First, We Kill All The Chiefs

Chief Marketing Officer. Chief Client Service Officer. Chief Cook and Bottle Washer. “What’s in a name?” asked the bard. “A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.”

Where’s the love of this chiefdom coming from? My friend Heather Milligan is smart to question the escalation of title puffery in law firms and other professional businesses. It’s interesting to me that the real power and influence in law firms actually resides in one title: partner (owner, shareholder, whatever indicates an equity share in governance and income).

In the world of law firm marketing, “Chief” was once thought of as a ticket to “the table” and, clearly, when Clara Boza became the first marketing professional in a law firm to have that title, she had a position of influence that included Executive Committee and Board meetings at her firm. Many top marketers at other law firms later assumed the title and it may have conveyed some measure of authority and responsibility. Certainly, the scale of large firm marketing and business development functions begs for a “super titled” buck stopper. But I doubt that “Chief” anything actually designates an influencer by the conveyance of the title.

In other industries that have a corporate heirarchy or reporting structure, the head of marketing will sometimes carry the “Chief” title, but equally prevalent is “Vice President” or “Director.” In law firm marketing, the more important part of the hiring process is the negotiation that defines the reporting lines in place for these bigwigs. Only by reporting to the managing partner can a marketer achieve real influence and even that requires that a good relationship exist between these two thought leaders.

I believe that actions speak louder than words. The still short (30 month) average tenure for CMOs suggests to me that the “Chief” designation is a misnomer. The one and only chief in a law firm is the managing partner, and his or her constituency is mainly the other owners, and, occasionally, the rising non-equity stars. The one metric the managing partner is judged by, IMHO, is the partner bonus. Be a good steward of that, and reputation and influence grows.

So where does that leave the Chiefs?