Is your Organization Learning as Fast as the World is Changing? CMOs in Atlanta Share Ideas, Feb. 4, 2009

Sharing ideas for “Accelerating the Development of Top Marketing Talent” was the focus of our Atlanta CMO CLUB Dinner last night, February 4th. A senior group of CMOs including Joe Rooney from Cox, Jeff Gregor from Turner Broadcasting, David Grocer from Park N Fly, Phil Dolan from Navicure, Jessica Miller from Newell Rubbermaid, plus others shared perspectives on Talent Management lead by Peter McNally of (r) evolution talentPeter provided a number of great insights spurring a number of interesting and valuable conversations including:
1) The fundamental flaw of teaching and inspiring individuals to apply new approaches by attending management development programs. If other members of the individuals team have not taken the course, efforts to change may be resisted. Better approach: training entire management teams together.
2) The importance of internal talent development vs. always hiring from the outside. Outside hiring can cause retention problems, undercutting the ability to develop talent internally, with longer term erosion of management talent. Peter sited Talent on Demand by Peter Cappelli as a good book for exploring other outmoded models.
3) Is your Organization learning as fast as the world is changing? Do you have processes and programs in place to stay on top of the changing world? A number of CMOs noted that staying on top is not just for the junior people on our teams, but all management (it is about leadership, right?)
4) Development plans are not just for correcting problems. How focused are you as a CMO on building on your talent’s strengths in development plans?
5) CMOs should develop an inventory of skills and competencies across four dimensions, a) Thought Leadership, b) Personal Leadership, c) Marketing Mastery, and d) General Management.
6) Creating teams of highly motivated members is more important now than ever. Develop a real rallying point for the team and reward behavior in support of it. One CMOs called it getting your marketing team “in the zone”.
7) Make sure not only A rated managers hire A rated people, but B Rated hire A rated (vs. C rated). This is extremely important for longer term success.

I can tell the CMOs at the dinner were engaged based on the number of notes being taken and follow up conversations planned. Peter will be leading a breakout session at our May Thought Leadership Summit in NYC, May 19-20th so those of you that missed the dinner can benefit from his insight.