5 Ways CMOs Champion Growth and Creativity

The role of the CMO has drastically changed over the years. What started out as being responsible for all marketing activities in an organization has evolved; today’s CMO must lead the charge in shepherding brands and companies through turbulent times, work collaboratively within the C-Suite, and set the example for the entire organization. Over the last three years, we have featured some of the most successful leaders on CMO Moves to not only find out how they got to where they are today but what rules did they break along the way and how do they inspire their teams to reach new heights. Learn how these extraordinary CMOs are navigating this elevated role. Be Vulnerable “The fundamentals of leadership are the same. In the world that we were [in] before, it was easier to lose sight of some of the most important things. At the heart of it is people. In today’s world, it’s more so about people, but what’s needed is greater empathy, understanding, vulnerability and connection. Now, as leaders, it’s much more important to focus and to lean on that as a center. Ultimately an organization thrives because of its people. If its people aren’t in a good place, then it’s going to be very hard for that organization to thrive.” —Ronalee Zarate-Bayani, Former CMO, LA Rams “Showing vulnerability is a sign of courage and strength, not of weakness. We must dare to change this paradigm in our heads and in the world so that we can all live healthier and more meaningful lives. But let me be clear: Opening for the sake of opening may be cathartic and it has its time and place, but it is not enough. To make vulnerability the anchor for business or personal transformation, we must own the actions and the path forward. Change is impossible unless we own it. Accepting what we do not know, asking for help in defining and assessing issues while at the same time personally owning the outcomes of the collective endeavor is the definition of true empowerment.” —Antonio Lucio, Former Global CMO, Facebook Listen to Your Frontline Workers “The role of a CMO extends well beyond what we do from marketing externally to our customers and really understanding what the experience they’ll have in our stores. But that also means understanding what is it that our employees in 1,500 stores are understanding, what they see, what they hear, because they’re real-time. How do we help them? How do we make sure that they have the information that they require to be able to engage those guests in a very different way? Who else is more important to empower than the folks that are greeting the customers in the stores.” —Tariq Hassan, CMO, Petco “Working with my counterparts and the executive team was really important during this process because they had so much knowledge, insight, and perspective. We actually, through the process of purpose building, had four or five different work sessions with our C-suite to go through 12 different angles and played them out, thinking about pros and cons from a guest standpoint, associate standpoint—and also from a today and future standpoint. That work together was critical to get us to the best place and also for us all to feel like it’s ours, not just mine or my team’s.” —Shelley Haus, CMO, Ulta Beauty Think Outside the CMO Box “The CMO role is an epicenter for a lot of activity, but the biggest role still really is in the integration of digital and technology that sits within marketing’s expertise. We have a chief technology officer, but technology touches a lot of the executives. Thinking about things in an enterprise fashion is difficult because it’s so easy to know what I need to get accomplished in my little box. But the truth is, I have to work across the organization to make sure that what I’m bringing in is a technology solution.” —Angela Zepeda, CMO, Hyundai “I think any way we can pay it forward and learn from each other is key. And inherent in that is breaking down the silos. … The world isn’t designed vertically anymore. It’s designed horizontally and our customers have nonlinear experiences with our products. And as a community, we have to acknowledge that we have to move beyond our expertise, move beyond our craft, our channel, and think horizontally about how do our customers interact with our products. If we’re always operating out like our org chart, we are doing our customers a disservice.” —Lara Balazs, CMO, Intuit Set the Bar and the Tone “Setting the example becomes quite a heavy crown to wear because you’re like, “I have to be perfect all the time.” But it’s so important that you are yourself and that you don’t carry that weight. Show up as yourself because that’s what makes it possible. If you become this person who seems perfect in every way, the dream becomes a little harder to reach. But if they see someone who has great sides to them and flawed sides to them, they see it’s possible for all of us if we work incredibly hard and get there.” —Ukonwa Ojo, Global CMO, Amazon Prime Video & Studios “CMO—it’s not just marketing. It’s marketing, media, communications, content, analytics, and insights—and also thought leader within the organization. Having all of those functions under one CMO is helpful, but it also puts that CMO into a position where you’re influencing internal behavior, culture, employee retention, the vision of the company. Because you’ve got a lot of the tools, you’ve got the consumer touchpoints. That’s the expectation—that you are going to set the tone and the emotional connection to the fan and the consumer, so you need to be doing that internally as well.” —Jill Gregory, EVP and General Manager, Sonoma Raceway The CMO Reboot Playbooks: The Elevated Role of Marketing Create a Collaborative Setting “The CMO of today has to be able to optimize a full-funnel media mix, but also be able to inspire and create the conditions that result in disruptive breakthrough work. And then also be able to sit at the table with other members of the C-suite: the CFO, head of merchandising, head of design, supply chain leads—and be able to operate effectively and [know] how that product go-to-market cycle happens. You have to understand the way the product is designed, merchandised and assorted to be able to bring it onto the floor in a store or a website.” —Mary Alderete, CMO, GAP “When you have an organization that rallies behind a concept and you hire the right people across different parts of the business, they come together to achieve things that are even bigger than what you imagined. Future CMOs need to make sure that if they’re supporting a brand-led business, they’re able to build that relationship across their peers and that they have buy-in from their CEO [and] it becomes part of the company strategy. When it becomes engendered into the marketing organization, it’s very clear that everyone’s goals are the same and that we’re pulling different levers at different times.” —Selena Kalvaria, SVP, Brand Engagement, Gucci Americas

CMO Moves

5 Ways CMOs Can Champion Growth and Creativity Within the Organization

Top leaders weigh in on how they guide and direct their organizations towards the future

Al Mannarino

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Al Mannarino