Why every CMO needs a crisis to thrive - Damian Symons, Clear M&C Saatchi

Damian Symons is the CEO of Clear M&C Saatchi and author of 'From Choas to Clarity', which we reference a bunch in this conversation. He shares some of the excellent insight gained from this study of over 700 CEO’s and CMO’s into the changing role of the CMO over the past year and more.

What we covered in this episode

• How aligned is the CEO and CMO when it comes to business priorities?
• Why is the CMO a lot more influential now than a year ago?
• How a crisis makes you a lot more connected to your customers and colleagues
• How business strategy and the actions required to deliver it get easily disconnected
• Why Marketing needs to be much more than just ‘colouring in’
• Why CMO’s need to be more accountable for both short and long term investments
• How CEO’s become more focussed on the long terms whilst demanding short term action from their CMO
• The importance of a clear narrative, clear evidence and a clear short, medium and long term goals
• Why successful CMO’s aren’t always the best marketers
• How you can make this crisis the best thing that ever happened to you
• The failure of CMO’s to nurture talent and why no-one wants the job
• The 4 point plan to create clarity from chaos