Lies, Damned Lies and Spreadsheets?! ,…..; the average life of a CMO is increasing! It’s a myth that the average life span of the Chief Marketing Officer(CMO) is less than 2 years. According to Spencer Stuart’s recent survey it is some 43 months, and has exhibited a continuous increase since the low of 23.2months in 2006 (the lifespan of a Mosquitofish). This current average is similar to the average lifespan of a Norwegian rat; mouse or an Oppossum?!  
While the overall trend is up; this does mask some significant industry variation; In the car industry, the average tenure is only 25 months. Communications and media CMOs average 33 months, while their counterparts in industrial companies tend to stay three times longer, with an average of 99 months. 
From my perspective, it has never been a better time to be a CMO, if you are willing to lead; doing things right is not the same as doing the right thing! With our Accelerating Age within a globally connected landscape; fragmenting media; creating more consumer choices and new ways to buy; enabling new competitors; burgeoning numbers of touch points;…as well as materially empowering customers; no other senior-executive position will be subject to as much change over the next few years.  
However, to date, in general the CMO has not ‘walked the talk’, and led! Too many chief marketers still have narrowly defined roles that emphasize advertising, brand management, and market research. They will have to spread their wings. It is all about marketing from the inside out, and making marketing part of the organisation. Marketing should not just be the icing on the cake, but part of the cake itself. 
As such, it is key to recognize that what have been recipes in the past will not be successful in the future. Marketers are limiting themselves to retain a focus on the classic “4 Ps” of marketing (price, promotion, position and placement). They should think only of 1P : People 3.0 , who are with greater social networking and cgc the real brand custodians. This should be coupled with a passionate attitude about the central power and role of a brand(s) in driving sustainable business success.. It is far better to own the customer franchise (hearts and minds) than it is a factory! Such a centricity implicitly recognisies that the biggest shift in today’s marketing world is not the much-discussed declining effectiveness of television advertising but the changes in how consumers research and buy products.  
 
It is the Internet and dynamic, distribution models, which are structurally changing the way consumers research and buy products / services. Moreover, third parties such as bloggers and their cgc are having a greater influence on corporate reputations. Collectively, these disruptions are necessitating companies transform not just the marketing function but also everything from corporate affairs and product development to distribution and manufacturing models to be more engaged with customers. As the scope of marketing broadens, the central role of the CMO will be singular as the ‘voice of the customer’ recognizing and embracing as Kumar advocates: the “3 Vs” (valued customer, value proposition and value network). This will become a cost of entry very quickly as ‘social-business’ activities become more central platforms for organisations to project themselves internally and externally. The future value of Microsoft’s recent purchase of Yammer remains to be seen but it is at the global intersection that has greater co-creation and collaboration, coupled with the transformational potential of ‘big data’ and BI. Naturally, this will benefit from a strategically focused CMO, with strong analytical skills, in the C-suite! It will demand a shift from corporate communications to organizational conversations that transform how corporate leaders improve employee engagement across networked organisations and collaborative communities. 
 
That said, companies are understandably obsessed with measuring marketing performance. They want some “accountability,” and all eyes are on the CMO to produce a return on investment. With their budgets, brands, and jobs on the line, CMOs are in hot pursuit of metrics that show that their programs work. A few years ago, such measurements were difficult to implement and inexact, but new data sources, technologies, and tools have made it possible to link marketing investments directly to market share, sales, and profits. 
You’d think marketers would be delighted (and indeed a few are). Strangely, though, a recent CMO Council survey of senior marketing executives found that more than 80% were dissatisfied with their ability to measure marketing ROI, and fewer than 20% of the respondents said their companies employed meaningful metrics. Just as marketing measurement becomes more exact and accessible, marketing executives are becoming less and less happy. This doesn’t make sense—unless something else is going on! 
Marketers aren’t unhappy because they can’t measure marketing performance. They’re unhappy because they now can—and they don’t like what they see. They need to go beyond metrics and take a hard look at why the numbers are so bad: Their marketing strategies are often flawed and their spending is inefficient. With increasing precision, they’re measuring the impact of ill-defined targeting, weak positioning, mediocre advertising, pedestrian products and services, giveaway promotions, and poorly allocated spending. 
Measuring marketing ROI won’t improve performance. Fixing broken strategy and optimizing the marketing budget will. Take care of that and you’ll be surprised at how good the metrics start to look 
The accelerating pace of change is creating a wide range of potential new priorities for chief marketers—leading change efforts across the whole corporation, playing a more active role in shaping the company’s public profile, helping to manage complexity, and building new capabilities within (and even outside of) the marketing department. Moreover, as the roles of marketing and the CMO expand, today’s competitive environment is made for CMO’s that stand up and broadcast their strategic roles for growing brands, rather than sit back and narrowcast a role that is merely communications orientated and therefore tactical. Of course, it’s natural that longer tenure will drive better marketing programmes, but opportunities to innovate are expanding.  
In this way the lifespan of CMO’s will continue to increase and perhaps soon average around 5 years; the lifespan of a (Queen)bee?! 
Chris D Beaumont 
(trying to stay out of a hot and humid Tokyo) 

How much does a customer need a CMO? 
 
For corporations that are large pollitical animals with complex value chains customers need CMOs. 
 
Or customers may benefit from class action suit as those types of corporationa tend to have over-sized market impact. 
 
Small to medium sized corporations need CMOs to advocate for Marketing resources and attention. 
 
Or smaller corporations have to keep their eyes on customers to survive. 
 
In my experience all corporations do and don't need CMOsn though the smart ones avoid the title and the other ones who celebrate the role don't offer corresponding power and salary to match the excessive accompanying responsibilities. 
 
Cheers, 
Nick Trendov @ManyCUES 

Hi Nick - thanks for your input. The impression I've gotten from comments here and from other conversations is that the CMO is a widely misunderstood role - often by the CMO themselves. And it is certainly not an easy role to fill, especially in a business where it is not defined correctly. Yes, I agree every company should have one - and as you say - FOR their customers. But unfortunately, too many companies think of the CMO as a marketing tactician, where they really need them to be a driver of culture and strategy.

I am currently negotiating for a CMO position with a new company. I have taken the exact same position you have in this article. It has described my role already with the CEO, as co-pilot, developing marketing from inside, leading the CEO, etc... However, he, as the owner, is trying to avoid taking on any investor. So he cannot see how to justify the expense of a CMO. I am going to have to show him how it makes sound financial sense, especially at the beginning, to hire me as his CMO. Any ideas?

Drucker never more relevant - innovation and marketing are critical to success, everything else is a cost! 
What are the key opportunities to accelerate sustainable growth? You should prioritise and commit for first 100 day deliverables (be realistic so you can over deliver!) 
Being technology empowered today, it's like Drucker had steroids; small companies can act an win above their weight; nobody is too big to fail!