Not every good—or even every great—CMO is also an entrepreneurial one.
A great CMO focuses on what matters most, on what creates and captures demand, and on how to best allocate limited resources to unlimited opportunities so the business grows. They think strategically and execute creatively.
These are the table stakes of great marketing and marketers. But the entrepreneurial CMO, while focused similarly, takes a different path to the common ends of profitable, sustainable growth. The entrepreneurial CMO is one whose approach to driving business growth is neither beholden to the status quo nor disrupting it for disruption’s sake, and they are transforming their brands, businesses, and sometimes culture itself, as a result.
They understand what endures and, innately, what needs to change, whether within their organizations and/or in how they go to market. Strategic risk-takers, actively learning from what works and, inevitably, what doesn’t, they are fueled by curiosity, creativity, and an ability to experiment and connect dots in real time, even if the dots, like goalposts, keep moving.
And the goalposts—or at least the circumstances confronting marketing leaders—keep moving. While chief marketers across industries and the globe face many common challenges, it’s how the 50 recognized here confront, adapt to, and overcome them that finds them on this year’s list.
