Professional firm CMOs: watch your back?

The executive search firm Spencer Stuart has just published its annual survey on the life span of a CMO at an American company.  As mentioned by Leigh Duncan in her MarketingProfs DailyFix blog post, the article, which appeared in AdAge, states bluntly:

The job of CMO has become one of highest-stressed, shortest-tenured in American industry . . .  down from a sobering 23.6 months in 2004 and 23.5 months last year to an even tighter 23.2 months this year.

I've got a call into Spencer Stuart asking if their study included breakouts for CMOs in professional services sectors; no word yet, but if there are such results, I will try to get them for you.   

Should professional services CMOs watch their backs?   Let's not be paranoid, but let's admit that professional firm managers are indeed putting ever-increasing pressure on their marketers for immediate results and god-like manipulations of the marketplace on the firm's behalf.  I had a conversation the other day with a chief marketing officer who related a painful story of being held personally accountable for the fact that the weather prevented more attendees at her firm's highly touted client seminar.  I am not making this up. 

The fact is, marketers are running faster and faster, and taking on more and more responsibility, without the best safety net to succeed.  Folks, we need more than professional passion to succeed!  More than ever, we need to insist on an appropriately robust market-driven infrastructure to be able to guide our firms toward marketplace leadership. 

Comments

[Barbara Walters Price]

Suzanne,

Thanks for weighing in on this. I too read the articles referenced and believe that in our world of instant gratification, many in PSF management want instant results. It's up to the CMO and the rest of the marketing staff to keep their heads and lead in the areas of strategy and execution, all the while measuring, communicating the results, tweaking the plan(s) where they need tweaking, responding to management, and I guess now manipulating the weather. Boy, I'm tired already.