Marketing capability is complex by nature, concerning organisation structure, technical methods, processes, communities and talent development. As CMO we must consider all aspects and constantly be reviewing the need to move and adjust.

We all know that when water stops moving it starts to stink and attract mosquitoes. Marketing organisations that stay still too long do likewise… and nobody likes a bloodsucker.

Not all people will be considering moving and adjusting. In fact, people can be fearful of change and rather stand still. Developing capability is one of the most important leadership tasks. Get people moving to keep capability on track.

It’s never been difficult to get people to go to a conference – it’s fun and low commitment. But it can be more difficult to get someone to change roles or change markets. How do you set metrics for development, how do you know if a young talent is on track?

The best marketing leaders develop a culture where fear of change is managed and complacency avoided.

Empathy, resilience, stamina: What are the hallmarks of a great marketing leader?

The 70-20-10 rule

The concept that corresponds consistently with how I have witnessed marketing talent develop is the 70-20-10 rule.

Around 10% of what we learn comes from formal training – courses or online schools. Usually, this is easy to cover. Although the percentage is low, it’s still critical to train the fundamentals. However, most young managers concern themselves too much with formal training. All major brand businesses have training and many outsource training, for example, the rather excellent Mini MBA with Mark Ritson, which received gold stars from all people we enrolled at Asahi.

The 20% chunk of what we learn comes from direct working relationships with others, whether in communities or with peers and bosses. This needs crafting so you can create a community of marketing when people are located in different countries, in different markets, with different challenges, and sometimes different brands.

When I discussed development with country marketing directors at Asahi, we would openly talk about the bell ringing after four years – time to start planning what’s next.

Remote working has not helped here, as young marketers in particular (who are often most willing to come to the office in my experience despite reports otherwise) suffer from a lack of social learning. Technology does help to set up teams but they need a clear purpose or project and it needs to be a real one, such as ‘help the team on Brand X get the creative platform right’.

The 20%, of course, includes critical thinking and perspective around how marketing is done in any given business. All professional branded companies have their ‘Marketing Ways’ – how to format brand position, how to define creative platform, etc.

However, the most impactful way of educating is by storytelling, helping managers turn their own experiences (good and bad) into stories that are passed down and effectively explain how things work. Stories become legends become performance guides.

Stories are human and stick when slides have long been forgotten. At Asahi, we created the ‘golden lollipops’, awards that recognised when we got it wrong; managers wrote a case study that described what we initially thought and what actually happened. A strong marketing culture can smile at itself and learn from collective experience.

The importance of experience

But 70% of what we practically learn and how we really develop as managers and then leaders comes through the experiences we have. Putting the knowledge into practice. Crafting the roles and experiences of our marketers is therefore our most important task as CMO.

A year is not an equal measure when it comes to experience. A 25-year-old doing the same job again for the third year is not going to learn as much as if they moved to a new country to do a similar job or rotating to a new function or new brand to tackle new challenges. These years count more. Like any strength-building task, you have to surprise the muscles to get them to grow. Marketing and leadership muscles don’t grow through familiar work.

It’s important to help talent develop through a systematic programme of movement. To do that, there needs to be a conversation about tenure. Tenure – ensuring a sense of timeliness – enough to get it done, review, improve and move on to the next challenge and to allow a new person to benefit from your role. This applies at all levels.

When I discussed development with country marketing directors at Asahi, we would openly talk about the bell ringing after four years – time to start planning what’s next. The goal was never to have a marketing director in role past five years. This ensured the talent pipeline kept flowing. It’s not as brutal as it sounds… from the five impacted people two got promoted within European marketing, one moved into a new function at the same level, one got promoted to a larger market and only one left the business.

As a result of these moves, three marketers within the organisation were promoted to local board level. These role models created perspectives and ambitions for the new generation, where previously all leaders had been externally recruited.

However, the most impactful way of educating is by storytelling, helping managers turn their own experiences (good and bad) into stories that are passed down and effectively explain how things work.

Many leading athletes dispute they are losing pace and athleticism as they age, as some CMOs doubt or perhaps don’t want to say out loud that after six years at the helm, their business might need a fresh pair of eyes. Performance can be affected over time as we stick to what we have created and perhaps struggle to admit change is needed.

I realise this is an unfashionable view as the conversation seems to be about the limited tenures of CMOs. This is a problem in places for sure, but I also find many who stay well beyond six years.

Over one in five B2C CMOs in role for a year or less

I can remember on my one trip to Cannes listening to two CMOs from two of the most famous FMCG businesses – both were excellent but both had been in role for more than nine years. One is still there after 16 years. Nobody else seemed to notice, but it bothered me. He’s probably brilliant but it doesn’t change my view that this is too long. I wonder how many top talents have left because they felt they had no chance to progress and how did this impact the next line down?

It’s my belief there is nowhere more refreshing and exciting to work than an organisation where marketing skills are respected, where there is a strong community that mentors and shares stories, and where people stay long enough to get the job done and then get out of the way.

After a career at Mars and SABMiller where he was local marketing director in European markets of increasing scale, Grant McKenzie became CMO for Asahi in 2018 until April 2024. In this role he oversaw a marketing organisation of more than 150 people, leading teams in innovation, insights, marketing capability and global brands including Peroni and Asahi.