Finding, Keeping and Motivating Great Marketing Talent: Spencer Stuart CMO Summit Looks at Building the CMO’s Team

New York—The 9th annual Spencer Stuart CMO Summit, held Thursday, June 9, in New York City, brought together CMOs and senior marketing executives to explore how chief marketing officers are building and evolving their teams today. The CMO Summit featured panelists Lee Applbaum, executive vice president and chief marketing officer of RadioShack; Alfredo Gangotena, chief marketing officer of MasterCard Worldwide; and Annie Young-Scrivner, global chief marketing officer of Starbucks. The panel discussed the marketing function’s priorities — including social media and digital, innovation and building brands that resonate around the globe — and how these priorities are affecting recruiting, retaining and motivating marketing teams.

The theme of this year’s CMO Summit was “Building the Right Team: How CMOs are Finding, Keeping and Motivating Talent in a Changing World.” Several talent takeaways emerged from the panel discussion:

• To meet the challenges ahead, marketing organizations will need to build or add new capabilities. The marketing mix at most companies has changed and, therefore, the mix of skills and capabilities is changing as well. In addition to adding capabilities in social media, mobile and other digital channels, marketing organizations increasingly need to develop executives with leadership and team-building skills, a researched-based understanding of customers, the ability to operate across different countries and generations, and a comfort with cultural differences. In a survey conducted in conjunction with the CMO summit, more than half of survey respondents, 56 percent, said their marketing organization does not have the right team and skill-sets in place to deliver on the company’s marketing strategy and priorities, and 57 percent said their organizations are likely to hire from the outside to add needed capabilities.
• Organizations can improve their ability to recruit top talent successfully when they thoughtfully craft their value proposition to candidates and articulate compelling benefits. World-class brands and unique and energizing cultures are tremendous assets when trying to recruit top marketing leaders. On the other hand, many marketers are drawn to opportunities where they can reshape and reposition a brand for the future and have more freedom to take marketing risks.
• A multifaceted approach to talent development produces marketing leaders and general managers with the breadth of experience necessary to be nimble as business and marketing strategies evolve. Marketing leaders should consider cross-training up-and-coming members of their team across disciplines within marketing and even outside of the function in general management, finance or other functional experience.
• Marketing organizations will be better able to recruit and retain when leaders understand the generational and regional differences in what motivates talent. In many organizations, the digital and social media teams tend to be younger than their peers in other disciplines and often are motivated by different benefits, such as access to the latest technology or opportunities to work abroad for a short period of time. While talented marketers want fair compensation, pay is less important than a fun work environment and exposure to top executives. In the survey, 34 percent said assigning team members to special projects or providing additional training is the most effective way to retain top talent. By comparison, 14 percent and 9 percent of respondents, respectively, saw higher pay and promotions as the most effective retention tools. Meanwhile, in fast-growing markets like China, India and Brazil, it is important to provide local talent with a robust career path and mentoring from experienced expat leaders.
• Marketing leaders can help keep their teams sharp and focused on innovation by continually refreshing the brand while remaining true to the brand strategy and core values. When employees understand the essence of the brand — no matter where in the world they are — they can innovate and execute on the brand in a way that is relevant to the region.

About the CMO Summit

Now in its ninth year, Spencer Stuart’s CMO Summit is an annual gathering of top marketers to discuss the most timely business issues of the day. The event draws marketers representing a broad cross-section of industry sectors.

About Spencer Stuart

Spencer Stuart is one of the world’s leading executive search consulting firms. Privately held since 1956, Spencer Stuart applies its extensive knowledge of industries, functions and talent to advise select clients — ranging from major multinationals to emerging companies to nonprofit organizations — and address their leadership requirements. Through 51 offices in 27 countries and a broad range of practice groups, Spencer Stuart consultants focus on senior-level executive search, board director appointments, succession planning and in-depth senior executive management assessments. For more information on Spencer Stuart, please visit www.spencerstuart.com.