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Spanning Silos: The New CMO Imperative

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Over the years, David Aaker has published more than 100 articles and 14 books, including Managing Brand Equity, Building Strong Brands, Developing Business Strategies, Brand Leadership, Strategic Market Management, From Fargo to the World of Brands, and Brand Portfolio Strategy. In this his latest book, he examines a subject of special interest to me: organizational "silos." I agree with Aaker that there are situations in which they can have substantial value. Aaker uses a silo as a metaphor for "organizational units that contain their own management team and talent and lack the motivation or desire to work with or even communicate with other organizational units." The largest organizations are collections of silos that can be classified according to the country in which they are located, the product(s) for whose marketing they are primary responsible, or their operational (non-marketing) function such as IT and HR. As companies such as P&G, GM, HP, and Unilever demonstrate, there can also be silos within silos. Up to a point, a decentralized structure that not only allows but indeed supports silos is desirable.

But there can also be problems with silos, especially in a world that Thomas Friedman has characterized as "hot, flat, and crowded." According to Aaker, "relying on unfettered decentralized organizations with highly autonomous silo units is no longer competitively viable. The world has changed...Silo-spanning brands increasingly require consistency and synergies. There is a drive for marketing accountability that is inhibited by the silo structure. The need for deep expertise in cutting-edge marketing disciplines, difficult to achieve in a fragmented organization, is emerging at a rapid pace. There is also an increasing intolerance of inefficient and ineffective marketing that is coupled with an increasing ability to discern when they are around and about. Marketing is called on to do more with less and the inherent inefficiency of silos has become a significant burden...There is just too much at stake to allow silo interests to inhibit or prevent the effort toward achieving strong brands and effective marketing. That does not mean that the answer is to disband silos." Rather, organizations must determine how to eliminate the problems caused by silos without losing the benefits they can provide. Aaker advocates the need for a chief marketing officer (CMO) who concentrates on achieving that worthy objective.

Throughout his narrative, Aaker responds to questions such as these:

1. What are the major silo issues?
2. How have various global organizations done about them?
3. What has worked? Why? What hasn't? Why not?
4. What are the best-practice approaches?
5. What insights has his extensive research revealed, including interviews of dozens executives revealed?

What Aaker provides in this book is a "road map to success" for CMOs and their associates. He identifies the major silo structure-driven problems, the most important action items and the key barriers facing CMOs. He also identifies indicators that decentralization is out of control and recommends corrective initiatives that encourage more and better allocation of marketing resources, clarity and linkage in silo-spanning brand strategy, silo-spanning marketing offerings and programs, marketing management competence, leveraging success, and communication and cooperation. The material is carefully organized so that a CMO will be well-prepared to determine what the right role and scope for her or him will be, how to gain credibility and buy-in, how to use teams and other means to silo linking, how to develop a common planning process and information system, how to adapt the master brand to silo markets, how to prioritize brands in the portfolio, and finally, how to develop winning silo-spanning marketing.

My frequent use of the word is "how" is deliberate. Aaker briefly and skillfully identifies the "what" in the first chapter or two, then focuses almost all of his attention on the "how." He is a relentless empiricist and a diehard pragmatist. For example, drawing in part from a study of some 55 successful virtual task forces and teams, he offers ten suggestions in Chapter 3, Pages 90-92. In the next chapter, he provides seven specific recommendations to increase usage participation within an organization, to make it more widespread, on Pages 121-122. And then in Chapter 6, Aaker focuses on what he characterizes as a "Brand Priority Framework" for determining the relevant brand set, selecting brand assessment criteria, completing brand evaluation, prioritizing various brands, developing the revised brand portfolio strategy, and then designing and implementing the migration strategy.

In my opinion, this is David Aaker's most important book thus far. His brilliant use of various reader-friendly devices such as dozens of "Figures," check-lists, key points identified by italics and/or bold face, charts, and a "For Discussion" section at a chapter's conclusion all add substantial value to the rock-solid content. Bravo!

David Aaker does his usual excellent job, this time covering the topic of how to either break down or effectively build bridges between marketing silos at large and largish companies. I don't think there is going to be much in this book for the small business marketer, mid-sized business marketer or entrepreneur, though. This book targets large or multinational companies with a portfolio of brands across sectors, geography and/or cultures and does a great job discussing the issues at those types of companies. If your company is large enough to support the title CMO (chief marketing officer), has separate marketing groups based on geography, brands, business unit type or that utilizes multiple outside marketing/advertising agencies then you will probably benefit greatly by reading this work.

I found the discussion to be very dry and academic for the first four or five chapters but then it picks up with real life examples and tangible actions that can be taken to bridge the sometimes seemingly huge chasms between silos or separate marketing groups. You'll gain some great knowledge about how other companies have effectively managed the marketing and branding functions when they work with many different product or brand silos. The "we're different" mantra that is often heard in marketing silos might be your cue to see if maybe, just maybe there are synergies to be found by spanning those silos and tying in your marketing efforts to a common vision and shared brand message.

~~Review by the author of the e-book, "How to Build and Manage Your Brand (in sickness and in health)."

Chief marketing officers often face two serious corporate problems: first, trying to market and promote a company's brands when its internal units or departments are not working well together and, second, building credibility in such a contentious atmosphere. David Aaker's marketing book brings considerable analysis to bear on these issues, perhaps even too much. It may be that the cure he seeks resides in organizational change, not marketing. Nonetheless, his information on fostering cooperation and communication, drawn from more than 40 interviews with chief marketing officers, will help senior marketers. getAbstract suggests it to those who represent multibrand, multinational corporations. You can market your company, if you can get its fragmented silos to work well together for the greater good of powerful marketing.

Every CMO (and CEO for that matter) needs to read this important book. Through analysis, interviews and practical advise, David makes a powerful case for marketing's evolution from a department to a way of thinking across the company.

John Gerzema
Chief Insights Officer, Young & Rubicam and Author, The Brand Bubble

I have long been a fan of Aaker's work in the realm of branding, but this recent work may be his most important contribution to the marketing profession to date. "Spanning Silos: The New CMO Imperative" isn't a book simply for senior executives at Fortune 500 companies - it is a book that can provide insight to EVERY marketing professional at any organization. The Marketing profession - and CMOs in particular - are under significant pressure to meet high expectations. The only way marketers can realistically meet these expectations is to leverage resources across the "silos" within their firms. Aaker does a great job of addressing this by breaking down the toughest problems facing marketing and providing pragmatic advice on how these issues can be tackled. I have already recommended this book to several CMO's, and will surely recommend it to others. -Bill Koleszar, Executive Director, The Chief Marketing Officer Institute

The only way to grow in this crazy world is through smart marketing.

I liked David Aaker's book because he identified the chief orchestrator of the growth engine and hi/her mission. I just hope there are enough candidates who can do this job!

Peter Georgescu