In this issue:
- In Our Opinion: The Succession Planning Dilemma
- Career Opportunities:
- Head of Global Corporate Communications – NEW
- Global Marketing Technology Strategist – NEW
- Head of Marketing – Growth Markets – REVISED
- CMO – Start-up Mobile Advertising/M-Commerce
- Managing Director, Social Media
- Blog Roundup:
- Blog – “8 Pearls of Marketing” by Marty Homlish | ANA Spring 2013
- Announcements:
- Michelle Bottomley Joins Mercer as Chief Marketing Officer
In Our Opinion by Jeff Gundersen & Lola White
The Succession Planning Dilemma As a boutique firm specialized in recruiting CEOs and Presidents of marketing and marketing services businesses, we have had many experiences assisting incumbent CEOs in succession planning and subsequent executive search assignments to recruit a new company leader. We have seen the good, bad, and ugly play out in these scenarios and here are three things to watch out for if your company is approaching the “Succession Planning Dilemma:”
- Choosing A Caretaker Instead Of A Hunter/Builder – particularly for smaller private companies, and middle market companies, sustained growth and innovation are essential to long-term survival and prosperity. In spite of this, we have seen several clients choose the CFO or a Chief Administrative Officer to take over running the business. As these executives are neither customer-facing or marketing oriented, they frequently lack the vision and bold marketing chops to position the business for aggressive growth. While they may tighten up costs and produce an initial bottom line growth which looks impressive, the company quickly begins to atrophy as the focus on innovation dwindles. In our CEO succession assignments we always emphasize finding a “hunter” instead of a farmer as growing a profitable company is the best way to motivate and retain key employees.
- CEOs Can’t or Won’t Give Up Control – we have seen dozens of case histories, and been involved with several, where the outgoing CEO talks a good game about ceding control to the new President/CEO and then hangs around too long and sabotages the new leader by interfering in day-to-day management or insisting on remaining in a protracted transition period (18 months) when a much shorter transition period would yield a superior result. We have had to intermediate between incoming and outgoing CEOs to renegotiate and shorten the transition period as well as limiting the number of days/times the outgoing CEO can be on premises.
- Outgoing CEOs Too Protective Of Executive Team Members – it’s understandable when CEOs leave especially after a long period of incumbency, they leave behind a loyal C-level team. Many times these same CEOs will intervene on behalf of these senior staff members trying to force the new CEO to keep these team members in place. Our counsel is always simple…the new CEO’s most important job is to form their own senior leadership team and this needs to include complete freedom to assess the strengths/weaknesses of incumbent C-suite members and make changes they feel appropriate. This is why you so frequently see in large companies incoming CEOs broom the entire prior team and bring in their own people so they know where the loyalties will be when times get tough.
Particularly in today’s business environment where digital and mobile media and marketing innovations are developing rapidly, smaller and middle market companies are at a disadvantage compared to the likes of Google, Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Samsung, Lenovo, SAP, Accenture and other larger innovation leaders and drivers. This even further accentuates the need to select a marketing-oriented, customer-facing executive as CEO…someone with a modern marketing vision who can create a drive a bold vision for sustained growth and profitability. As always, we welcome your comments, Lola and Jeff
Career Opportunities
Head of Global Corporate Communications – NEW
Global Marketing Technology Strategist – NEW
Head of Marketing – Growth Markets – REVISED
CMO – Mobile Advertising/M-Commerce Start-up
Managing Director, Social Media
Blog Roundup: Did you catch our recent posts on our blog?
BLOG: “8 Pearls of Marketing” by Marty Homlish | ANA | Spring 2013 We are always looking to share Marketing “best practices” and highlight CMOs who are stars and game changers in the companies and industry sectors. Marty Homlish, CCO at HP and former global CMO at SAP, is a marketing star and we are pleased to include a link to his 2013 ANA article and highlight Marty’s “8 Pearls of Marketing.” Read more…
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Michelle Bottomley Joins Mercer as Chief Marketing Officer Executive Connections LLC is pleased to announce the recent placement of Michelle Bottomley as global CMO for Mercer. In her new ro
le, Michelle will oversee a number of corporate functions, including Marketing, Public Relations, Media, Digital Marketing, and Alternative Distribution. In this role, Michelle will focus on expanding the Mercer brand globally through innovative, direct, and digital marketing channels to support and drive the mission, operating imperatives, and values. Prior to accepting the role with Mercer, Michelle served as President of Zinio, LLC, the world’s largest digital magazine newsstand; CMO of Barclaycard, where she built a global marketing organization focused on results, innovation, and customer experience; President of Kite Flying, Inc., a boutique global marketing consulting practice; and Co-President and Chief Operating Officer of Ogilvy New York for Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide, an advertising, marketing, and public relations agency.
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