The Chief Consistent Officer

I recently sat down with a Chief Marketing Officer of a very well known brand in the cosmetics and skincare space and we were chatting about everyone's favorite topic...the death of the CMO (see Marketoonist below) ...or at least the evolving role and nature of the job responsibility.

We discussed the continuous revolving door of the CMO position, the declining tenure and how in an increasing number of cases, companies are not even replacing a departed CMO.

Thankfully, Coca-Cola just realized the error of their ways by reinstating the global CMO role two years after the fact.

We also discussed the rise of the Chief Growth Officer and I remain fairly optimistic that should the CMO morph into the Chief Growth Officer, that would demonstrate positive adaption of the role to current conditions and evolutionary forces. That of course assumes (and it's a big assumption) that the artist formally known as CMO possesses the right mix and balance of skills and talent, with which to assume this opportunity. 

All of the above makes for an interesting and ongoing conversation and debate, but none of it answers a gaping question: WHY? Why is all of this happening? And then my conversation mate said something which really struck me...consistency or rather the lack thereof. She posited that it was because of the incredible inconsistency of responsibilities and expectations of the Chief Marketing role that has give rise to all of the volatility, instability and churn.

I couldn't agree more.

Wikipedia gives us this insight into the discussion: The CMO is responsible for facilitating growth, sales and marketing strategy. They must work towards objectives such as revenue generation, cost reduction, or risk mitigation. 

Slick Wiki also gives us this zinger: The unpredictable effect of marketing efforts, coupled with the need to drive profits, often leads to a short tenure for most CMOs.

Let's analyze both statements, shall we?

1. Growth is what I call the prime directive and it's all over "Built to Suck" - book, keynote, workshop, T-shirt and scrumptious pie! 
2. Historically Sales & Marketing have been as synergistic as oil and water when it comes to collaboration and support in an organization
3. Revenue generation, cost reduction and risk mitigation is just missing the forth objective, the kitchen sink! Seriously? Is that all? I'm all for revenue generation but that is core business strategy and when you won't let the CMO into the board room, how exactly do you expect their viral videos and real time tweets to generate "revenue?"
4. Then you have the double-edged of cost reduction which highlights perhaps the difficulty of achieving more with less or more from less. Cost-cutting is antithetical to the objectives of growth and revenue generation. You have to give to get. It's basic investment theory! 
5. Finally, we have risk mitigation and I am reminded of a great quote which runs to the effect of, "CMO's got to where they got to, not by managing risk but by mitigating it." Again, this runs counter to what the CMO should be doing and it explains why tenure is continuously under threat.
6. Which brings us to the word "unpredictable" and it's a deeply problematic word. Are we talking about art versus science? Or is this just a euphemism for CMO's who just love 30-second spots or "video" and their annual pilgrimage to Cannes? Or should it rather be talking about measurement versus projection?

Whichever way you look at it, it is the lack of uniformity and standardization of the role - and with it the lack of understanding of that role throughout the organization - that has led to this precipitous decline in credibility and worth in the organization. We don't have this confusion or ambiguity with a COO or CFO and we don't see this with product development or research, so why is marketing left out in the cold?

Moreover, if you had to compare and contrast the CMO's from the world's leading brands, you would indeed struggle to find enough commonalities or consistencies to put into a one-pager LinkedIn job spec.

Perhaps it's time to create a uniform lens, rubric or dare I say, standards, with which to evaluate and merchandise the marketing function within an organization. Instead of a Chief Confused Officer or a Chief Muddled Officer, let's associate a consistent set of beliefs, capabilities and competencies with this mission critical role.

So let's celebrate the Chief Consistent Officer, shall we?

After all, it is the role that single handedly has to deliver growth, sales, marketing strategy, revenue generation, cost reduction and risk mitigation...and let's not forget all those viral videos and real time tweets!