisdom.
We know that marketing capabilities predict a firm’s future customer satisfaction, sales growth, profit, and stock performance. This finding is published in the Journal of Marketing, Marketing Science, and Harvard Business Review.
Our partners have spent decades studying how marketing organizations create value. They continuously update which capabilities matter most and how firms can intentionally build them.
Every engagement draws on four assets: the Modern Marketing Capability Map, with more than 100 brands scored and continuous signals from more than 1 million job postings; a benchmark database of 843 marketing organizations, including how they are adopting AI; consolidated academic research on organizational design and marketing operations; and partners who have led the design and implementation of global marketing operating models.
Source: The Marketing Operating Model Effect, MarCaps and MMA, April 2026 (survey of 843 marketing leaders, March 2026). Associations, not causal estimates.
Drivers and enablers · six value areas · 114 capabilities
The capability map: 114 capabilities assessed · hover to explore
Read the original HBR article Download the article here
Partners.
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Dr. Omar Rodríguez Vila
CEO · Partner
Omar is CEO of MarCaps and Professor in the Practice of Marketing at Emory’s Goizueta Business School, with research published in Harvard Business Review. He spent years in marketing leadership at The Coca-Cola Company, including as Global Vice President of Integrated Marketing Communications.
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Shubu Mitra
COO · Partner
Shubu is COO of MarCaps, helping clients build growth-oriented marketing capabilities. He began his career at McKinsey & Company before leading global marketing effectiveness efforts at The Coca-Cola Company.
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Rebecca Messina
Partner
Rebecca served as the inaugural Global CMO of Uber, following senior marketing roles at Beam Suntory and 22 years at The Coca-Cola Company. She now advises private clients and serves as a Senior Advisor at McKinsey & Company.
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Dr. Neil Morgan
Partner
Neil is a partner at MarCaps and Professor of Marketing at the Wisconsin School of Business, known for research on marketing capabilities. He serves on the board of Blake’s Seed-Based Snacks and advises DTC startups.
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Dr. Sundar Bharadwaj
Partner
Sundar is a partner at MarCaps and holds the Coca-Cola Company Chair in Marketing at the University of Georgia’s Terry College of Business. His research on marketing investment returns has been published in the Journal of Marketing and Harvard Business Review.
Working together.
We take on five engagements a year. Schedule an advisory session to find out if we’re the right match.