CMOs And The Bottom Line

A new Stuart Spencer study of senior-level marketing executives has confirmed what many in business already know: the CMOs number one priority is influencing the bottom line (Ad Age story here). The complete results of the survey will be released today at the CMO Summit in Florida.

According to the study, other critical innate or learned qualities necessary for today’s CMOs include:

• Being a risk taker
• Willingness to make tough decisions
• Good problem-solving ability
• A strategic, customer-centric orientation to marketing
• Digital focus
• Multichannel and cross-industry experience

As far as an area of expertise that a CMO should “own,” 92 percent of the participants in the survey identified brands/branding as the most important knowledge area.