Getting the CEO–CMO relationship right ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌   ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌   ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌   ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌   ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌   ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌   ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌   ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌   ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ 

TODAY’S NEWS. TOMORROW’S INSIGHTS. A daily newsletter from McKinsey & Company Brought to you by Liz Hilton Segel, chief client officer and managing partner, global industry practices, & Homayoun Hatami, managing partner, global client capabilities The CEO–CMO alliance In the news • Stages of marketing. Chief marketing officers (CMOs) and CEOs want to set up a marketing function that quickly delivers growth. What a company needs from its marketing leaders changes as it grows. Yet executives often struggle to understand when and how they should modify marketing plans. Interviews with 100 CMOs reveal that a marketing structure is developed in three stages that correspond to a company’s size. For instance, at the early stage of growth, the CMO should be a “scrappy generalist” whose main goal is to acquire customers. [MIT] • C-suite collaboration. In an uncertain economy, some marketing leaders are being asked to produce quick wins from their brand-building campaigns. Since running an effective campaign can take multiple years, marketing chiefs need to manage expectations up front, a global beauty company’s CMO says. Success in marketing takes good communication and teamwork among C-suite leaders; however, as one finance chief notes, referencing a recent survey, only 37% of CMOs think it’s important to develop a better relationship with the CFO. [Raconteur] CEOs who place marketing at the core of their growth strategy are twice as likely to have greater than 5% annual growth compared with their peers. On McKinsey.com • Partnering for growth. It’s tough for many companies to grow. Prior McKinsey research has found that roughly 25% of companies don’t grow at all. To understand what’s happening inside the C-suites of high- and low-growth companies, we surveyed and spoke with about 100 marketing leaders and 21 CEOs. The relationship between CEOs and CMOs, particularly how CEOs and CMOs both define marketing’s role in shaping growth strategy, is highly correlated to their companies’ performance, McKinsey senior partner Marc Brodherson and coauthors reveal. • Multiple marketing roles. Growth requires ownership and accountability. Yet, as marketing evolves, many companies have added new marketing-related roles. In fact, more than two-thirds of surveyed CMOs said their companies have two or more marketing leaders who report directly to the CEO. This means that CEOs can have multiple executives with sometimes ill-defined responsibilities for customers, growth, or both. Understand three places where CEOs and CMOs can get disconnected and how executives can ignite growth. Redefine the CEO–CMO partnership — Edited by Belinda Yu, editor, Atlanta Introducing Insights to Impact Be among the first to subscribe to this free newsletter delivering a weekly roundup of analysis that’s influencing decision makers. Each Friday, we’ll offer insights across geographies, industries, and capabilities to help leaders identify new opportunities to spur innovation and growth, sustainably. Click to subscribe Was this forwarded to you? Sign up here. Or send us feedback—we’d love to hear from you. Follow our thinking Copyright © 2023 | McKinsey & Company, 3 World Trade Center, 175 Greenwich Street, New York, NY 10007