Roadmap to Digital Excellence: CMO as Business Excellence Leader

The Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) is a universal key role in the age of digitalization. In more and more companies, he is the one who sets the company on a comprehensive, strategically understood consumer orientation. He wins over all departments for this course, fills in the gaps between them and directs change processes. In this way, he becomes the universal innovation driver, impulse generator, integrator, bridge builder and mediator who advances new ways and forms of collaboration (social collaboration) in the company.The CMO of the future must therefore not only summarize the market insights gained in many different ways and communicate them within the company, but also implement the strategic effects against often strong resistance, and this along the entire value chain.Chief Marketing Officer in the function of Business LeaderThe CMO is ultimately responsible for the essential four task areas (see the article "Roadmap to Digital Excellence: Exponential Organizations and Business Excellence") and the three central aspects of "Customer," "Employees," and "Strategy & Corporate Identity" for excellence in accordance with the EFQM Excellence Model, and thus has an impact on the entire organization and triggers transformation and change processes there. Organization, data (and its content, cf. content, information and knowledge) and technology are essential topics on the roadmap to digital excellence, which requires strategic, networked and digital thinking and action. If you want to digitize successfully, you have to be prepared to make far-reaching changes to your organizational structure and culture. Digital thinking and action must not be placed in competition with the classic business model, but must become an integral part of it.Excellent CMOs know the conditions and opportunities, but also the challenges of the digital world in detail and have an eye on future developments. They are able to deal effortlessly with complex data and analytical processes. The CMO of the future, as a strategically thinking leader, orchestrator and mediator, listens to and understands what markets and consumers expect, and aligns business strategy with these requirements. Put simply, he or she is the voice (Voice) of a company, the face (Face) and in some respects also the brain (Brain).The CMO must define his role and constantly evolveThe ever-changing, universal and integrating role of the CMO is therefore more business development, technical and multidimensional, with data and customer analytics becoming increasingly important to ensure true customer delight. Good CMOs take the brand beyond the marketing department and know its impact on customer experience and revenue.Defining the strategic direction of the brand and providing strategic support to the CEO are the focus - rather than day-to-day operations and tactical marketing communications. As business models and goals, channels, markets, and customers change, the CMO must be the one with partnerships across the organization and provide strategies to get the whole organization under control.In digital transformation, therefore, the CMO is also the designer and driver to bring the functional departments together, motivate, drive, and create a culture that is conducive to innovation. This begins with an as-is analysis of the business model, processes, communication channels, products and services. Here, the opportunities and risks of digitizing these components must be identified and evaluated. In this way, priorities can be derived and a roadmap drawn up. In this way, it makes an essential contribution to the company-wide digital transformation.The CMO as bridge builder: bringing marketing and IT togetherOne example here is the bridge between marketing and IT. After all, the development of a digital or data-driven company means that IT no longer has only the function of support processes, but is involved in the innovation of the business model and business processes. Companies face major challenges here with the digitization of their customers and the topic of Big Data, which require professional, holistic customer data management (cf. also the development of Customer Relationship Management and Vendor Relationship Management).Here, the CMO ensures harmonization between marketing and IT and thus contributes significantly to a maximized return on investment (RoI) in the context of digital transformation. The various marketing technologies (martech) must work well together in the sense of systematic marketing technology management (MTM) and should above all cover data management, cross-channel marketing, content marketing, social marketing, and analytics and testing.To ensure that content is really "king," the modern CMO relies on high-quality or professional quality and infrastructure to guarantee a consistent message and a uniform appearance of a brand across all platforms. Digital asset management (DAM), which acts as a central content hub, is an important building block in this regard.* Marco Englert (MBA) is a manager, consultant and coach and focuses on management innovations for the sustainable control of increasing dynaxity and digital transformation. As Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) and Executive Director, he is responsible for modeling and implementing management strategies at Motodox GmbH. He has excellent research and leadership know-how and is a certified specialist for brand communication, online marketing manager, digital sales manager, employer brand manager and manager for agile organizational development (Quadriga University).