This is the first of a series of blog entries stemming from our firm's recent third annual CMO's Agenda study where we gauge and probe what is on marketing leaders' agendas through in-depth, one-on-one conversations. In our most recent study we continued to explore one of the most topical areas with marketing leaders, their role, in an effort to understand the degree to which lead marketers have the proverbial seat at the executive table and the level of strategic value they are contributing to their respective organizations. How does one elevate the role of marketing for and within their organization? As one of our marketing leaders aptly stated, "it's all about delivering sustainable, profitable growth." Through our conversations with over 30 lead marketers we found three common factors shared by leaders that were truly driving and delivering sustainable, profitable growth at their respective organizations; an obsession with the customer, a healthy dose of innovation, and organizational currency.

• An obsession with the customer: The more progressive marketing leaders we spoke with recognized that developing a deep understanding of their customer is where the strategic battlefield exists and these leaders were obsessed with improving their customer understanding.
• A healthy dose of innovation: The most forward-thinking marketing leaders we spoke with were not taking the perspective of incrementally improving a product or service offering, but rather were searching for the critical customer pain points and re-imagining their market model to increase value delivery and capture across all stakeholders.
• Organizational currency: Our marketing leaders understood the importance of having healthy relationships with their cross functional peers, knowing that without it, their efforts would be stymied.

For more detail on how these progressive marketing leaders have approached these areas, including vignettes of their experiences, the full findings of our research can be found here. « back