Advice for the Hiring Committee
Well, another CMO has resigned his firm and the hunt is on for his replacement.
Makes me think about all the firms I have interviewed with and those red-flag moments … and a prior firm where I lived through several “interim” CMOs as they interviewed, and interviewed, and interviewed for a permanent CMO, only to have their top candidate accept another job and the process would begin again.
What advice would you give to the hiring committee at Ropes & Gray as they go about the process of finding Jim Durham’s replacement, or any hiring committee for that matter?
I’ve got a few to start us off:
- The CMO has to work with people on many different levels and in many different departments. Start talking to your senior marketing/administrative professionals early on. What were the positives/negatives of the prior CMO? What was lacking in his or her skill set, both tactical and managerial? What did they have that you cannot live without?
- Have the senior directors interview the candidates before the firm management has decided on who they want in the job … then actually listen to their input.
- What are the top priorities for the person coming into the job? These will most likely be different than the last time you were hiring. Don’t recreate the “same” CMO to do a different job.
Here are a few of my suggestions:1. Where does the firm see itself in five years? What kind of marketing or business development professional do you need to help you accomplish this goal?2. What specific objectives do you want the CMO to accomplish?3. Consultants don’t always work out once they come in-house. Many suffer from culture shock because everyone used to listen to them when they consulted. Now they are actually being asked to implement their recommendations and both sides find out how difficult implementation can be. 4. Marketing and business development are often under one umbrella, but they are two distinct areas. What does the firm want — more marketing or more business development?5. Put the CMO in a partner-sized often close to the Managing Partner’s office. If nothing else, that can signify the importance of the role to the firm (and the naysayers).Hope this helps.