Hiring CMOs From Outside The Legal Industry

Turnover of Chief Marketing Officers is happening at a remarkable pace. The reasons are many ' from the inability of the individual to further effect change with the firm, to declining loyalty. One increasingly prevalent, but often unmentioned, reason is a poor selection process that does not consider cultural integration into the firm. Firms seeking lateral partners do not hesitate to run cultural inventories to make sure the firm and the candidate(s) will mesh. However, when it comes to choosing a new CMO or senior level management position, cultural integration is not given the same consideration. Although many firms invest considerable resources to train employees in interviewing techniques, these techniques do not assess certain personality attributes. As a result, many of the CMOs hired are inappropriate because they are either unable to fit into a particular firm culture or they do not have the specific personality traits needed for that particular position.