Forrester reported last year that “firms think they are transforming, but many don’t realize that transformation will be a permanent state of being.”
Principal Analyst Ted Schadler went on to write:
“21% of firms think their transformation is done and dusted. Really? Done? Another 22% are investigating or not transforming at all. And while 56% of firms are transforming, their level of investment and scope of transformation are still mostly small. For example, only 34% of banks and insurers are even bothering to transform marketing and only 45% are transforming customer care — too few given consumers’ of mass adoption of mobile devices.”
At the same time, the role of marketing in digital transformation is in flux.
A more recent Forester report this year found that less than a quarter of CMOs are directly responsible for leading their firm’s digital transformation strategy and only 16% are leading its execution.
“This is likely attributed to the CMO’s high turnover, which presents the challenge of delivering short-term customer satisfaction and long-term digital transformation simultaneously.”
CMOs have the highest turnover and shortest tenure in the C-suite. A Korn Ferry report found that the average CMO tenure was 4.1 years (half the average CEO tenure of 8 years).
A factor of this short tenure relates to an organization “not being well aligned behind the change that the CMO is tasked with leading.”
Here are a few related cartoons I’ve drawn over the years:
“Digital Transformation” October 2018
(This cartoon post has already been seen more than two million times since October).
“Digital Transformation” November 2016
“Changing Priorities” May 2018
