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Death of a CMO…

From a recent MarketingProfs article: 

According to Challenger, Gray & Christmas, 152 CMOs left their jobs in September 2006, setting an all-time record. Studies from executive-search firm Spencer Stuart reveal that the tenure of CMOs continues to shorten. In 2006, the average CMO lasted 23.2 months on the job, down from 23.5 in 2005 and 23.6 in 2004. The growing and complicated list of tasks, along with the expectation for immediate results, are contributing to the high turnover.

In addition, a study by Pravin Nath, Assistant Professor in the Marketing department of LeBow College of Business at Drexel University, and Vijay Mahajan, John P Harbin Centennial Chair in Business at the Marketing department in the McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas at Austin, found that the presence of a CMO had no impact on a firm’s performance and that firms with CMOs do not perform better, and may perform worse, than those without them.

And the first strike of the bell may have just pealed. Orbitz recently announced that it has “decided to eliminate the global Chief Marketing Officer position and continue managing the Company’s marketing efforts on a regional basis….”

Is the CMO on the verge of extinction? 

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