Nirmalya Kumar, Professor of Marketing at the London Business School, believes that Chief Marketing Officers need to transform their roles if they wish to remain relevant to the organization. He cites slow sales growth in developed markets and the consequent reduction in promotional budgets as the triggers redefining the CMOs job. Kumar suggests that marketing needs to move to the center and take responsibility for helping the organization become more customer-centric and innovative. He believes companies cannot survive if they continue to consider brands as just products. Instead, they need to bring broader brand solutions. For the CMO, this means embracing radical change, creative thinking and the ability to work across disciplines. In addition, CMOs have to be accountable with ROI becoming more and more critical to CEOs.
