Chief Growth Officer: The Last Jedi?



The C-Suite in an organization is the power center who share common duties, such as strategic planning, in addition to their functional responsibilities. They are no less than “The Jedi”, the main protagonists in the Star Wars universe who are depicted as an ancient monastic, academic, meritocratic and paramilitary organization whose origin dates back to c. 25,000 BBY.
So what has spawned the rise of a “Chief Growth Officer” as “The Last Jedi” to protect and lead the growth of an organization.

C-M-O = A dangerous acronym

At the top of most organization's marketing heap, stands a Chief Marketing Officer or CMO. This is the person who maintains the whimsical vision and executable strategy for the company's marketing plan. Inherent within this title, however, is one of the largest lurking dangers of the business world: a glorified role without any purposeful impact on the bottom-line. Indeed there is no acronym so dangerous in the English language as C-M-O.

Why CGO is the new CMO?

Sales’ is no longer about “trying to flog things” while marketing can’t sit in a silo, free from commercial objectives. It’s about trying to give them high quality advice and be there for them if there are any problems. So, the sales team is really a service team and then a marketing function more than anything else.
“Easy growth” is now a thing of the past. “Companies no longer can rely on traditional methods of incremental expansion and innovation—be it a new category, market, acquisition or distribution channel.
Marketers are simply not seen as growth drivers. Search firm Russell Reynolds, says CGOs aren’t just enhanced CMOs. They are growth-focused brand builders, trusted CEO advisers, and internal connectors who align conflicting agendas.

FMCG companies are at the forefront:

According to Russell Reynolds, these are “first-generation” CGOs. FMCG companies began to appoint CGOs around five years ago. Consumer goods giants including Coca-Cola, Colgate-Palmolive, Coty and Mondelēz have all hired CGOs to “accelerate growth efforts” or to “bring focus and growth to our platforms”.Another example is Kraft Heinz, where marketing and sales is led by a president of global growth.

CMO was expected to lead the growth:

Over the past decade, marketers have continued to position themselves as experts in advertising, brand positioning, millennials and the latest digital fads – instead of being growth drivers – and this has led to CMO positions disappear.
While corporate leaders look to the CMO for growth opportunities, the marketing function certainly does not own all of the organization’s growth drivers. As many as five C-level executives are responsible for driving new revenues, according to a recent Accenture Strategy report. However, CEOs are most likely to hold their CMOs accountable for missed growth targets.

The expectations from a CGO:

A CGO, thus, primarily infuses a "growth mind-set" in the organization.
As Mondelez International CEO Irene Rosenfeld rightly states,"The creation of the Chief Growth Officer role ensures that growth remains at the forefront of our company strategy. It will bring the same focus and discipline to driving sustained, profitable growth that we have brought to improving our cost structure and expanding margins".

Five questions to ponder upon for a CGO :

1. What’s the plan? The CGO needs to construct and have a firm grasp on the overarching strategic plan of the organization.
2. Why the plan? A CGO needs to understand the essence of the plan – what it was based on – the insights, market trends, analytics and data at its core. They should be mindful of how to gather and incorporate client data, prospect data, competitive intel, and economic insights.
3. How the plan? What is the method by which the CGO will execute the plan? What resources will be incorporated? How will marketing tools be incorporated? What cross-functional planning is required? How does Sales get involved?
4. When the plan? What is the timing for the execution of the plan? How often will it be reassessed and updated?
5. Outcomes of the plan: Will the CGO have a thorough understanding of the dynamic measurement of the plan, on an ongoing basis? Can they articulate the ROI in terms of measurable metrics that have a downstream impact on revenues?

This evolution and elevation of traditional corporate leadership roles to a CGO can give a blueprint for companies to align the senior executives to the urgent need to address sustainable business growth and improving future growth prospects in times of uncertainty.