Marketing Land contributors Erica Seidel and Nadine Dietz profiled several leading CMOs for their column, “Driving the Modern Marketing Organization.” Their goal for the column was “to showcase how leading chief marketing officers were approaching the critical tasks of team organization and talent development, all while facing digital disruption and demands for rapid business growth.”
Seidel and Dietz wanted to discover how top marketers were rethinking how they build their marketing organizations in order to drive growth amid such disruption.
Along they way, they found that CMOs are:
- not only reorganizing, but also redefining talent to fill critical gaps left by customers moving faster than marketers.
- inspiring team cultures of innovation, risk-taking, influence, and inclusion to mirror the customer landscape.
From the CMOs who were profiled, it is clear that marketing today is not what it used to be. For example, the marketing organization used to be a static structure which was centered around cost and focused on promotions, products, and sales. Today, the marketing organization is more of a modular structure based on projects which is centered around profit and focused on education, personalization, and relationships.
In order to help other marketers inspire their organizations, Seidel and Dietz put together a “cheat sheet” consisting of a one-word summary for the approach that each of the CMOs who they profiled has taken to re-imagine their organization.
See below for the one-word summary, along with a featured quote; and to read Seidel and Dietz’s full CMO profiles, click here.
Kieran Hannon, CMO of Belkin International – AGILITY
“Marketers need to know everything that’s happening with our customers, whether through voice of the customer activities such as online reviews, focus groups, in-store experiences, online interactions or customer support. That way, they can quickly move from strategy to execution.”
Barbara Messing, CMO of TripAdvisor – APTITUDE
“I encourage people to think and operate across functions as overall marketers, as opposed to as functional experts. To really deliver the right customer experience, you need to wear a lot of hats and think about every aspect of the vertical experience…”
Charlie Cole, CDO Tumi and Global eCommerce Officer of Samsonite – ATTITUDE
“A lot of companies will say that digital is the most important investment, but then have the chief digital person report to the CMO. That sends the subconscious signal that digital is one level less than marketing. The reality is that digital and marketing are two very different and complementary domains.”
Rob Lynch, CMO of Arby’s – AUTHENTICITY
“One thing that we realized early on was we had to take on big, calculated risks to change the game — risks that more established competitors, who were outspending us 10 to one on marketing, were unwilling to take.”
Justin Steinman, former CMO of GE Healthcare IT – CREDIBILITY
“To demonstrate true marketing leadership, you can’t march into your CEO’s office and say, ‘I’m strategic!’ The moment you start telling people you are strategic, you’re not. Instead, prove it!”
Lara Hood Balazs, CMO of Visa North America – INCLUSION
“Visa stands for ‘Everywhere you want to be.’ That is more than just a physical manifestation. It’s also about acceptance, diversity and equality.”
Rashmy Chatterjee, CMO of IBM North America – INFLUENCE
[Regarding hiring] “I look for current and future leaders who are never satisfied with the status quo as they are naturally curious and optimistic. Therefore, they embrace transformation and enjoy building and influencing the networks across our customers’ ecosystem.”
Barbara Martin Coppola, CMO of Grubhub – INNOVATION
“We expect each person to spend 30 percent of their time innovating and 70 percent of their time scaling programs that work.”
Cory Treffiletti, CMO of Oracle Data Cloud – INSTRUCTION
“When things are working well, that is the best time to deconstruct your strategy and try new things.”
Geraldine Calpin, CMO of Hilton Worldwide – PASSION
“When everyone is in the trenches together, it really inspires a true sense of pride and camaraderie.”
Jeff Reid, EVP Digital Center of Excellence for Humana – TRANSFORMATION
“Change can’t be achieved without being inclusive.”
Danita White for TechFunnel.com
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