4 Tips for CMOs From C-Suite Leaders on How to Truly Make an Impact Today

When we did a quick poll with our CMO community last year, 84% believed that the role of the CMO and the role of marketing elevated through last year in so many ways. This was one of many inspirations for launching The Business of Marketing Podcast in partnership with SAP, as we wanted to unpack how CMOs work collaboratively with their C-suite partners to drive business transformation. Throughout the first half of season one, we asked leaders from Walmart, Unilever, Mastercard, and the Milwaukee Bucks for their advice to today’s CMOs on how to truly make an impact. Read their advice below and subscribe to The Business of Marketing Podcast to learn more! Be Ready to Pivot "We spend a lot of time saying, “just because we can do it, why should we do it and what’s in it for the customer?” You have to keep your eye—particularly now—on what they’re doing and what they’re telling you, explicitly and implicitly, to be able to make the right decisions and be ready to pivot when you need to pivot." Janey Whiteside, Chief Customer Officer, Walmart Think About the Future "Embrace the new and different. Have a point of view and build those bridges with your colleagues and with your finance department. I think for the Chief Marketing Officers around the world, it’s such a privileged position that has so much influence and power, not in terms of structural power, but power to really make a difference in the world and in people’s lives. Just embrace that opportunity and work together." "The other thing I would say is, there are disciplines within marketing that should be transported into people, functions, HR, the whole data analytics. This is the future vision. There are parallels in marketing that should be part of a feature within the people function. CMOs can really help HR functions. Think about the future and partner together." Michael Fraccaro, Chief People Officer, Mastercard Be Essential to Your Customers "Continue to be obsessed with consumers and customers, especially in such evolving and uncertain times that we are in right now. Last year, we were all addressing the crisis at hand. I think this year in this new normal if you will, it’s even more important to continue to be focused on what’s happening with consumers and customers because I feel that everything can change quite fast, and you must be able to pivot fast. If you’re not being essential to consumers and customers, you may miss opportunities or challenges." Debora Koyama, Global Chief Growth Operations Officer, Unilever Listen Above All Else "I would say the marketing person who tends to listen a lot more than talk, which is maybe not the normal personality of somebody in my role. But I think that's where it starts. Listening and understanding what the business side of things is and what those objectives are and then putting together the plan for how you can do that from a brand standpoint." Dustin Godsey, CMO of the Milwaukee Bucks

Business of Marketing

4 Tips for CMOs From C-Suite Leaders on How to Truly Make an Impact Today

Executives from Walmart, Mastercard, Unilever, and the Milwaukee Bucks share their advice on The Business of Marketing podcast

Al Mannarino

About

Subscriptions

Events

Publications

WORK SMARTER - LEARN, GROW AND BE INSPIRED.

Subscribe today!

Al Mannarino