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Dear CMO: Please welcome the new guy! He’s a bit different than the other members on the team. No MBA for this one. Your new team member has a skill set you’ve never managed before. He will give you a functional capability you’ve never had before on staff. So what, as a manager and business […]

Dear CMO: You may take a controversial stand some time at some point in your career. Disintermediate a long established channel by going direct, for example. Launch a product in a format or style long dominated by a chief competitor. Maybe launch an edgy ad campaign that the CEO’s mother doesn’t like. At all. All […]

Dear CMO: The elephant in the room. The 800 pound gorilla. Or, my favorite Japanese proverb, a “duck bearing onions.” These all generally speak to those things which we do not wish to acknowledge out of fear that their acknowledgement will destroy our carefully constructed self-delusions. We all know situations where stating the obvious is […]

Dear CMO: Do you know the definition of an ignoramus? An ignoramus is someone who doesn’t know something you learned five minutes ago. We like it when we know things others don’t because it makes us feel smart at some ignoramus’s expense. In psychological terms, it’s called “invidious comparison.” You probably didn’t know that. You […]

Dear CMO: Shout “that man is an axe-murderer!” in a courtroom. The defense attorney will bolt upright and splutter, “Objection! My client is NOT an axe-murderer! This is a tax evasion case!” You can then smoothly withdraw the statement, knowing the jury will hear nothing else for the duration except the echo of your words […]