I recently read an article called “Unclear CEO expectations often lead chief marketing officers toward revolving door” from Kimberly A. Whitler and Neil Morgan, Marketing professors at Virginia and Indiana universities, respectively.
Their revelations mirror my own observations, but I will extend the phenomena to include ecommerce. If you know anything about ecommerce, you know that it’s a multidisciplinary function that combines marketing, merchandising, and IT. Sadly, very few, and I do mean very few, C-level executives are well-versed in even two of these functions. Furthermore, very few executives even realize that ecommerce is so closely related to marketing – many believe it’s mostly the domain of IT. However, the converse of that is also often true – many executives do not realize how technical ecommerce can be, and think it’s just an extension of marketing. It is these failures of executive experience and knowledge that lead to unrealistic expectations and frustration on all sides. Why can’t we just launch a website, put our products up there, and then become the next Amazon within the next year?
Morgan and Whitler discuss the disparity in how the CMO role is defined compared to other C-level roles. I’ve done my own examination of this issue over the past several years, in a "semi-academic" manner. I’ve discovered that the exact same issue exists for Directors and VPs of Ecommerce. There is no standard job definition, not even at the BLS (Bureau of Labor and Statistics). I have looked at many hundreds (probably over a thousand actually) job postings and LinkedIn profiles, and found no consistency in the duties and responsibilities. A Director or VP of Ecommerce may be responsible for the gamut of ecommerce-related disciplines: digital marketing, online merchandising, business and brand strategy, project and digital product management. But I’ve seen people or postings for this job title where the person was responsible for only online merchandising, or only digital marketing, or only the ecommerce technology stack. Many times, I’ve seen the responsibilities includes marketing & merchandising, but nothing related to IT or project management. Sometimes, I see “brand strategy” listed, but often not. To make matters more confusing, some companies list “Director of Ecommerce” and then describe a sales or account management position managing relationships with ecommerce retailers. They are probably left wondering why they get all those resumes from people that have no sales backgrounds.
This lack of standardization is not limited to job descriptions and expectations. It’s also in the metrics and the very nature of the role. In contrast, finance and accounting metrics and expectations are very well-defined. These roles are governed by FASB, GAAP and other constructs or organizations; nothing like that exists in marketing or ecommerce. In ecommerce, there are many specific-skill certifications, which can be helpful and demonstrate a passion for the profession, but there is no analog to “CPA” or “CFA” in ecommerce. Certain finance & accounting metrics have been around forever and are well-defined and well-understood. The inputs and outputs are easy to understand, and very limited. They are also not subject to the unpredictability of consumer behavior. Thus, it’s hard for CEOs or CFOs to understand the inability to accurately forecast certain metrics, such as ROAS (Return On Ad Spend), which impacts profitability metrics, and (understandably) causes them some angst. What we need is more education on all business metrics in MBA and MS programs. This lack of understanding of ecommerce metrics and their causal relationships doesn’t just frustrate the executives – it also frustrates the Ecommerce VPs & Directors who try to explain them. After awhile, they move on, hoping to find a boss who can grasp these more fluid, unpredictable metrics, and WHY they are that way.
Lastly, Morgan and Whitley discuss the fact that only 6 percent of the chief marketing officers in their survey had degrees in marketing. That’s astonishing, but sounds very accurate to me. Would you hire a CFO that didn’t have a finance degree? An IT director without a computer science degree? Yet, I routinely see ecommerce leaders who have degrees in English, Art, and other irrelevant subjects. What is the best degree / background for ecommerce? It’s a no-brainer: Marketing. In my personal experience, ecommerce leaders typically spend 40% of their time on marketing activities, 30% on merchandising, 10% on strategy, and 20% of digital product / project management. That is, if the job is structured correctly or optimally, with a team that is also staffed adequately. Unfortunately, most are not, because they grew organically instead of strategically, and they are often staffed by inexperienced, home-grown employees who did not benefit by working in professional ecommerce environments anywhere else. These employees typically lack awareness of the broad spectrum of knowledge within their sphere of work - they don't know what they don't know. Further, ecommerce leaders very often lack previous ecommerce experience. In my research, the roles held immediately preceding the ecommerce leadership role typically included: Business Development Manager, Buyer, Sales Manager, or Category Manager. That's not optimal for a ecommerce operation.
This article by Morgan and Whitley resonated with me because I am a marketing and ecommerce professional, and because I’ve made similar observations to theirs. In addition, two books I’ve read recently also discuss this issue, and are highly recommended:
The CMO Manifesto, by John F Ellett
Chief Marketing Officers at Work, by Josh Steimle
https://hbr.org/2017/07/the-trouble-with-cmos by Kimberly A. Whitler and Neil Morgan.
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