18% of marketers make it to the top
It's an old statistic.but a good indicator, that just 18 per cent of CEOs have a background that's marketing-biased.
According to this piece from the AMA, financial skills, strategic insight, and internal visibility, are critical to reaching the CEO's office.
Editor
Comments
In truth I am not surpised by the apparently low % of marketeers who make it to CEO. The statistic tells only part of the story of course. It depends on what kind of businesses we are talking about. If the business relies on flexible sourcing, effective distribution and manufacturing efficiencies then the CEO should probably be a supply chain expert. SImilarly, if the business is built on operational cash flows then an accountant is most likely to get the top job. Of course any business built on strong brand or marketing propositions is fertile ground for ambitious marketeers.
Here then is the real conundrum. What kind of a career path do great marketeers aspire to? In my experience, truly great marketeers by and large want to stay as marketeers and do not necessarily want to take on the broader challenge of general business leadership. Those marketeers who take on that challenge are in essence expressing their latent ambition to be great general managers rather than great marketeers.
No word game, nor question of semantics; nor indeed something that applies simply to the world of FMCG. This dilemma is really at the root of identifying great marketing potential and helping it to develop.
Posted by: David Thomas | December 22, 2005 5:13 PM
About 15 years ago, Marketing, I believe, predicted a rise from this ям?gure due to the need for a market orientation in organizations. Given that companies generally know just as little about consumers as they did in the early 1990s, and have failed to take on the advantages that the internet brings them, I am not surprised that the percentage is in the teens.
Posted by: Jack Yan | December 22, 2005 9:18 PM
And yet, and yet...
Today, the Today programme believes (mistakenly, IMHO) that a marketer - Terry Leahy - is one of the ten people that runs Britain.
See http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/today/vote/whorunsbritain/vote.shtml
If we truly live in a society run by marketers... then we shall, eventually, have the society we deserve! Heaven forfend.
Posted by: Editor | December 24, 2005 9:21 AM