The CXO Summit: Accenture Edge’s CMO on the C-suite's Scope

Ashley Gatehouse, CMO of Accenture Edge took to the stage with a keynote speech at the CXO Summit – asking whether or not a CMO’s scope is a problem and addressing potential solutions for this.

Ashley has led marketing and hybrid growth teams for more than three decades and has undoubtedly experienced the challenges of the marketing industry along the way.

He says: “Is the CMO’s scope a problem? Has it gone past our standard of control? Do we have our hands on the controls of the growth engine at the relevant level of altitude?”

Are CMOs overlooked in a business?

Censuswide’s Voice of a CMO study reveals that less than half of CMOs believe they can fully go ahead with their plans without doubts from their enterprise or its shareholders, with 39% of respondents saying they are needing to do more with less.

Ashley adds that less than 30% of CMOs feel that they have little influence across their organisation and struggle to align the business with a clear marketing vision.

A recent analysis by Fibonacci says 60% of CEOs in the U.S. described marketing as a cost centre – a perception not lost on the rest of the world.

To some, marketing can be seen as an add on to communications. Ashley comments: “Marketing is much more than enterprise communications. Marketing is where we go to get things created. It’s where we get our brochures done. It’s where we go to make things look nice. It is the fuzzy felt, sticky back plastic and felt tip department. Now, content creation, brand execution and creative inspiration. These are really important things we all care about.”

 CMO, CEO, CFO – the importance of getting along

“The CMO has to have a lockstep relationship with the CEO, with the Chief Sales Officer, Chief Revenue Officer and nearly importantly, and where we often find it doesn’t exist at the level of intensity that it needs to, with the finance function.”

To establish a growth steering committee, Ashley notes the importance of C-suite executives building a strong relationship with each other to maintain sustainable growth and streamlined strategies.

He reiterates that a CMO’s role is to make sure a business’ execution layout has the ability to drive metrics and to focus on delivering the outcomes that have been aligned with the access of interest.

Build a machine, drive sustainable growth

“If you’re thinking about driving enterprise growth at scale, you need to build the machine.”

Wrapping up the keynote, Ashley summarised the machine model and its three components – the foundational data layer, the orchestration layer and how authentic an AI capability allows us to multiply.

“You need to make sure your data layer is accurate. You need to make sure your execution orchestration layer is going to give you the metrics and the workflows that you need and then you’ve got to run it coherently.”

“If you do all of those things, in my experience, the influence with the C-suite follows and you’re able to influence the discussions around resource allocation and the way in which marketing shows up as a coherent and powerful part of the enterprise growth.”

Thank you to our sponsors at the inaugural CXO Summit: Alexander Group, HiBob and Malt.