Monday, April 23, 2007

Sneak Peak - CMO Report Highlights



The Define & Align the CMO report is avaliable to today after 2 years in the making. The report actually turned out to be more interesting than we orignal thought based on our working hypothesis.

The year-long research by the CMO Council and MarketBridge encompassed qualitative and quantitative interviews with CMOs, CEOs, board members, senior marketers and executive recruiters throughout North America. The 80-page report, priced at $295, along with a complimentary executive abstract, is available for download at http://www.cmocouncil.org/.

Here's a teaser of some the insights coming out of the research:

  • Confusion over the role - the casualty rate of Chief Marketing Officers can be reduced if CEOs and boards better understood the role, requirements and value of a CMO and empowered the right individuals to architect all aspects of a company’s operations around the customer experience.
  • "A Fixer Upper" - the report points out that title inflation, unrealistic expectations, flawed hiring practices, talent deficiencies, and lack of requisite business and strategic leadership skills are big contributors to the limited shelf life of CMOs. The research also points to the fact that 50 percent of executive searches are to replace incumbent CMOs who are primarily hired to fix broken marketing organizations, not drive business value.
  • R-E-S-P-E-C-T - the study uncovers startling contradictions in upper management: most executives consider the CMO a valued member of the executive team, yet they also believe many CMOs lack the background and skills needed to be a top management player - a challenge numerous senior marketers share with their CIO counterparts at many companies. Additionally, in a sharp commentary on the connection between strategic value and performance, most CMOs involved in top-level decision-making get high marks from their CEOs for their overall performance, while those CMOs who remain in tactical mode get significantly lower grades.
  • Show me the Money! - nearly three-quarters of the C-suite executives surveyed consider the marketing organization “highly influential and strategic in the enterprise.” At the same time, nearly two-thirds also say their top marketers don’t provide adequate evidence of ROI with which to gauge marketing’s true performance.
  • Getting a Grade - In a clear sign of the strategic role played by marketing executives, nearly 70% of the CMO respondents to this study report directly to their CEO. However, only 40% of that number get an A grade for their performance from the CEO...most likely the ones who could demonstrate their value! For the most part, CMOs get more respect from the boardroom than from the CEO. Most of the board members surveyed, over 80%, believe that within the next two years, the CMO position will gain greater credibility with the rest of the management team. But in another reality check, less than 20 percent also say that an increasing number of CMOs will rise to the CEO position
  • Longer Tenure - A majority of the recruiters surveyed believe that CMOs have a shorter shelf life than other C-level executives. The average tenure of CMO respondents to this study was 38 months. (In a past report, the search firm Stuart Spencer pegged the number at 23 months). We had a professor from a top business school involved in our research...he's a data/analytics guru. He was also familiar with the Stuart Spencer report, here's a dirty little secret...CMO's your tenure is longer than what SS reports. Don't believe the hype...they are an executive placement firm.

“If CMOs do face an identity crisis, it’s not for lack of marketing competence or creativity – the CMO leadership capabilities and talent levels in the surveyed companies are higher than ever,” said Tim Furey, CEO of MarketBridge. “Rather, the identity crisis stems from a perceived lack of measurable results. The most successful CMOs are aggressively instituting rigorous performance measurement and analytics in every aspect of their organizations, and tying those metrics to revenue and profit growth.”

I couldn't agree more with Tim's comments...it's all about the numbers now!

Wednesday, April 18, 2007

The CMO Club New York Meeting



If you're interested (and in the area) I'll be speaking at an upcoming CMO Club meeting in New York on April 24th.

I'll be presenting insights from our 2007 Sales Effectiveness survey that will be published in Sales & Marketing Managment magazine next month.

Here's a preview of the presentation;

  • If we all believe the 80/20 rule...80% of our revenues come from 20% of products and customers...

  • and it cost 7X to acquire a customer account rather than keep a customer...

  • ...then why did an overwhelming majority of survey respondents answer that the keys to future growth were acquiring new customers and selling new products?

Attend the meeting and find out why. If you're interested in attending or joining the club talk to Pete Krainik.

Tuesday, April 17, 2007

The Role of the CMO


MarketBridge and the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Council have partnered for perhaps the most comprehensive look yet at the top rung of the marketing ladder. “Define & Align the CMO” encompasses interviews and surveys of CEOs, CMOs, other high-level marketers, search firm executives and board members—nearly 1,500 study participants in all.

The results of the research are in, and are highlighted in this front-page story in the April 16 issue of Adweek.

Given our marketing and sales engagements with a number of Fortune 500 companies, we are well aware of the difficulties faced by CMOs, and believe the importance of the top marketing executive as a driver of company revenue and growth cannot be overstated. The “Define & Align” research sheds new important light on the expectations, challenges, successes and failures of Corporate America in properly assimilating the CMO position into company hierarchy.

Please contact us if you would like to receive a copy of the report or if you would like to have one our team members present the findings.

In addition, stay tuned for information on an upcoming “Define & Align” Webcast, featuring top executives who will weigh in on the state of the CMO.