[New year, new blog. I’m cross-posting here from a blog I started called "Do You Have A Second?" It’s a career-related blog; in my time as a manager, mentor, peer, and employee, I received my fair share of good and bad advice. The name comes from the phrase that you often hear when someone wants to share a piece of candid feedback with you.]
Back in October, I was a privileged fly on the wall of Forrester’s CMO Leadership Board meeting in Chicago. The guest speaker was Greg Welch
from Spencer Stuart, talking about what makes a good CMO. Greg should
know – he handles some of the highest profile searches around.
Some things you may know already:
- CMO tenure is way down
– almost 23 months, about half of CEO tenure. - These are $1mm jobs that
are really general manager roles that come with high stakes and
expectations. - New chief marketers need to build bridges and prove that
marketing delivers value, doesn’t just spend money. - A key question:
does your marketing team look like your customer base?
CEOs are looking for a fit at the intersection of job (i.e.
responsibilities), organization (i.e. cultural elements), and personal
qualifications (i.e. competencies). The top skills required for
success?
- Leadership – influence and impact.
- A track record of results
– no excuses. - General management and P&L experience.
- Innovation
experience.
So how do you get there?
- In the short term, create a list of your
100 goals in life. - Develop a personal board of directors.
- Gain
experience with a blue chip company in an industry that you like. - Network now.
- Get an international assignment.
- Go through a sales rotation.
- Participate in an acquisition.
- Manage your career aggressively.
- And
finally (maybe the toughest one for this day and age) don’t change
companies too frequently – loyalty counts.
Thinking through this advice, I feel it’s important to figure out
WHY you want to be a CMO. If you like creating ads but don’t like
numbers, shoot for VP of Advertising and love your job. If you enjoy
focusing on a single market, work towards managing a regionally-focused
subsidiary company. If you have brilliant ideas but don’t want to
manage people…become a consultant!