What does it take to be a successful CMO in an increasingly demanding, highly digital, constantly changing marketplace? In short, it takes a lot—a lot of focus on digital transformation, a lot of movement, a lot of diplomacy, and a lot of grit. To rise to the top and keep organizations competitive, modern CMOs must be adaptable, innovative, and agile.
Three great buzzwords, yes? Actually, no. We’re not trying to give you the warm fuzzies. We’re giving you strategies to keep your profitability hot and your relevancy as a marketer—well, on fire. And the truth is that enterprise marketing is hard. Executive level enterprise marketing is even harder. There’s a hoard of stakeholders—some want to spend money, some don’t. Some love your ideas about utilizing new technologies, others need more convincing. Your campaigns and initiatives can be real winners, or they can sink—and sink hard. What then? What separates the winning CMOs from those who struggle?
You must be adaptable, approaching setbacks as opportunities and presenting strategies and plans however best paves the way for forward motion in your organization. You must be learning agile—not only having experiences, but also using them to help lead change and solve problems. And whether you’re leading the conversation about enterprise innovation or showing up armed with analytic data a fresh perspective, you’ve got to focus on adding value. (Oh, and don’t forget to build teams who embody these same principles.)
Listen, we know digital transformation is all-encompassing and can be a challenge for marketers, but you’re not late to the party. This IS YOUR PARTY. You’ve got more access to data than ever before, and more power to use it to affect organizational change. Being adaptable, innovative, and agile can get you there.
Visit our new property, Futurum, to get the full scoop. And stick around a while, too—we’re in the business of forward motion, and our content aims to take you there. Read: The Modern CMO: Adaptable, Innovative, Agile
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Shelly Kramer is a Principal Analyst and Founding Partner at Futurum Research. A serial entrepreneur with a technology centric focus, she has worked alongside some of the world’s largest brands to embrace disruption and spur innovation, understand and address the realities of the connected customer, and help navigate the process of digital transformation. She brings 20 years' experience as a brand strategist to her work at Futurum, and has deep experience helping global companies with marketing challenges, GTM strategies, messaging development, and driving strategy and digital transformation for B2B brands across multiple verticals. Shelly's coverage areas include Collaboration/CX/SaaS, platforms, ESG, and Cybersecurity, as well as topics and trends related to the Future of Work, the transformation of the workplace and how people and technology are driving that transformation. A transplanted New Yorker, she has learned to love life in the Midwest, and has firsthand experience that some of the most innovative minds and most successful companies in the world also happen to live in “flyover country.”