The Business of Influence: Reframing Marketing and PR for the Digital Age

Summary

• We need to reframe things in the context of 21st-century technology, 21st-century media and disintermediation, and 21st-century articulation of and appreciation for business strategy
• Technology underpins this transformation and it has already been identified that the partnership between the CMO and Chief Information Officer must be nurtured
• The Chief Customer Officer and Chief Culture Officer roles have valid ambition but insufficient process to be viable – the roles will be covered by the CInflO’s team
• The Chief Influence Officer (CInflO) is charged with making the art and science of influencing and being influenced a core organizational discipline; charged with executing the Influence Scorecard
• The COO and CInflO must be close allies, obviously
• Organizations already championing the Balanced Scorecard or similar business performance management approach will be the earliest to adopters of the Influence Scorecard
• The best, left-brain-oriented Chief Communications Officers and Chief Marketing Officers may be CInflO candidates
• The successful CInflO candidate has a varied background covering marketing, PR, customer service, HR, product development and operations – just the kind of trajectory frequently mapped out for ‘future leader’ types
• Candidates for the role will be in-house, with extant strong senior interpersonal relationships
• They will be highly numerate, digitally native, and ambidextrous thinkers – although probably left-brain biased
• The influence professional is an ‘expert ...