Board or bored

Marketing belongs in the boardroom but most marketers are ill-prepared.

Andrew Carrier

Jun 30, 2024

Read on to learn why:

① Marketing isn’t well understood or respected by most boards.

② Most CMOs aren’t equipped to interact effectively with board members.

③ Rebrands are only ever needed if your audience misunderstands you.

④ Even central bankers are having to adapt to AI.

⑤ Marketing should be at the heart of your strategy, as well as your boardroom.

⑥ My favourite city in the world is likely to become a little less appealing.

⑦ Brexit continues to make Brits an international laughing stock.

What's new

This week, a survey revealed that 1 in 3 senior marketers get one hour or less a year to present results to the board.

① In short:

“30% of senior marketers only get one hour or less a year to present results to their company’s board – that’s five minutes a month, the equivalent to making a tea round – but 25% crave more airtime. Worse yet, 20% of marketers lack marketing representation on the board.  The reception can be disheartening. 27% have been interrupted by C-Suite members or had their presenting time cut short (24%).”
“What’s driving these reactions? The age-old negative stereotype of marketing being ‘fluffy’ is felt by 29%, while almost three in five (59%) worry the discipline isn’t taken seriously by board members. In turn, over a third (36%) believe their results aren’t considered important.”
“The crux might be a lack of understanding, which more than two-fifths (42%) think is ‘limited’ at board level. Nearly half (43%) of senior marketers end up repeating what the results mean each time they present. Their greatest wish is that it was easier to demonstrate the impact of marketing (40%) with those aged 35-44 the most exasperated (43%), though this declines with age.”

Why it matters

Marketing is a strategic function; it’s integral to driving your company’s growth. If you’re in any doubt of that, you’re reading the wrong newsletter. So, it’s saddening to see how undervalued it is at board level. But while you might expect me to reproach directors for this state of affairs, I think this latest survey matters because it highlights how ill-prepared most marketers are. It’s their responsibility to align with company objectives, speak the language of the board, and communicate the intrinsic value of marketing - and they’re failing.

Another survey this week by global B2B marketing agency Transmission exposes what’s going terribly wrong here:

Less than 3% of public or private board members have a marketing background - so they’ll likely need some context.
A paltry 39% of CMOs say they attended and/or presented at ‘every’ company board meeting, with just 44% presenting any revenue-oriented metrics. My question: why would you present any other kind of metrics?
Almost half of CMOs say their CEO doesn’t recognise the strategic contribution they bring to the business outside of the marketing remit. Whose fault is that? Hint: it’s not the CEO’s.
Only 8% of CMOs feel ‘very comfortable’ participating in financial discussions in leadership or board meetings. So, you know, hard to be taken seriously.
59% of CMOs would consider themselves not just ‘marketing’ experts but also ‘market’ experts in their organisations. Why isn’t this 100%? What is marketing if not the act of understanding the market?

② The survey continues by exposing the many soft skills that marketers lack to operate effectively at board level - including T-shaped skills, servant leadership, and personal networks. The situation is dire: marketing is critical to boards but most CMOs aren’t equipped to interact effectively with board members. That must change.

What to do about it

Take action

So, your business would benefit considerably from having your head of marketing at the highest table (see Media & Marketing below if you’re still in any doubt) but he or she has to earn it. Consider:

Boardroom exposure: It may sound obvious but the place to start is ensuring you create the opportunity for your CMO to attend board meetings regularly to present recommendations on customer, market, and competitor strategies.
CEO alliance: CMOs should report directly to their CEO and have a strong, collaborative relationship built on mutual respect and trust. That means clear responsibilities and KPIs as a growth leader in the business, and full accountability for pipeline and revenue-based metrics.
Financial acumen: If your CMO isn’t a natural with numbers, have him or her spend time with your CFO; they should become the very best of friends.
Go-to-market connectivity: Your CMO should be the glue that links sales, product, pricing, distribution, and customer success functions to growth. He or she should have accountability for the 4Ps across product-market fit, pricing strategy, and pricing models.
Relationships: More than just the voice of the customer, your CMO should be your eyes and ears across the market. That demands a broad range of critical assessment skills, knowledge of legal compliance, risk management, and international relations, making them able to offer 'big picture' thinking with foresight and guidance on how market factors affect material risk and opportunities to drive sustainable growth. They should display a high level of emotional intelligence and stewardship, listen well, show empathy, and have a strong personal brand and network.

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The other articles that are worthy of your time.

