• Ad Age, Friday, September 3, 2010 10:39 AM

Dick Patton, who leads Egon Zehnder International's Global CMO practice, cites Domino's Pizza extensive makeover -- and very public admission of its own shortcomings -- as a prime example of his thesis that what separates the great CMO from the good CMO is the ability to lead change and to get results. And that has to start from within the organization.

Patton's company has developed eight competencies that top leaders must have: customer orientation, results orientation, market knowledge, team leadership, organizational development, collaboration and influencing, change leadership and strategic orientation.

"Outstanding CMOs outperform good CMOs in all eight competencies, he writes. "But by far the biggest gaps are in results orientation and change leadership, where outstanding CMOs score a full point higher on our scale than good CMOs." The bottom line is that great CMOs drive uncompromisingly for better outcomes, no matter what.

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