Boasting over 100,000 monthly listeners, three million downloads and now moving steadily towards 300 episodes, Jon Evans’ Uncensored CMO podcast features interviews with industry leaders focusing on the issues and challenges faced by those working in the sector.
The perfect person then to discuss the Confessions of a CMO report, compiled by Worldwide Partners, a global network of more than 95 independent agencies in 50 countries, partnering with brand experience specialists and Worldwide Partners agency Monigle. The report highlights how the most successful CMOs have been leaning into uncertainty, transforming themselves into business drivers and flag-wavers for an organisation, both internally and externally.
Evans, formerly a chief customer officer at System1, says that the report’s findings tally closely with his own experiences. “One of the greatest challenges of my career was making it to CMO level and realising what made me successful was no longer being good at marketing, but being good at all the other leadership aspects highlighted in Confessions of a CMO,” he says. “It’s a great example of the principle that ‘what got you here won’t get you there'.”
Evans agrees with the idea that most successful marketers are in fact a blend of all six of the different types of “mutant” marketers identified in the report according to whatever challenge or opportunity presents itself, and adds that being able to move seamlessly between the various species is an invaluable skill in an ever-fluid working environment.
“In a highly political organisation you’ll need an ability to manipulate, in a slow growth organisation you’ll need an ability to create mutiny and in a complex global organisation you’ll need to put the mosaic together,” he explains. “Context is critical and being able to move through the different identities is important and not being type cast as a one-trick pony.”
This readiness to take on and develop new functions and challenges seems to be a particular marketing skillset. Evans adds that CMOs have traditionally been expected to take on a range of challenges and roles within an organisation beyond the demands placed elsewhere on various C-suite colleagues: “It’s why I believe CMOs make the best CEOs.”
A survival strategy
John Harris, president and chief executive officer of Worldwide Partners, agrees with Evans’ point, but with the crucial caveat that marketing leaders have had to face these changes first, because they’re much closer to technological and cultural developments.
“What the report really suggests is that influence is replacing hierarchy as the defining leadership capability,” Harris says. “The leaders who thrive won’t necessarily be the ones with the most authority, but rather the ones best able to interpret change, connect disciplines and help organisations adapt in real time. In that sense, the future CEO may actually look more like the modern CMO than people expect.”
Evans believes that the report’s findings can be read as much as a survival strategy as anything else, one that provides guidelines and pathways for senior marketers in an age increasingly dominated by tech.
“If your job relies on something that can be replaced by AI then you’re in danger of making yourself obsolete,” he points out. “The skills required in the age of AI are all the ones in the report and, while AI may replace certain tasks, there will also be a need for all the various ‘Ms’ in our CMO’s job title.”
Equally, the report can work as a highly valuable resource for those outside of immediate marketing circles; a framework for others looking to gain a deeper understanding of what a CMO brings to the table.
“Since most of the CMO role is leadership rather than marketing, it can be applied to any leadership role at the top of an organisation,” says Evans. “It can also provide a road map for the kind of skills that future leaders need to adopt to be successful.”
Never mind the future, it’s something that’s already happening, according to Harris: “Honestly, I think the entire C-suite is heading in this direction. We already see CFOs becoming growth strategists rather than simply cost stewards. CTOs are increasingly responsible for customer experience. HR leaders are becoming architects of culture and organisational adaptability, not just managers of talent. The bigger shift is that rigid functional leadership is giving way to more fluid, connective leadership. The executives who thrive will be the ones who can connect silos and translate complexity across the organisation.”
The loneliness of the CMO
Evans is convinced that having colleagues who are familiar with the nuanced nature and the essential resilience that lies at the heart of a senior marketer’s working practices can only ever be a good thing.
“Being a CMO is one of the loneliest roles I have ever done,” he says. “You find yourself surrounded by people who don’t understand what you do. You also carry the burden of performance expectations, so it can be vulnerable in that sense. Being able to explain your role and how you create value is so important.”
One marketer interviewed about the report described her role as being an organisation’s “early sensing system”, explaining that a CMO’s role was now one of interpretation as much as communication. Evans clearly approves of the idea.
“‘Early sensing system’ is a brilliant description. As Mark Ritson always says ‘your primary job is to be the voice of the customer where decisions get made’. No one else is going to do that role and CMOs need to find a way to bring that early sensing system into every meeting room.”
Looking forward, and with AI and other technologies invariably playing an increasingly vital role, Evans believes that marketers will continue to operate as key drivers, ones who will both map out future directions and safeguard the original ambitions and hopes of an organisation.
“They will be change-makers leading the organisation around a vision for the future and the change management required to be successful in this new age of AI,” he says. “From understanding the customer to knowing which technology to embrace, they need to act like founders of their company.”
Even in the most uncertain times, senior marketers have tended to default to a positive, future-facing setting. Curiosity, versatility and resilience are the calling cards of any successful CMO. Such competencies and expertise underline the report’s findings. How these increasingly crucial leadership qualities continue to feed into and refresh the rest of the C-suite will be an intriguing next step in the evolution of the CMO’s standing within an organisation.
“As the report demonstrates, adaptability is becoming a core skill,” says Harris. “Marketing leadership today is much less about certainty and much more about judgment under ambiguity. The best marketers increasingly look part strategist, part translator, part diplomat and part entrepreneur.”
An online tool allows users to determine their individual marketing species. Find out your CMO type here. Download the Confessions of a CMO report here.
Photo: Getty Images