Are CMOs the natural successors to CEOs?

Marketers are the best candidates for CEOs due to their in-depth customer knowledge and ability to drive growth, according to The Marketing Academy’s Sherilyn Shackell.

The Marketing Academy CEO Sherilyn Shackell urged CMOs to better educate CEOs and CFOs about the importance of marketing.

Chief marketing officers should be the natural successors to chief executive officers due to their deep understanding of customer and business, The Marketing Academy founder and global chief executive Sherilyn Shackell says. 

Addressing the Australian Association of National Advertisers’ RESET conference in Sydney, Ms Shackell, who founded the global coaching and education organisation, argued that marketers were more valuable to a business than other functions within the C-suite due their ability to drive growth. 

“CMOs are the best candidates for CEO roles. They are uniquely positioned to drive growth through their deep understanding of customers, their ability to align strategies with the business objectives and their exceptional leadership skills,” she said.

“Marketers, at their best, are the best leaders in the world, because marketing within the industries, the sectors, the functions, is the only real function in any business that can influence every single human being on the planet.”

Ms Shackell referred to a 2023 research study by McKinsey, which shows that CEOs who place marketing at the core of their growth strategies are twice as likely to achieve more than 5 per cent annual growth when compared with the businesses that do not. 

“The McKinsey research proved the relationship between the CEO and the CMO was the differentiator in growth,” Ms Shackell said.

“If the CEO really values the CMO, and if the CMO can elevate the relationship with that CEO to the right level, then that company will grow way more than any organisation that doesn’t do that.”

While the McKinsey research suggests that the relationship ­between the CEO and CMO is crucial to business results, The Marketing Academy’s research shows that 75 per cent of marketers polled rank their relationship with their business’s CEO as one of the top concerns that keep them up at night. 

Ms Shackell argued that it is the responsibility of marketers to cultivate these relationships in order to grow their influence across the C-suite. 

“Only 10 per cent of Fortune 250 CEOs have any marketing knowledge at all,” she said.

“So, if you are the CMO, you need to become the trusted adviser to your CEO, because you know everything – the competitor landscape, the customers’ heart rate, what the customers eat for breakfast, you’ve got data, you’ve got all of the information at your fingertips. So if you’re in a fortunate enough position to be able to help other people in their roles, then you should be talking to them all the time.”

Ms Shackell said the imperative was even greater as the CMO remit continued to expand at the same time as marketing budgets contracted against the backdrop of continuing market uncertainty. 

“Right now, even though the world is turning to shit, there is no more exciting time to be in our industry,” she said.

“The marketers, the CMOs, and the ecosystems that support them are the only way to write the future. So when the shit hits the fan, this is quite an exciting place to be.” 

Ms Shackell also revealed that 90 per cent of CMOs are concerned about losing their jobs due to the ongoing economic challenges and the impact of AI on the industry. 

The “tectonic” industry shift of AI, was a major focus of the annual marketing conference, which attracted 450 marketers and advertising agency professionals in Sydney last week. 

AANA chief executive Josh Faulks spoke of the technology’s disruptive elements as it “revolutionises” and “reshapes” how the industry operates.

“AI will fundamentally shift how consumers stream, search and shop,” Mr Faulks said. 

The AANA has partnered with the Advertising Council Australia and the Media Federation of ­Australia to establish an AI Council of Experts, to develop guidelines and standards on AI for the local industry. The move was welcomed by futurist Catherine Ball, who urged marketers to advance with caution, noting that the technologies were not yet the silver bullet that was being sold by “snake-oil ­salesmen”.

Futurist Dr Catherine Ball at the AANA Reset conference

“As an industry, the more we share knowledge and best practice, the better all of us will be,” Dr Ball said. “The solutions are going to come and they’re going to get really good, but don’t buy into things; try and keep your opportunities open around different kinds of software.”

Dr Ball pointed to the flaws with building digital audiences, which draw information from various sources, but will still lack the complete picture. 

“The truth is, you’re creating digital chimeras, because you’re taking pieces of information from different parts of people’s lives, and you’re building these digital ideas of who they are as a human, what their choices might be, but you’re never going to know who that real person is, ­because you’re pulling pieces of information around people’s behaviour in different ways,” Dr Ball said.

She predicted that the rise of AI would trigger a backlash against technology and a shift toward elements that made us human. 

“The rise of the human, the rise of artisan, the rise of biology, the rise of who we are and what we want from a brand is going to have a backlash faster than whiplash from a Formula One car accident,” she said.

“We are going to be shocked back in to using AI to do the things that AI should be used for: the robotic, the automation of uses.

“But the creativity and the grand persona and the brand value of who you’re working for or with, that is going to your magic sauce.”