The first six months of this year has shown the largest increase in CMOs changing jobs at major brands since executive recruiting firm Russell Reynolds first started tracking them in 2012, with particular volatility in retail.
While the report released earlier this month was largely confined to CMO turnover at U.S. firms, the data offered a glimpse into the career paths for marketing leaders and how brands are selecting and appointing senior marketing leaders. For example, despite efforts to nurture and grow talent within existing marketing teams, 62% of CMO hires in 2016 so far have come from outside, the study said. Meanwhile, dreams of taking on greater responsibility may be unrealistic, as only 23% of CMOs took on roles such as president or CEO. In fact, 33% tended to move onto another CMO role after leaving, according to Russell Reynolds.
“The high level of turnover among retail marketing leaders is undoubtedly the result of ongoing industry turmoil, as legacy brick-and-mortar retailers continue to adapt to the reality of multichannel commerce and the rapidly changing consumer landscape,” the study said, noting that retail accounted for 16% of CMO changes, the highest of any other sector. “Financial services continued its strong and persistent trend of appointing marketing leaders from outside the sector, with 62% of financial services marketing-leader appointments pulling talent from outside the industry. The consumer sector is the source of the most cross industry hires to financial services (50%).”
John Ellett, author of The CMO Manifesto: A 100-Day Action Plan for Marketing Change Agents, suggested in a post on Forbes that CMO change is often part of a broader shakeup in the executive ranks when a new CEO is hired. However another major trigger can be a failure by CMOs to live up to expectations.
“This often occurs when the business results a CMO could produce with the levers they controlled were unrealistic. (For example, the new brand campaign did not overcome fundamental product issues.),” he wrote in reaction to the Russell Reynolds data. “It also occurs when the company is growing faster or needs to transition quicker than the CMO’s ability to change.”
Outside of retail, the Russell Reynolds report said 14% of CMO changes came in consumer digital and media companies, 13% in consumer products and services firms and 10% in leisure and hospitality organizations. The data came from an analysis of approximately 175 brands.
