This preview opens with the standing criticism of the chief marketing officer role: overly focused on communication, insufficiently commercial, and not doing enough partnering across the C-suite. It treats that as an opportunity rather than a verdict.
The study asks one question: how a company moves from shareholder primacy to value creation for all stakeholders. It answers it by comparing growth overperformers with underperformers across a sequence of behaviors.
Key findings
- Revenue growth against direct competitors over three years rises with how well a company delivers sustained value for all stakeholders, from 3.87 in the lowest band to 5.87 in the highest, on a sample of 651.
- The gaps between overperformers and underperformers are largest at the earliest stage. Seventy-six percent against seventeen percent on understanding stakeholders, sixty-four against nine on engaging them, and sixty-one against three on representing them in decision making.
- Purpose only counts when it decides things. Seventy-one percent against seven percent say purpose guides all strategic decision-making in their company.
- Companies are held back by the fear of being attacked from either direction. Twenty-nine percent report being limited by fear of accusations of greenwashing or wokeness.
- The stated payoff for the chief marketing officer is more influence, more impact, and longer tenure, with influence at sixty-five percent against eleven, and tenure up forty-eight percent.
The problem the study starts from
The opening frames a familiar debate about the role, citing a McKinsey report on the chief marketing officer and calling it a popular evergreen topic. The three charges are that the role is overly focused on communication, insufficiently commercial, and does not partner enough across the C-suite.
IRG’s own position is stated plainly: it helps chief marketing officers and other senior growth leaders drive more humanized growth by connecting them to peers, experts, and thought leadership. Its studies are dated across 2010, 2014, 2017, 2019, and 2023.
Stakeholders have become more demanding on all four fronts, and companies now face accusations of doing too little or too much. The section describes the resulting position as a minefield, where the fear of being caught in the crossfire pushes companies to keep a low profile. Twenty-nine percent say they are limited by fear of being accused of greenwashing or wokeness.
What the study is built on
The evidence base combines a survey with social listening and interviews. It covers a hundred and twenty thousand social artificial intelligence hypertrend data points, fifty-two markets, five C-suite functions, seven country deep-dives, and more than two hundred and fifty C-suite interviews led by chief marketing officers themselves.
The headline correlation is between stakeholder value creation and growth. Companies that deliver sustained value for all stakeholders report progressively higher topline revenue growth relative to direct competitors, moving up through 3.87, 4.83, 5.19, 5.44 and 5.87 across the five bands.
The split in framing is stark. Ninety percent of one group treats stakeholder value creation as an opportunity, against fifty percent of the other. The context given is a shift in where corporate value sits, from seventeen percent intangible to ninety percent, attributed to an Ocean Tomo study.
Ground, reimagine, focus, organize
The first driver is grounding the company in a human-first view. It splits into understanding stakeholders, engaging them, and representing them in decision making, and the overperformer gaps widen at each step: seventy-six against seventeen, sixty-four against nine, and sixty-one against three.
A worked example shows what stakeholder understanding looks like at scale, mapping a target of more than ten million alongside employees, affiliates, patients, applicants, boards, donors, community leaders and joint ventures, with specific needs broken down by care area.
The second driver is reimagining the future backward from an aspirational role. Seventy percent against twenty-three take a long term focus, and ninety percent against twenty-six say they are proud of their company’s purpose. The point pressed is that this means corporate purpose, not brand purpose, and not a new advertising campaign.
Purpose has to function as a strategic filter, and it has to be rooted in the company’s own DNA and its deep belief systems. Seventy-one percent against seven say purpose guides all strategic decision-making.
The third driver is a holistic strategy with adaptive change, which means prioritizing stakeholders, defining the value created for each one, and building measures for intangibles. Seventy-one percent against seven have a value creation strategy across all stakeholders.
The fourth driver is organizing for interdependence. Sixty-seven percent against seven work interdependently, breaking down functional silos internally and connecting outward with industry, non-governmental organizations, and government. Seventy-one percent against twenty-three empower the colleagues closest to stakeholders to act for the business.
Leadership and partnering
The final driver is unleashing Da Vinci leadership, presented through the leader profile and through concrete C-suite partnerships: with human resources on the employer brand, with strategy on the vision, with investor relations on communication, and with the chief executive on a listing or launch.
The closing summary returns to the individual. Chief marketing officers who work this way report increased influence at sixty-five percent against eleven, increased impact, and tenure up by forty-eight percent. Follow-up support is offered through the leadership program with the ANA and Oxford, benchmarking, in-company programs, and events.
Scope and limitations
This is a preview of the study rather than the study itself, presented to a chief marketing officer audience. The revenue comparison rests on a sample of 651 and on self-reported performance against direct competitors, and the intangibles figure is taken from an outside source.
Source
This page summarises Increasing CMO Impact: Driving More Humanized Growth, by Institute for Real Growth, Oxford Future of Marketing Initiative, November 14, 2023.