ndence between functions and departments. In theory, each telco would have one marketing department to handle all marketing activities for all departments, one sales department to handle all sales of all products to everyone, and one public relations department, etc. In such a case, alignment would be easy. However, we find that most telcos have several marketing departments, or at least many groups that perform marketing-type functions in one capacity or another. The particular arrangement of competing marketing functions will vary, but the theme is basically the same. Different groups attempt to isolate different applications of the function to meet the needs of certain special interest groups. Functional Specialization This process of creating subsets of a specific function it to meet the needs of different groups within the telco is called functional specialization. Functional specialization occurs when one department in the telco decides that the department commissioned with the overall generalized responsibility for a given function will not do an adequate job of helping to accomplish its objectives. As a eXcellence in Telecommunications The Telco Churn Handbook result, the department creates its own mini-function to make up for the shortfall. Functional specialization is a clear necessity in business today. Too many departments with large, complex, and sometimes conflicting objectives must vie for limited resources. Many times, simply recreating the function at a more appropriate level makes the most sense. Marketing Example of Functional Specialization One of the most easy-to-identify cases of functional specialization occurs when we examine the way the marketing function is allocated across the organization. Most telcos have a main marketing Figure 17-6: Functional Specialists department. Most also have several other departments that have "marketing" in their name. The differences between these competing marketing departments have everything to do with their scope of responsibility and accountability. Th