Managing Director and Principal at the brand strategy firm Dendro, serving as creative growth partners for ambitious leaders.
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CMOs are key leaders in the C-suite but rotate more often than any other C-level position. The average tenure for a CEO is 85 months, while the average for CMOs is only 40 months. Many come into their posts with big ambitions but fail to transform those ambitions into an agenda that is both aligned with the overall company agenda and fuels the business. Furthermore, not all CMOs seek transformation. Some are hired to evolve their brands through incremental change, moving it forward in a way that builds on its previous success.
No matter the situation, CMOs have a short time to accomplish big things. This means they need to be as efficient as possible in their efforts to create business momentum out of every executive transition. This leads to the question: What should CMOs keep in mind when seeking to transform their brands?
Here are five steps to help CMOs effectively develop their growth plan:
1. Clear ambitions lead to clear plans.
Business momentum cannot be created unless incoming CMOs and their teams share a clear understanding of two things: the brand in terms of its vision, products and role in the world, and the organizational assets—people, priorities and processes—required to successfully fuel long-term growth.
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This, paired with clear ambitions and strategies to achieve each ambition, culminates into a marketing transformation agenda that can be easily understood and adopted. These ambitions should ladder up to a clear vision. Perhaps as importantly, each ambition should have a tangible set of moves that will enable the brand to achieve each ambition. These tangible moves will form the substance of your transformation road map.
The big question: What capabilities does your marketing organization need to develop to make these tangible moves?
2. Alignment ensures success.
Align your marketing ambitions with the overall transformation agenda for the company, and facilitate alignment with your CEO, C-suite contemporaries and the board. So often, CMOs are accused of being rogue or caring about things that don’t matter to the bottom line. I believe this is a communication problem. Ironic that the people in charge of communicating the brand have problems with internal communication, but it’s common. Successful CMOs show how their transformation plan ladders to the business plan for the company, enabling the business to drive greater value and growth.
The big question: How do I ensure our transformation strategies support our business strategies?
3. Involvement inspires support.
Involve your key people in creating your transformation agenda so that you ultimately create a plan that people can rally around. While the inspiration and ambition may come from within (or from external advisors), rallying your marketing organization and your peers outside of marketing will be key in gaining support for your ambitions and your plan. Make your team a part of the plan and give them ownership of it so they can be an author of its success. Hold planning meetings to discuss your vision and each ambition, and enable the team to chart the tangible moves to get there. Then, have them partner with people outside of marketing to gain support and the necessary influence needed to make changes outside of marketing.
The big question: How will you get your people to own the plan and drive its implementation?
4. A growth mindset leads to growth.
Make sure your ambitions are strategic in nature and describe how each ambition will enable the brand(s) to grow. In my years as an advisor and consultant, I’ve seen many ambitions associated with digital enablement or transformation, which are often table stakes and tactical. While necessary, these ambitions bring incremental change. Ambitions to grow the brand should bring about transformational change, enabling the brand to grow in new directions with the potential to launch new products and services, expand distribution channels and change behaviors.
The big question: How do I ensure that our ambitions lead to growth and not just modernization or incremental change?
5. People and processes enable purpose.
(Re)organize your marketing department to reflect your ambitions and modernize its approach, providing a foundation for good implementation and success. Integrating and acquiring new capabilities is often critical to making your tangible moves successfully. This means hiring new people that will need to meld with legacy folks. It also means establishing new processes and cultural elements that create an environment for success. Your new organizational structure, processes and culture will enable your transformation agenda to become real and the company’s purpose to become more alive.
The big question: How will I organize my marketing organization around my transformation agenda?
Creating a transformation agenda is critical to creating a brand strategy that can be a growth platform for the company. And with an average of 3.5 years to accomplish it, CMOs must be ruthlessly efficient in driving the change they want to create.
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Author: Brandon Murphy, Forbes Councils Member
