Dive Brief:
- A new study from Korn Ferry reveals the number of executives who believe their CMO could be a candidate for CEO has decreased in the past two years.
- Of the executives surveyed, 34% said they think their CMO could be a likely candidate for CEO—that's down from 54% in 2013.
- Korn Ferry senior client partner Caren Fleit explained that the reason for the decline could be attributed to the broadening use of the CMO title, as well as its undefined and varying responsibilities.
Dive Insight:
As Fleit pointed out, the drop in CMO confidence by corporations could be more of an industry discrepancy than a reflection of CMOs' skills. If the chief marketing officer isn't a well-defined role across organizations, it could be common for many of them to be far from the CEO track. The tasks typically kept under the CMO umbrella—data management, brand identity, cross-departmental collaboration, etc.—would be critical in a CEO position.