CMO-CEO Collaboration: CEOs Want CMOs to Focus on Business Growth—Period
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CMO-CEO Collaboration: CEOs Want CMOs to Focus on Business Growth—Period

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The chief marketing officer (CMO) is the leading executive the CEO looks to for driving growth, which makes their effective collaboration with the CEO critical, especially as marketing has been rising in importance for the CEO and board.

This article highlights how CMOs can further enhance collaboration with the CEO to advance the business based on insights from interviews with CMOs, CEOs, and executive recruiters; a CMO roundtable and survey; and third-party sources.

This article is part of a series of insight articles on the CMO role.

Key Insights

The chief marketing officer (CMO) is the leading executive the CEO looks to for driving growth, which makes their effective collaboration with the CEO critical, especially as marketing has been rising in importance for the CEO and board.

This article highlights how CMOs can further enhance collaboration with the CEO to advance the business based on insights from interviews with CMOs, CEOs, and executive recruiters; a CMO roundtable and survey; and third-party sources.

This article is part of a series of insight articles on the CMO role.

Key Insights

  • CEOs see the CMO as a strategic partner helping them achieve the organization’s goals.
  • The CMO must ensure their objectives and actions are in sync with the CEO’s goals, articulate marketing’s financial impact, and maintain communication about corporate objectives and role expectations—especially if there are multiple marketing-related leaders in the organization.
  • Corporate leaders often lack marketing experience, necessitating CMOs to act as a marketing educator, approaching the task with humility and patience.
  • As part of their strategic responsibilities, CMOs need to regularly provide customer insights to the CEO and other executives to inform strategy, and for the CEO to communicate to the board.

Author

Denise Dahlhoff, PhD

Denise Dahlhoff, PhD Denise Dahlhoff, PhD

Director, Marketing & Communications Research
The Conference Board

Read Bio

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