As industries around the world witness a shift in the way they hire employees, operate and strategise, it looks like posts and designations are also evolving. A designation that could mean one thing in the past comes with much more roles and responsibilities today.
And one such designation that seems to have evolved over the years is that of the chief marketing officer, which now not only comes with a new name of chief growth officer, but also the responsibility of advertisement, promotion, strategy, growth, and customer satisfaction.
Well-known multinational brands, which are regulars in the Fortune 100 ranks, have now embraced the role. For instance, chocolate manufacturer Hershey's named Mary Beth West as its chief growth officer that month, while Clive Sirkin too took the same post at Kellogg. And it looks like the post is here to stay.
"In 2018, we expect CMOs to fall under even more pressure to drive growth — or step aside while someone else takes the reins," CNBC quoted Forrester as saying in its "Predictions 2018" report.
Additionally, CGOs will also need to come up with ways to reduce the cost of advertisement and instead focus on the overall consumer experience. "At some firms, the CFO will gleefully call their CMO peer to give the budget back, but with the CEO demanding a solution to drive growth, these dollars will find a new purpose: more budget for customer experience (CX) improvements," Forrester added, which also predicts that CMOs, next year, will be expected to "grow or go."
Meanwhile, re-skilling and embracing new roles have become the need of the hour in every industry worldwide. The IT and telecom industry, especially in India, have already stressed the importance of re-skilling, in case people want to hold on to their jobs.
Industry body National Association of Software and Services Companies (Nasscom) has time and again stressed on employees' need to get acquainted to new and advanced technology as the world moves towards automation and digital services. "Re-skill or perish," seems to be the idea.
"The need for re-skilling talent is a reality that we have to address. To keep up in a fast-evolving technology environment, the IT industry must reinvent itself by re-skilling its employees in new and upcoming technologies," Nasscom president R Chandrashekhar had earlier said.
As the world moves towards digitization and automation at various levels in almost all industries, it looks like it is time for employees to embrace new designations, which comes with added roles and responsibilities. As Winston Churchill said: "To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often."
