• by Mat Zucker , October 6, 2025

After more than a decade helping CMOs build strategies, restructure teams, and navigate complex markets, I stepped into the role myself 18 months ago. I learned quickly that the seat changes you in profound ways. It forces you to synthesize every skill — creative, analytical, political — into daily decisions that move the business forward.

So much is beyond message, including understanding infrastructure and capabilities, plus the need for interpersonal skills and innovation beyond the ad campaign.

And then there’s the math. CMOs confront overriding, intensifying pressure to build brand and business together — a duality that demands they develop the flip sides to their specialties.

Here’s how that looks from the three main CMO routes.

The agency-to-brand pivot. The CMOs who start out in the high-adrenaline world of advertising and communications (like me) bring storytelling muscle, creative agility, and a knack for managing multiple stakeholders. They’re used to solving problems under pressure and seeing around corners.

Increasingly, though, they will only succeed when they can quickly embrace P&L ownership — shifting from trusted consigliere to ultimate decision-maker. The agency toolkit helps, but accountability is an entirely different game. It’s essential to get operational and start to speak the language of business.  

The CPG / GM product marketing path. If the agency pivot is the scenic route, this is the expressway. Many CMOs grew up in the structured, disciplined environments of product marketing and general brand management in consumer packaged goods. They learned to connect brand, product, and financial performance from day one, then stayed in the same vertical until they reached CMO — so they’re buffered by a deep well of category expertise.

The rising challenge is to move fast in digital environments without the safety net of big budgets and long timelines. They need to lean into projects where uncertainty predominates.

The brand comms + media hybrid. This route blends brand building with media or corporate communications. In an age of fragmented attention, CMOs with comms DNA are powerful. They can craft a unifying narrative that rallies the company and resonates in culture. And they understand how to make that story travel through earned, owned, and paid channels. It hits, or it doesn’t. The challenge is proving — consistently and convincingly — that the narrative drives business results, not just headlines.

The best CMOs are both chief storyteller and chief growth officer — able to inspire a room and drive the numbers. For rising stars on every path, developing the flip side is the key to delivering both brand brilliance and business impact. It’s been an education for me, for sure. That’s the uncompromising reality we’re speeding into.