This is part four of a ten-part series that will share my Ten Habits of Highly Effective Chief Marketing Officers, based on my experience and what I have learned from others. See my January 5 entry for Habit #3 — Live the Four Cs: Design your organization for what you need to win — core work, capabilities, career path, and culture.
Habit #4: Get your team right. And do it early in your tenure.
Hundreds of experts have written about the importance to business success of getting the right people in the right jobs. Highly effective CMOs do this; the secret is that it entails deep thought and quick, smart choices based on what a brand or company needs at a given period of time.
A CMO is like any other leader — she is only as good as the people she entrusts. The key is to assess where you want to be great, best in class, and then to build your team based on that. And an even more difficult decision is to assess what part of that team you want internal to the company, and what part you want to source externally.
My CMO role was in a large, multi-brand company, P&G. I determined early in my tenure that I needed two teams — one team comprised of marketing leaders from our many business units, and one smaller team comprised of my corporate staff. Each team had different priorities and deliverables.
The business unit marketing leader team was focused on advancing our competitive advantage through the business units. We chose priorities every year, and stuck with them until we baked the capability into our business model. I needed people on this team who were passionate about marketing, who had allegiance to me and their business unit President, and who would participate in a shared leadership model. I needed people who would lead, and also reapply work from other businesses. I formed this team within the first three months of my appointment.
The second team I formed was a smaller, central team, focused on leading innovation, systems and processes that would lead to competitive advantage. One of the best decisions I made was to move outside the marketing discipline to staff this team with people experienced in skills P&G needed at the time. I brought in a purchasing manager to help with external agency management, I recruited an HR manager to help with talent management, I leveraged a finance manager to improve strategy and operations in selected areas. These people and a few others formed the nucleus of my “brain trust” that helped P&G advance to the next level.
With both of these teams, I cannot overstate the importance of setting your standards high for the people you choose. Especially in the corporate roles. Too many companies place “second tier” managers in these kind of roles. That is unacceptable. These people need to have the highest respect from top management, and key external partners. Their role is to create sustainable competitive advantage in marketing, and that demands high performers with strong track records.
I find in my research that most CMOs have weak teams. That is one reason CMO job tenures are still short lived. And the ones that survive feel burned out. So for the health of the company and its brands, for your health as CMO, get your team right early!
[...] This is part five of a ten-part series that will share my Ten Habits of Highly Effective Chief Marketing Officers, based on my experience and what I have learned from others. See my January 13 entry for Habit #4 — Get your team right. And do it early in your tenure. [...]