Hello,
I’m writing you on the morning of the sixth annual IRG100 CMO Leadership Program launch in New York City, two days before the IRG CMO Summit (140+ CMOs attending,) a week before the first CMO Davos Summit, and two weeks before the Oxford IRG100 launch. We are starting 2025 with record momentum!
Many of us enter 2025 with trepidation and concern about the state of the world around us –, extreme climate developments, international disputes, wars, political upheaval, AI, and reports about businesses delaying or reversing important previous commitments. Many of the 750 IRG CMO alumni worldwide tell us they are thinking a lot about where this is heading and how they should operate in this environment.
As I reflect on this and our work at the IRG, some key themes come to mind, that I would like to share with you.
The IRG programs are built on a crucial premise: Leaders who align personal purpose with their work and their organization’s business strategy make more personal, business, and societal impact.
Since all IRG participants are very senior Marketing leaders at companies that serve millions if not billions, of consumers globally, it’s fair to assume that when our participants develop a Humanized Growth plan inspired by their personal purpose and then influence their colleagues, win commitment, and drive change, they will create more value for all stakeholders, colleagues, customers, the community including the planet, and the capital markets, and so make a positive impact.
This brings me to our conviction about the role of Marketing in business and the IRG purpose.
When companies lack a clear purpose, they often lose their way, forget what made them successful, and fall into a downward spiral of short-term, bottom-line results focus and, often, failure. Corporate history teaches us that companies that focus too much on one stakeholder over all others are destined to ultimately stumble. In contrast, the best companies understand their societal role and ensure that, over time, they must create value for all their stakeholders. Of course, almost no company consistently creates value for all stakeholders all the time, but great companies course-correct to ensure they benefit all in the long run.
At the IRG, we believe that Marketers play a crucial role in this process. Lacking the presence of a Founder, it often falls on Marketing to clarify and inspire people inside and outside the organization about the company’s purpose.
The ‘Marketing Mindset’, an orientation around human understanding and engagement, is key to stakeholder value creation: What excites or angers our stakeholders? What are their unmet needs, and where are their opportunities for value creation? What messaging will win people’s hearts and minds and drive them to act differently?
Some marketers apply their craft to only the ‘consumer’ as a stakeholder, but the IRG challenges and supports marketers to step up beyond their own function, collaborate more closely with their C-suite peers and business ecosystem partners, and drive a more humanized business strategy, one that creates value for all the organization’s stakeholders.
We believe that in a world with seemingly increasing conflicting stakeholder interests and the huge changes that AI is unleashing, Marketing's ‘human’ orientation will be vital.
The IRG’s purpose is to increase CMO personal, business, and societal impact. The IRG100 program helps participants ground their organizations in organizational and stakeholder realities, identify value-creation opportunities, build coalitions across the functions and business ecosystem, and win commitment to these plans. We also help CMOs develop Da Vinci leadership growth attitudes and behaviors.
This year’s all-new IRG100 program, the record number of participants, experts, and practitioners who contribute to the program, the fresh content, the learning, sharing, reflecting, and personal growth journey, and the events planned around the world will help drive more humanized growth in the world.
As an IRG community member, you are a hugely important part of this movement, and we want to thank you for joining us on the journey of driving more Humanized Growth!
Marc de Swaan Arons
Founder