Why Would Anybody Aspire To Be A Global CMO?

Avi Dan, Founder of Avidan Strategies LLC, a marketing consulting firm that specializes in optimizing client-agency relationships, knows a lot about being a CMO. Not only did he serve as Saatchi’s Chief Marketing Officer, but his career spans top roles at Publicis, Y&R, Euro RSCG and Berlin Cameron working with some of the world’s top marketing leaders. Yet, he asks, "Why would anyone aspire to be a global chief marketing officer?" Dan sees it as a tough job today, but one of the most critical for a company's success.

The most important characteristic of a great Global CMO is brand building on a global scale. He says, "The brands we all most admire are managed by CMOs who are good businessmen, but who also have a passionate, ambitious vision for their brands. That is not an easy combination to come by. Many people are either good on the financial or the creative aspects of their job. A great CMO understands the value of both."

The global CMO faces a much more complicated world today.

Avi Dan emphasizes that "Great CMOs understand macroeconomics and engage in marketing arbitrage. Increasing distribution, the traditional approach to growth, in a shrinking market is a loser's game -- merely trying to stay put as the treadmill goes faster and faster. It is likely that for the foreseeable future, the U.S. market, while still the world's biggest economy, will become less important as growth stagnates. Thus, great CMOs will position their companies to pursue growth in other markets."

In fact, they'll have to master scores of distinctive markets. The global customer is no longer part of a mass, monolithic market, but rather a collection of fragmented markets of proud, patriotic individuals of various nationalities, each with easy access to information, alternatives, and options. He or she calls the shots in the relationship with the modern corporation.

CMOs also have had to transition from supply-driven to demand-driven markets. The world of "push" has become the world of customer "pull," and the value chain has been turned upside down. The CMO no longer pushes information to the customer, or controls it. The consumer is undeniably in control.

Plus, the global CMO has to manage an increasingly complex environment and quickly adapt to the speed of technological change.

But the good news," says Dan, "is that the modern CMO now has available the tools and measurement dashboards, and the management systems, to keep up with this complexity and ensure ROI and profitability. As Marketing is becoming more important, chief marketing officers increasingly get a seat at the table alongside other key C-suite executives. They're also getting broader control over the entire communications mix and more tangible responsibilities that come with media budget.

This enhanced role is, in my opinion, an important step towards what I regard as the CMO's true destiny: a position as the top corporate leader of the future. Certainly, these global CMO have a better understanding of the world and his or her customers. By becoming the voice of the customer at the highest level of the corporation, great global CMOs will help the modern organization become better able to thrive in the demand economy."