Why Is It Hard for CMOs to Transform Their Teams
Any sort of transformation is disruptive to business-as-usual (BAU) and any disruption to BAU also means that productivity is hampered. Amidst trying to meet business and marketing goals, targets and objectives, CMOs and their teams often find it hard to simply adhere to BAU and transform concurrently, and you cannot blame them.
CEOs and COOs simply have to first understand that the transformation journey is not a simple one where you can see the end of the tunnel right from the beginning of where you start. It’s more like a long winding road with hoops, turns and circles, depending on the complexity of the problems you are trying to unpack, the processes you need to overhaul to the skillset and mindsets of the people you need to enhance and change.
It throws a spanner into the works and takes time away from the CMOs and their one-downs to even try and formulate a plan swiftly while still carrying the major decisions they need to make to deliver their plans on time. Often times, they simply don’t know where or how to start without putting a halt to certain initiatives, campaigns or programs.
It is also a case of over familiarity and attachment to current processes, tools and scope of work that can build up an inertia for change of any sort that calls for an overhaul of the marketing department. While some companies choose to refresh their CMO leadership team, they find themselves in an even worse-off situation.
Why you may ask. Well, if you look at it objectively, a new CMO as in any new leadership person who just joins an organization will need to learn about the culture, processes, team capabilities from scratch. That is the so-called teething or onboarding period where the old team is likely to view the new leadership with suspicion and is less open to sharing information on how things actually work for fear of judgment.
Worse, you expect the CMO to already have a plan on how to transform while trying to settle into the organization without knowing the ins and outs of how things work. This journey itself will take at least 9 months to a year to complete before transformation can actually take place. It definitely cannot be a cookie-cutter approach that the CMO brings and applies from their previous company as every company is unique. Also, not all CMOs even have that approach they can rely on, which means even more time trying to plan or learn it from scratch.
In my experience working with various leadership and organizational structures, often I find that as marketing leaders, we are not given a lot of leeway and time to transform, resulting in having to look at quick and cheap wins, often at the expanse of people. This is not ideal nor is it sustainable even if you see initial positive results in terms of either business or marketing returns. These results are often not sustainable for longer term growth and retention of their key talents.
This is simply because good people who are working for something beyond just a pay check would not want to be associated with such an organizational culture. And that culture is often changed for the worse or established as a result of the hasty changes to be made.
It might be worth considering having independent third parties partnering with you and your CMO to help alleviate some of the pressure of planning for that change, so they can still focus 100% on the BAU to keep the engine running on full tank. After all, that is what you are paying your CMO for and not simply to do a once-off transformation. In other words, think bigger picture and longer term.
About the Author
Mad About Marketing Consulting
Ally for CMOs, Heads of Marketing and C-Suites to work with you and your marketing teams to maximize your marketing potential with strategic transformation for better business and marketing outcomes.
