The CMO CLUB: "Value Alignment" Opportunity for CMOs Report - Effectiveness Beyond Your Department

Value Alignment Report - The CMO CLUB pdf
Over the last year in speaking with hundreds of CMOs at Dinners and Summits, a CMO’s ability to align the organization (not just marketing), around customer value, is a key attribute of CMO success. In response to this observation, the CMO CLUB asked Dave Covucci and the team at CMO Associates to develop a report to help CMOs in the club. I spoke with Dave this morning in preparation of sharing the report today with members in the club.

Dave, what is one of the key trends you see from CMOs around the “value alignment” issue?
The genesis of ‘Value Alignment’ comes from observations we have made about the role of CMOs in a number of organizations over the last 20 years. Some CMOs view the Marketing function as primarily responsible for acquiring customers. Others view the role in a much broader context, encompassing all activities in the firm that are involved in delivering value to the customer. The latter view poses serious challenges because the only C-suite executive who has the authority to mobilize all these moving parts is the CEO.

How can the CMO play an integral role in aligning all parts of the organization on customer value?
We interviewed more than a dozen CMOs in The CMO CLUB to learn how they worked to achieve alignment in their companies. In addition we conducted a survey of CMOs in the club to get detailed views of how they perceived the value alignment challenge.

The CMOs who participated helped us identify the three key success factors for the CMO who wants to take on the broader organization alignment challenge:
1. They have to have a clear and detailed view of what alignment looks like, for each customer segment, so that they can communicate with the rest of the organization.
2. They must have the credibility across the C-suite, especially with the CEO, to play a leadership role in alignment.
3. Leadership cannot come from the CMO alone – the entire Marketing staff must have the skill set necessary to support the CMO in the alignment challenge.

What else do you share in the report beyond success factors?
Identifying these success factors was only the starting point of the report. The major objective of this research report is to articulate a detailed and workable approach to achieve these success factors. The outcome is a framework that the CMO can use to develop the requisite definition of alignment, to engage the C-suite in supporting alignment, and to take steps to build Marketing staff skills.

If you are interested in improving your ability (and your team) to lead company wide alignment around value delivery to customers, take a look at the report.

For more information on CMO Associates go to www.cmoassociates.com