From Chief Marketing Officer to Chief Growth Officer.
New Label or New Reality? What’s the future of marketing?
Filiberto interviews François Bazini, former CMO Europe at Suntory, about how the CMO role is changing and why some companies relabel it as a Chief Growth Officer. François recounts his global FMCG career (Danone, PepsiCo, Suntory) and contrasts functional marketing leadership with P&L general management, arguing that strong CMOs act as “brand CEOs” who own trade-offs across top line, bottom line, capital, and time horizons. He says CMOs often fail by avoiding ROI discussions or shifting spend to only what’s easily measurable, overemphasising short-term activation over long-term brand building. He also argues that CMOs must be brand stewards while improving ROI credibility by reframing returns around equity and pricing power, and advises marketers to build both “PowerPoint and Excel” skills and to speak the finance, supply chain, HR, and commercial languages.
00:00 Meet François Bazini
02:42 From CMO to P&L Leader
06:00 Brand CEO Mindset
10:56 ROI Trap and Brand Stewardship
23:08 Chief Growth Officer: The Future
What Is Actually Driving Profitable Growth Today?
Our next executive workshops are designed to answer that question directly.
In a confidential, small-group setting, we combine current research, structured frameworks, and open discussion focused on your specific challenges.
Each one-hour session addresses a single strategic issue — Volume vs. Value, Demand Spaces, Shrinking for Growth — with the aim of moving beyond tactics and clarifying where growth is truly coming from, and where it is not.
