From the course: CMO Foundations: Become an Effective CMO

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Avoiding CMO extinction

Avoiding CMO extinction

From the course: CMO Foundations: Become an Effective CMO

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Avoiding CMO extinction

- Let's explore the habits that separate the marketing order takers from the innovators. For the past five years, my firm has surveyed over 450 CMOs. The data show consistently that certain habits contribute to job turnover, or as I have coined it in one of my books, CMO extinction. In a nutshell, it's how we choose to spend our time. I remember having lunch with a very seasoned CMO in Washington, DC a few years ago. He was searching for his next position. When I asked him, what are your unique qualities? His answer was, "I'm a problem solver." I realized at that moment that he got an adrenaline rush from parachuting into turn around scenarios and rescuing people. He spent little or no time designing the future for that company. As a result, his average tenure in his past four jobs has been 14 months. Once he was done performing marketing triage, his work was done. He never dedicated time to demonstrate his other talents. He conditioned the CEO into thinking he was a firefighter. To…

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