How CMOs Can Play More of a Leadership Role
CMOs spend most of their time crunching the data about how to generate more lifetime value from customers. But here's one stat about the longevity of chief marketers themselves, and it's not a pretty one: the average CMO tenure is now shorter than the life span of a guppy fish. The typical guppy may live for a year, maybe three, five in rare cases. However, the average CMO tenure is now roughly 40 months, the lowest it's been since two-thousand nine, according to executive search firm Spencer Stuart.
The report from Spencer Stuart comes at an increasingly perilous time for chief marketers. In addition to more pressure from senior management to provide harder returns, CMOs are seeing the rise in Chief Purpose Officers, which may cause a diminished role for chief marketers. Some companies including IBM and McDonald's have gotten rid of the CMO role altogether. CMOs are also grappling with where and how to place their bets on the dizzying array of technologies, such as synthetic media and the metaverse, that are having a growing impact on marketing and communications.
In this episode of Champions of Growth, host Matthew Schwartz is joined by Matthew Lieberman, CMO of PWC U.S. and Mexico, to discuss what's causing the decline in CMO tenure, how to reverse the trend, and what chief marketers need to do put their career on a more sustainable track.
The Champions of Growth Podcast airs Wednesdays at 2PM EST. For more information about the ANA Podcast Network, visit www.ana.net/podcasts.