Wow!

Did you see the CMO announcement from IBM and Wharton?   Wharton Executive Ed and IBM announced the launch of a first-of-its-kind executive program to help Chief Marketing Officers (CMOs) and Chief Customer Officers (CCOs) prepare for and capitalize on the current explosion of customer data.

The course is 2 weeks long and is titled “The CMO Advantage: Evolving Beyond the Digital Revolution.”  It will explore the increasing importance of the CMO in leading customer engagement innovations in the C-Suite.

What does the course look like?

  • Gain a deeper understanding of the transformative impact of the connected consumer on enterprise value propositions and marketing practices;
  • Enhance the role and influence of the CMO and Chief Customer Officer in the C-suite, including rallying and orchestrating the wider organization to align in support of the brand promise;
  • Achieve personal transformation and challenge mental models by applying lessons through live simulations and rapid feedback;
  • Improve the performance of the marketing organization, including nimble organizational design, marketing return measurement, partner ecosystems, and winning the talent war; and
    Join a collaborative network of executive peers for continuous learning.

I believe strongly that the CMO needs to have credibility and authority to influence customer interactions across the organization, not just within the marketing department.

But our facts show something different — the IBM Global CMO Study of more than 500 CMOs around the world showed that 82% of CMOs say their organizations are underprepared to capitalize with advanced analytics on the explosion of customer data.

Since most CMOs believe the complexity of data-driven marketing will accelerate over the next five years, less than half feel prepared for that (and, their confidence is eroding … 70% reportedly felt they were prepared just three years earlier).

Clearly, the time to develop the acumen required to harvest insights and apply them to reinventing brand engagement is now!