I’ll give you a moment to grab your calculators. Ready?

• Adobe bought Marketo for $4.75 billion.
• Inspire Brands bought Arby’s for $2.3 billion.
• SiriusXM bought Pandora for $3 billion.
• Michael Kors bought Versace for $2.1 billion.
• Comcast outbid Fox to buy Sky for $40 billion.
• Coca-Cola bought Costa coffee for $5.1 billion.

Hello September! Let’s call it the month of inorganic growth.

But what, if any, role did the Chief Marketing Officer play in identifying or facilitating these opportunities? Should the CMO play a role?

When we posed these same questions in our latest study about the role of the CMO as growth driver, the marketing leaders had a clear message: Growth is growth…so you better be part of it regardless of how it is achieved. For one CMO at the center of a M&A taskforce for her organization, the goal is how, as a team, a consistent experience and unified operation can be maintained in the face of rapid growth and chaos.

This became a central theme as we developed the CMO Growth-Driver Playbook. How could marketers face chaos and change, and more importantly, how could the challenges most marketers face, from data and actionability to silos and operational misalignments, be overcome in the name of growth. For marketers focused on growth through acquisition, the partnership and alignment with C-Suite partners was critical.

“The more we cooperated with one another, across the silos and functions, we started to recognize how much faster we could operate. We weren’t hitting roadblocks or tripping over operations that were not in sync with the growth plan. That started during the mergers, but it’s how we operate on a day-to-day basis now.”

So as these blockbuster deals finalize and the hard work of melding cultures and customers comes to a head, marketers have an opportunity to lead the alignment and experience charge. And if they are looking for some advice of people that have already crossed these hurdles, feel free to download the playbook.

Until next month!

Liz