by Thomas Barta | Jul 11, 2023 | Marketing Leadership
Five separate studies leave no doubt: CMOs and strong marketing teams are essential for company success. Fact 1: Strong marketing departments have a clear positive effect on firm performance. A breakthrough study, conducted over 16 years, analyzed 612 publicly traded...
by Thomas Barta | Jul 3, 2023 | CMO Central
Drew Neisser, author of the book The CMO’s Periodic Table and host of the CMO podcast Renegade Thinkers Unite interviewed over three hundred chief marketing officers. What did he learn? I thought I’ll copy you in on this Forbes interview I recently did...
by Thomas Barta | Jun 16, 2023 | CMO Central
When Marketing Week’s editor, Russell Parsons, asked me to write an article to accompany the launch of Marketing Week’s Top 100 Most Effective UK Marketers, I was torn. What’s to celebrate? This year saw a record number of top marketers being fired. The CMO...
by Thomas Barta | Jun 6, 2023 | Podcasts
What are the challenges for marketers this year? Recently, I had the great pleasure to discuss with Conor Byrne on his “That’s What I Call Marketing”-podcast. Enjoy! Play the podcast...
by Thomas Barta | Jun 2, 2023 | Keynotes
Experience the keynote from the world’s largest ever study on marketers’ success. Blockbusters like the Sony Playstation and KFC vegan chicken only exist because brave leaders have convinced everybody to take a risk. This isn’t a marketing talk....
by Thomas Barta | May 27, 2023 | CMO Central
Coca-Cola’s ditching of its chief marketing officer role for a chief growth officer is a clear warning to CMOs: stand for growth, or lose it all (From my Marketing Week column). Replacing the Coca-Cola CMO with a chief growth officer may make temporary sense...
by Thomas Barta | May 24, 2023 | CMO Central
The average chief marketing officer in large U.S. firms leaves after just 4.1 years, while the CEO stays around for eight. It is not good for business (from my cmo.com column). Korn Ferry’s latest numbers make for a chilling read. According to the search firm’s...
by Thomas Barta | Apr 23, 2023 | CMO Central
Influential business leaders are associated with revenue, yet too often marketers are not. They’re missing the point. It’s time for CMOs to get into the revenue camp (from my cmo.com column). Profitable growth (the sustainable kind) is high on every CEO’s...
by Thomas Barta | Apr 10, 2023 | CMO Central
Every CMO agrees: skills are central for marketing teams’ business impact and internal standing. But when it comes to building those skills, the marketing department is too often undermanaged and underfunded. It’s time for CMOs to catch up (from my cmo.com column)....
by Thomas Barta | Mar 12, 2023 | CMO Central
Even top marketers sometimes ask: “Do I have what it takes to step up and shape my company’s customer agenda?” But when good marketers hold back, companies may struggle to grow and customers are worse off. That’s when it’s time to add more fuel into marketer’s tank:...
by Thomas Barta | Mar 8, 2023 | CMO Central
Why are CFOs so powerful? They have crucial and credible financial data every CEO wants to see. Competing with a CFO’s credibility can be hard if your own data is forward looking—or if your work’s impact is hard to measure. Don’t try to compete—change the game....
by Thomas Barta | Jan 30, 2023 | CMO Central
The Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) is at the forefront of helping the company meet customer needs better than the competition (profitably, that is). In theory, the CMO role should be exalted, but reality is different. Too often, top marketers struggle to influence the...
by Thomas Barta | Jan 20, 2023 | Keynotes
Stop managing—start inspiring growth How can CEOs build organizations that enable growth in times of rapid change and disruption? Thomas Barta provides a radical perspective from the world’s largest ever study on customer leadership: hire more customer freaks! You...
by Thomas Barta | Jan 19, 2023 | Marketing Leadership
マーケティングをリードするのはマーケティングをすると同じではありません。世界最大のマーケティングリーダーシップ調査では、マーケティングをリードすることは360度のタスクであることがわかりました。世界で最も成功しているマーケターは、上司、同僚、チーム、そして自分自身を巻き込む方法を知っています。...
by Thomas Barta | Jan 1, 2023 | CMO Central
CMOs and CFOs always had a special relationship. Could this change for the better? Tough effectiveness debates dominated the agenda for decades, as some marketing activities were notoriously hard to measure. But marketing metrics and big data have now entered the...
by Thomas Barta | Feb 10, 2022 | Podcasts
How could you get traction inside the C-Suite? How could you get the CEO to listen? In this new podcast with Jeff White and Carman Pirie at The Kula Ring, we discussed how leaders can get buy-in at the top—and enjoy the journey. You can listen to it...
by Thomas Barta | May 27, 2021 | Interviews
For my Forbes CMO column, I sat down with Emirates’ marketing head Boutros Boutros. Together with his team Boutros has built one of the world’s most admired airline brands. I wanted to know what Boutros has learned as a leader during the last 12 months (of...
by Thomas Barta | Mar 26, 2021 | Interviews
Do leaders need more empathy? Recently, I sat down with Greg Lyons, Chief Marketing Officer at PepsiCo Beverages North America, for my Forbes column. We spoke about marketing leadership and empathy. He also shared the moving lessons he had learned from his wife, weeks...
by Thomas Barta | Mar 12, 2021 | Podcasts
Why marketers must behave a bit more like the finance department. A few days ago I had the pleasure to meet Abby Dixon of the Whole Marketer Podcast to chat about practical marketing leadership challenges facing today’s marketer. We spoke about the 12 Powers of...
by Thomas Barta | Jan 28, 2021 | Interviews
What makes a successful top marketer? For my Forbes column, I have spoken with Virginie de Beco, Sennheiser’s Global Head of Consumer Marketing. Virginie is also a Fellow of the Marketing Academy. Thomas Barta: Virginie, what are you currently working on? Virginie de...