Relationships and Results: The Evolving CMO Role

Steven Cook, writing for CMO.com, recently turned to Andrew Hayes and Alan Cork of Russell Reynolds Associates to ask how the CMO role is evolving and what impact this has upon C-suite leadership. Hayes and Cork commented on two key areas: relationships and results.

Relationships: This is about building high-trust relationships among the company/brands and customers, enterprise functions, and other stakeholders, and turning them all into advocates and affiliates. According to Andrew Hayes and Alan Cork, Russell Reynolds Associates in the CEO and CMO Practice: “While building relationships has always been key to the CMO role, we see it as being more important than ever before due to the importance of linking and integrating efforts with Sales and Operations. Further, while historically it has been critical to build relationships with the end consumers, this has been amplified exponentially today with inroads of digital and social media.”

Revenues and results: Identifying, developing, measuring, and being accountable for delivering revenues and other key company/brand metrics is absolutely essential going forward to be a credible leader with the C-suite. In the CMO.com article "What CEOs Want From Their CMOs," Russell Reynolds Associates' Hayes noted: “Gone are the CMO days of, ‘Trust me, this is going to work.’ CEOs want concrete, understandable marketing metrics and fact-based decision-making. In the area of analytics, CEOs are always looking for more than CMOs are able to provide.”

Read the full article at CMO.com.

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Leadership for a Changing World. In today’s global business environment, success is driven by the talent, vision and leadership capabilities of senior executives.

Russell Reynolds Associates is a leading global executive search and assessment firm with more than 300 consultants based in 40 offices worldwide. Our consultants work closely with public and private organizations to assess and recruit senior executives and board members to drive long-term growth and success.

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