CMO Success, Stage by Stage

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CMO Success, Stage by Stage

By Kimberly A. Whitler and Jonathan Metrick | MIT Sloan Management Review | June 26, 2024

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As a company matures, it can become clear that the CMO’s leadership skills and abilities no longer align with the organization’s needs — which could spell the end of the CMO’s tenure.

The authors interviewed 100 company leaders to understand how CMO roles and marketing functions should be organized at different stages of growth (from series A to IPO). What the study found was surprising: The skills and abilities that make a CMO well suited to leading an early-stage company are quite different from those a company needs as it grows. The study identified three key points at which organization-level marketing changes: Series A (the early stage), Series B-D (the developing stage), and Series E-IPO (the mature stage).

Assuming that a CMO has the skills and knowledge to succeed as a business matures through different growth stages is a mistake. What makes a CMO successful at an early-stage company may, in fact, limit their success at the company’s mature stage unless there is an intervention to upskill them.  For example, at the early stage, organizations need a scrappy, nimble, roll-up-your-sleeves CMO who can go from creating content to pulling together and delivering an investor presentation. These CMOs often wear multiple hats, shifting from content creator to CMO to project manager to analyst as needed, and are capable of stepping into and executing any number of roles. Marketing operations are often less structured and less routinized compared with other business functions, making it imperative that the CMO is flexible and can adapt to rapid change. 

However, as companies grow (the developing stage), they need scale experts who are better equipped to help the marketing function become more structured and systematic. At this stage, it needs processes and repeatable systems that support scale. CMOs need skills associated with designing and engineering routines, systems, and processes that enable more consistent and efficient implementation of programs. This requires planning and structure and less ad hoc leadership.

As businesses mature further, CMOs need the ability to lead a more sophisticated organization with more layers and a broader remit. They shift to becoming a leader rather than a doer — or, metaphorically, they become more of an orchestra conductor versus a soloist. In addition to being capable of strengthening the processes to ensure repeatably efficient and effective operations, they also are adept at reorganizing, hiring, and developing talent to drive sustainable, profitable growth. They serve as general architects of the marketing function, adapting it to meet the changing needs of the company and “professionalizing” operations.

Leaders can take these three key actions to help ensure that CMOs can succeed as the business grows:  prepare and upskill the CMO, resetting the expectations from CMO role, and hire somebody with a proven track record at companies in that stage.

3 key takeaways from the article

1. As a company matures, it can become clear that the CMO’s leadership skills and abilities no longer align with the organization’s needs — which could spell the end of the CMO’s tenure.  How CMO roles and marketing functions should be organized at different stages of growth (from series A to IPO).  Three key points at which organization-level marketing changes: Series A (the early stage), Series B-D (the developing stage), and Series E-IPO (the mature stage).
2. In an early-stage company, the CMO has to be agile and able to write and place ads, create presentations, or perform analyses themselves.  At mature companies, there is usually already an established, well-structured marketing function in place when a new CMO arrives, so it’s rare that a marketer would have had experience changing the system or processes. 
3. Leaders can take these three key actions to help ensure that CMOs can succeed as the business grows:  prepare and upskill the CMO, resetting the expectations from CMO role, and hire somebody with a proven track record at companies in that stage.

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Topics:  Marketing, Chief Marketing Officer, Skills, Entrepreneurship, Growth Strategy, Leadership