CMOs get a lot of lip service in the executive suite
According to Advertising Age, a survey released by Spencer Stuart yesterday finds that CEOs are falling short in working with marketing.
While 85% of the 278 executives who were surveyed said that it was either “extremely critical” or “very critical” for CEOs to communicate with marketing, only slightly more than half found that happening in practice. In fact, only 18% said that CEOs were excellent at at that! The survey also found that CEOs are not very good at holding other executives accountable for ensuring that they partner with marketing.
Often times, it is the CMO who sets the direction for the company, and when that happens with little support from the CEO or the rest of the executive team, you get what’s happening at many companies…they look rather rudderless.
[Tags: CMO spencer struart cmo survey HR]
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May 10th, 2006 at 10:05 am
I expect things to get a lot worse before (if) they get better.
Many marketing people are swamped under day to day work, and reluctant to embrace the catalytic change the discipline is going through, as a result, what they say makes less and less sense and is less accountable by the day. From a CEO’s perspective you tend to notice that.
On the other hand, the “new marketing” takes a lot to take in, and the communication coming from the side of the CMO is so categorically different, that some CEOs just draw a blank….
May 13th, 2006 at 10:30 pm
Thank you for taking the time to comment…
I think that the number of CMOs that communicate something “so categorically different” is very small…most are on a “done this successfully - will do it again” course, as opposed to being innovative.
I do not believe that the issue is a new one. It’s one that has been around for a long time.
My 2c.