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Senior operators only. No agency structure. No junior layer.

The Anti-CMO10 of 20

The job specification for your next CMO is a document that describes the leader of a function that

Chris Wheeler

The job specification for your next CMO is a document that describes the leader of a function that no longer works the way the job specification assumes. I want to suggest you do not write it until you have answered a more fundamental question.

What does the commercial system in your digital business actually need at the top of the marketing and revenue function? Not what did it need three years ago when the last job specification was written. Not what does the market for CMO talent currently offer. What does your specific commercial system, in its current state, with its current gaps and its current structural constraints, need from the person you are about to appoint?

The answer to that question may be a CMO as currently defined. It may be a commercial systems operator whose brief is to read the whole machine before managing any part of it. It may be an interim diagnostic engagement that gives you a clear picture of the structural constraints before you design the permanent role around them.

What it is almost certainly not is the same job specification from the last appointment, adjusted for the channels that have changed and the platforms that have launched since it was written. That specification was written for a version of the business and a commercial environment that no longer exist.

Design the role around the system. Then hire into the role.

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