What's next for the CMO?
One of my favorite books addressing this topic is Marketing as Strategy, by Nirmalya Kumar. Actually, our company was formed to help CMOs and other executives transition their companies "from having a marketing department to BEING a marketing organization." So, kudos on the article.
From Fast Company magazine: What’s Next for the CMO? Although the article was written in August 2009, its relevance continues to grow.
These days, and no disrespect intended to my accounting friends, 75% or so (someone verify the number?) of Fortune 1000s are run by accountants, attorneys, and operations people, right?
No one is going to offer up a friendly invite for CMOs to get back in the lead. On the whole, we've allowed ourselves to be relegated to the sidelines by "cost accounting" and by the number one corporate strategy in America (the world?) -- mergers and acquisitions.
That being said, we've collectively abdicated responsibility for being the strategic and business planning experts we should be. Like anything, we're going to have to simply step up to the plate, lose our love affair with tactics and tools, and learn how to develop and manage effective strategic planning.
I believe CMOs need to study more about what I like to call "the messy world of human interaction" -- psychology, sociology, anthropology, and politics. In practice, that will allow more CMOs to think strategically about initiatives beyond marketing communications – initiatives such R&D and product development, market growth, and competitive analysis. Additionally, CMOs can and should take on the responsibility to understand sales through and through…ideally, spending time in the field and managing sales forces.
In all, I’d like to see the reverse trend – more and more CEOs coming from a sales and marketing background. I think companies who think and act this way will have a better chance of creating sustainable customer value – which will more easily lead to company and shareholder value.