The WFA’s new report on marketing leadership says the qualities that now separate great CMOs aren’t AI prompt-fluency or stack mastery. They’re clarity, commercial grounding, and a deep understanding of the customer.
About bloody time.
But here’s the thing – we can’t just swing the pendulum back to “pure strategy” and pretend delivery doesn’t matter.
If the last decade was guilty of over-engineering marketing through martech and dashboards, the next one risks doing the opposite: mistaking thinking for doing.
The best marketing leaders I’ve worked with hold both ends of the rope. They can set a vision and build the capability to deliver it. They know how to create the space for long-term brand direction without losing grip on execution.
Because a vision’s pointless if no one can actually deliver it. And all the delivery in the world doesn’t count for much if no one knows where it’s headed.
Marketing earns its seat when it can do both – and build teams that can too.
By Dave Heywood
A marketer who’s spent his career figuring out how real growth happens – for brands and people alike. He runs Marketing Careers Uncovered, a podcast where marketers talk honestly about the work, the missteps, and what actually moves the needle.