FINANCE

City slams FCA’s £90,000 rebrand plans as a ‘total waste of money’

③ Rebrands are only ever needed if your audience misunderstands you.

“News that the Financial Conduct Authority has committed almost £90,000 to a ‘brand refresh’ has left the Square Mile fuming, with one City figure describing it as a ‘total waste of money’. Despite going through the same process only seven years ago, the watchdog is shelling out £89,622 ‘to develop a refreshed brand and proposition – articulating what we stand for, who our audiences are, and what our proposed brand position should be’.”
“Public relations agency MHP Group was awarded the project last month and will work on it for six months.”
“Richard Burger, a partner at law firm WilmerHale, criticised the decision. ‘The City knows who the FCA is, so many will question the need for rebranding, let alone the cost, which would be better spent on FCA staff,’ he said.”

TECHNOLOGY

Central banks urged to keep pace with ‘game changer’ AI

④ Even central bankers are having to adapt to AI.

Source: The Financial Times, 25 June 2024

“Central banks urgently need to ‘raise their game’ to tackle the challenges and opportunities of artificial intelligence, as it transforms economies and the financial system, according to the Bank for International Settlements.
“The BIS identified several areas where central banks could benefit from AI, such as ‘nowcasting’ systems to scan vast amounts of real-time data to spot the build-up of financial risks or to predict downturns. Other uses include detecting money laundering. The BIS said its Project Aurora had tested AI’s ability to find dirty money in payments data and found ‘machine learning models outperform the traditional rule-based methods prevalent in most jurisdictions’.”
“However, it warned the technology also carried risks, such as when AI models were corrupted by ‘data poisoning attacks’, leaving them vulnerable to manipulation. Widespread use of AI could lead to bias and discrimination, raise data privacy issues and lead to a dependence on a few big providers of the models, the BIS added. There could also be financial stability risks if a large number of financial institutions used the same algorithms. This ‘could amplify procyclicality and market volatility by exacerbating herding, liquidity hoarding, runs and fire sales’, it said.”

MEDIA & MARKETING

McKinsey on maximising marketing's ability to drive growth

⑤ Marketing should be at the heart of your strategy, as well as your boardroom.

Source: B2B Marketing Directions, 23 June 2024

“A McKinsey study found that CEOs who put marketing at the core of their growth strategy are twice as likely as their peers to achieve an annual revenue growth rate of more than 5%. However, McKinsey's research also identified several operating conditions that often limit marketing's ability to deliver on growth expectations. Most importantly, the researchers found that CEOs and CMOs are often on different pages about the role of marketing in the business.”
“Marketing's ability to drive revenue growth is also often constrained because marketing no longer has responsibility for many activities that impact growth. More than two-thirds (67.3%) of the CMO respondents in the McKinsey survey said there are two or more executives in their company who oversee growth-related activities and report directly to the CEO. Marketing's ability to impact growth is also hampered when CMOs aren't involved in developing their company's growth strategy and other major strategic decisions.”
“McKinsey recommends that CEOs take several steps to maximise marketing's ability to drive revenue growth: Clearly define marketing's role and centralise growth management. CEOs should appoint one C-level executive as the company's ‘general manager of growth’."

WILDCARD

Is the revival of Paris in peril?

⑥ My favourite city in the world is likely to become a little less appealing.

“In recent years Paris has undergone an astonishing revival. Global businessmen, financiers and techies casually drop into conversation that they are spending more time in the City of Light. Wall Street banks have expanded their offices there; venture capitalists are signing more cheques for French startups. An annual investment summit, held in May at the nearby Palace of Versailles, has become a fixture in chief executives’ calendars.”
“Over the past decade Paris has been climbing the rankings of the world’s financial centres. French financiers manage €5trn in assets, up from €3.8trn in 2015. Amundi, a French firm that has become Europe’s biggest fund manager, looks after €2.1trn-worth, more than double the figure a decade ago. Wall Street has been increasing its Parisian presence. In 2021 JPMorgan Chase, America’s biggest bank, inaugurated Paris as its main European trading floor, where it now employs around 1,000 people. Bank of America has increased its Parisian headcount ten-fold, to 700; Citigroup’s has risen from 170 to 400, with space in its office for 200 more. Morgan Stanley has more than doubled its headcount in Paris over the past three years.”
“This business-friendly approach may not survive the parliamentary election. Although Mr Macron himself will remain in office until 2027, some of his reforms could be undone. Both Marine Le Pen’s hard-right National Rally and the New Popular Front, a left-wing alliance led by a former Trotskyist, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, promise to bring back the wealth tax.”