A C-Suite Partnership is the Key to Digital Maturity

Google’s vice-president of ads marketing, Kate Stanford, has remarked that two of the main hurdles for digital transformation within companies are: misunderstanding urgency and importance, and achieving buy-in across the C-suite.

For companies to reach digital maturity, the CMO, CFO, and CIO must work together to create a fluid plan that creates cohesion in all aspects of the business and for all members of the business.

Firstly, this mismatch between urgency and importance should be addressed. Much of the last year saw marketers maintaining an urgent approach to everything, whether it was coming up with creatives, communicating with consumers, or planning campaigns. We need to think of transformation differently. When we think of the move to digital and how fast the environment is changing, it can be tempting to enter that mindset or urgency and the feeling that everything must be done quickly in order to keep up with the demand or your competitors digital scope.

And while maintaining some sense of urgency on transformation is helpful for change, more focus should be allocated to doing it right.

So how do you “do it right”?

It all starts with planning. C-Suite members – CMO, CFO, CIO – need to be working together to organize the business and implement on what is viable for your digital transformation. Stanford observed that, “most companies that are at the forefront of digital transformation, their senior marketing leaders already have built a collaborative relationship with their chief financial officer. Really, the chief financial officer and the chief marketer are like the new power couple.”

This collaboration ensures that, as consumer behaviour changes and the CMO is able to identify these shifts, the CFO can adjust the budget to reach this identified market.

Without the buy-in from all of the C-Suite members, agility is completely lost. They must be at the forefront of this digital transformation to create adaptable plans. The CMO must understand the parameters around the budget and the CFO must understand the value that the marketing strategy brings to the business.

With these members of the organization working in tandem, the path to digital maturity can be brought about at a pace that helps meet the companies marketing goals while staying within the necessary budget, even as things shift.