Marketing isn’t a cost center anymore
For most of its history, marketing lived on the expense side of the ledger. Its budget was treated accordingly: nice to have, first to cut, hard to defend in a downturn.
Useful takeaways from this story.
For most of its history, marketing lived on the expense side of the ledger.
Its budget was treated accordingly: nice to have, first to cut, hard to defend in a downturn.
There is growing consensus that marketing's role has shifted and that its job now is to help drive the business and align more closely with sales and its KPIs.
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The useful part
For most of its history, marketing lived on the expense side of the ledger. Its budget was treated accordingly: nice to have, first to cut, hard to defend in a downturn. There is growing consensus that marketing's role has shifted and that its job now is to help drive the business and align more closely with sales and its KPIs.
How it works
- Spencer Stuart's 2026 research shows that 62% of CMOs leaving their roles move up rather than out, 9% stepping into the CEO seat.
- Last year, the same firm found that 37% of sitting Fortune 500 CEOs have marketing experience in their background.
- Boards are handing bigger responsibilities to people who truly understand customer behavior and product demand because that experience now reads as business leadership, not a speciality kept at arm's length.
- It comes with a catch and our survey confirms the biggest exposure: 48% of marketing leaders are guessing which marketing actions infl...
Details worth keeping
You can see the shift playing out at the top of the org chart. This is a genuinely good moment for marketing.
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