What executives really think about the future of marketing and leadership
First Annual Future-Ready CMO Study Reveals Nearly Seventy Percent of CMOs Believe Cultural and Business Practices Are Not Changing Fast Enough.
We live in dynamic times — not just in Marketing, but in business, global politics, and technology. Consumer desires have fundamentally shifted, and CMOs are facing not only stalling growth, but a mandate to reinvent business at every level. A Future Ready CMO understands what consumers want and how businesses can deliver. We have a unique opportunity to bridge this gap and help leading brands break away from the processes and drivers that are locked in place to forge a new way forward. But this takes a new set of capabilities. Less marketing technique and more emotional intelligence. Less “working the boardroom,” and more leading a case for change that not only makes sense for business, but for the world at large.
We started Future Ready CMO to help leaders prepare for what is to come and create a support system that prepares us, as humans, to face the biggest global shift any of us have ever witnessed in our lifetimes. Since we launched in September 2022, over 400 marketing leaders from around the world have joined us to explore what it will take, and begin to co-create a new paradigm for marketing.
Leading change, and changing roles, is an ambitious undertaking. As a start-up, it is important to us to focus our efforts to support our community of marketers and change-hungry leaders with what they need right now. We launched a research initiative to help us learn how CMOs see the world today, their role, and their needs for leading now and into the very near future. We talked with over 65 marketing and business leaders across various industries, generations, and responsibilities. What we found confirmed our commitment to leading from the front lines of a global business revolution, with “marketing” at the core. In order to change the world, business needs to change. Yet, that change is not happening fast enough. What’s more, businesses that thrive in the future will have a positive impact on social and environmental issues.
Nearly 70 percent (69%) of respondents believe that both cultural and business practices are not changing fast enough and will require a much more significant commitment. At the same time, many marketing leaders believe the top three pain points are developing talent, navigating volatile and uncertain economic conditions, and keeping pace with the rapidly changing digital landscape necessary to support organizational change.
With marketing leaders facing operational constraints and economic uncertainty, coupled with CEOs and C-suite leaders not fully grasping the impact that marketing has on the future of the business, they are paddling against a strong current. The results from our survey underscore that marketing leaders seeking to leverage marketing as a force for global change, in a rapidly shifting economic and digital landscape, must start with changing the organization’s cultural and business practice mindset. And that starts with marketing leaders showing up, and taking a critical look at what’s required of them now.
Organizational Change Means Facing Organizational Challenges
The marketing function thrives on adapting to change and remaining relevant within the business and especially with customers. Marketers have set out to create real change. In fact, the survey found that 81 percent of respondents agree that in order for marketers to transform the world, they will need to transform business. However, there are still many day-to-day challenges that exist at the organizational level.
The survey reveals the following top pain points for marketers:
Talent development (48%)
Navigating volatility, uncertainty, complexity, ambiguity (40%)
Navigating changing digital landscape - (38%)
Keeping up with new technologies - (31%)
Alignment of internal culture, brand and purpose - (29%)
CEO/C-Suite doesn’t understand the value of marketing and the role of the brand (26%); their strategy/priorities don’t align with customer needs (21%); and they don’t understand the long-term equity value (17%)
Creating lasting connections with customers - (24%)
Keeping up with changing consumer behaviors - (17%)
Developing Future Marketing Leaders and Talent
With nearly half of respondents struggling with talent development, particularly as marketers deal with culture and business practices falling behind the rapidly changing business landscape, they will have to rethink what type of talent and resources fit their new agile business model.
When the study asked marketers what skills and training they felt they or their team would need to lead this broader change, nearly half (49%) said they needed a better understanding of how to shape new narratives in this current environment. In addition, 44 percent felt that training on new business and brand engagement models that can drive impact would be important, while 39 percent felt they needed to focus on leadership development overall.
C-Suite and Marketing Alignment
Marketers today aren’t merely challenged with meeting the needs of their customers. In today’s climate, they are facing even more resistance from internal stakeholders.
Driving organizational change, particularly when traditional methods are deeply rooted in the business’s foundation or culture and C-Suite or CEO support is limited, is no easy feat. With that, marketers feel there are several factors that have held them back from feeling empowered to drive organizational change necessary to lead their company through world-positive change.
Nearly half of the survey respondents (48%) said not having enough time or too many other priorities has kept them from moving toward organizational change. 43 percent said the fact that marketing is not measurable or hard to prove the value to CEO/C-Suite has been a big factor and over a quarter (26%) said this also underscores that CEO/C-Suite doesn’t understand the long-term value of future ready initiatives.
What this means for future ready leaders is that marketing leaders are the catalysts and transformation agents to bring much needed change. Our impact will not only help our shared environment and humanity, it will also accelerate business success. The future is not built on the ‘how we’ve always done things’ of the past. The bottom line: we don’t have the tools to respond quickly enough to what is taking place — and there’s an opportunity to create those tools, business practices, models and ways of being — together.
Future Ready CMO is here to help usher in the change by bringing needed leadership development, skills and training to today’s marketers. We want to be a part of shaping the future for the greater good, and we recognize that this change starts with our chief marketing leaders. It’s our reason for being.
We’re starting with helping leaders look inward, to their very ways of being. We’re also focused on developing the case for change to support leaders looking to accelerate change now, quickly, and overcome organizational resistance.
To get a free copy of the full report, visit https://www.futurereadycmo.com/research To learn more about our current programming and join the community, visit https://www.futurereadycmo.com/join-the-community or follow us on LinkedIn.
Let’s use our significant power base to drive rapid, radical change together.
