Spanning Silos: The New CMO Imperative

by David A. Aaker

Powerful product, country, and functional silos are jeopardizing companies’ marketing efforts. Because of silos, firms misallocate resources, send inconsistent messages to the marketplace, and fail to leverage scale economies and successes — all of which can threaten a company’s survival.

As David Aaker shows in Spanning Silos, the unfettered decentralization that produces silos is no longer feasible in today’s marketplace. It’s up to Chief Marketing Officers to break down silo walls to foster cooperation and synergy. This isn’t easy: silo teams guard their autonomy vigorously. As proof of their power, consider the fact that the average CMO tenure is just twenty-three months. How to proceed? Drawing on interviews with CMOs, Aaker explains how to strengthen your credibility with silo teams and your CEO, use cross-functional teams and other strategic linking devices, foster communication across silos, select the right CMO role, develop common planning processes, adapt your brand strategy to silo units, allocate marketing dollars strategically across silos, and develop silo-spanning marketing programs.

In this age of dynamic markets, new media, and globalization, getting the different parts of your organization to collaborate is more critical — and more difficult — than ever. This book gives you the road map you need to accomplish that feat.

“David Aaker has brilliantly dissected the CMO role within complex global organizations and laid out a compelling ‘how-to’ manual for success.”

— Joseph V. Tripodi, CMO and CCO, the Coca-Cola Company

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