Chief marketing officer role and responsibilities

CMO

The glass ceiling is one of the most obnoxious phenomena in business leadership today. Despite the rising ranks of women in lower and middle management, and despite all evidence that suggests the glass ceiling inhibits the growth of organizations and the economy at large, too often talent women are kept from the executive suite. There have even been cases made that women still experience unusual difficulties once they reach the executive suite.

This study attempts to answer a couple of key questions about the issue of the glass ceiling, where the marketing function is concerned. The first question is about the typical profile of a female Chief Marketing Officer. The educational and work experiences of past and present female CMOs is weighed against the education and work experiences of male CMOs either in the same company or from a competitor. The findings suggest that there are some differences in the backgrounds of female CMOs and male CMOs.

The study also seeks to determine of firms perform better with female CMOs or with male CMOs. The study findings are tentative due to the limitations of the link between the CMO office and the firm's overall performance, but the findings do indicate that firms perform better with a female CMO. In general, females CMOs outperform their male counterparts, and in one case where this did not occur the female was nevertheless successful enough to be promoted to the CEO post, which can reasonably be taken as an indicator for success.

This study adds to the body of evidence arguing that the glass ceiling is futile, and firms that fail to address the issue of the glass ceiling are likely to underperform those firms that have taken measures to ensure that talented females do have access to senior executive roles.

Section I: Definition of the Problem

The issue being studied is the struggle of women to become accepted in the Chief Marketing Officer position. There are a number of different dimensions to this problem, and several of those dimensions will be explored through this paper. The first element of the discussion lies with the fundamental problem of the glass ceiling. The glass ceiling is the metaphorical invisible barrier that prevents women from moving into the executive suite. As women become more involved in the workforce, percentages of women in the workforce in general have equalized with the percentage of women in the general population. Females within the lower managerial ranks have been gaining rapidly and are not far from parity. At the executive level, however, gains have been relatively slow. Females are still severely underrepresented in top management teams and the executive suite.

The glass ceiling phenomenon has been the subject of considerable study over the past couple of decades, and a number of different theories have been presented to explain the phenomenon. Some of the theories have included differences in education levels, differences in desire, and lack of qualifications. Bias, the obvious answer, has also been studied. Many of the studies of other factors have failed to ascribe the glass ceiling problem to those factors, leaving bias as one remaining factor yet to be ruled out. More recent literature on the subject of the glass ceiling has sought to explain some of the other factors that have contributed to the ceiling's existence. For example, where it is found that females choose educational options that make it more difficult to enter the executive ranks, academics have sought to study why these choices are made. This does not fully explain the glass ceiling, however, since it is not at all uncommon for an MBA to be obtained late into one's career, and the MBA is probably the most important degree for an executive in a non-technical field.

Another factor that has been examined of late is that mismatch between the structure and function of senior management positions and the ways that female managers would like to work in these positions. In other words, it is not opposition to the role that turns women away from the executive positions, but what those positions entail as they are presently designed. Given a different design of these positions, women would be more interested in pursuing a career all the way up to the executive suite.

There is also evidence to suggest that even those women who have broken through the glass ceiling have found continued resistance, that they attribute to bias and the same factors that lead to the glass ceiling in the first place. Such ongoing difficulties, or even the perception that such difficulties will be faced, can make such career paths more daunting for women.

While much of the literature is focused on understanding the glass ceiling and how it may be overcome, there is room for literature to focus on what the success drivers for women in executive positions are. This is where the subject of the current study lies. Women who are examining their career paths, or even young women considering what professions to enter, lack guidance as to what will make their careers more successful. The literature supports this contention -- while young men model their careers on the successful men that surround them, women often do not. The lack of role models may make it less clear what it will take for a woman to reach the executive suite. Thus, there is benefit in profiling those women who are successfully commanding significant marketing organizations.

Another element in the literature about the glass ceiling is the search for evidence that the ceiling is harmful. The underlying logic is that if a compelling economic case can be made that the glass ceiling hurts firms and hurts the economy as a whole, that more will be done to eliminate it. The glass ceiling is, after all, highly persistent across many cultures including those thought to be the most egalitarian in the world. Admittedly, there is some bias in the search for evidence that the glass ceiling is harmful, but if that evidence can be found, using enough different techniques, eventually such findings will be incontrovertible. There have been a number of studies that support the link between the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) and firm performance. While the choice of CMOs for study needs to take into account the various mitigating factors that contribute to the correlation between the CMO and firm performance, that this link exists presents an opportunity to highlight the benefits of hiring women into the role of CMO.

There has, to this point, been very little study of the subject of females in the CMO role. The literature has tended to discuss the performance of females as executives, the contributions that CMOs make to firm value and even the ethical compass of female marketing executives relative to their male counterparts, but there appears to be a gap in the literature regarding the specific performance of female CMOs. It has only recently been established that the CMO influences firm performance, and that the markets recognize this, so the studies about female CMOs have not yet been written. It is hoped that this study will begin to fill that gap.

Thus, there are two objectives of this study. The first is to provide background information about the biographies of female CMOs. It has been established that females are underrepresented in marketing management educational programs. This implies one of two things. The first is that females are going to be underrepresented in marketing management, which is true. The second is that females in marketing management positions may take atypical career paths to reach that position. Whether or not female CMOs have taken convention career paths involving progressively important marketing roles and an MBA, or whether they have taken an unconventional route to that position, is subject worthy of study because it sheds light on the issue of the glass ceiling and the realities of how female executives must make their way to the executive suite.

The other issue in the current study is whether or not there is a difference in performance between female CMOs and male CMOs. If a difference is found, it can add to the body of literature supporting stronger measures to eliminate the glass ceiling. If there is no evidence that female marketing executives outperform, that is fine as well, and such a finding would support other positions in the literature, namely that the differences between male and female leaders are exaggerated. That would also support the elimination of the glass ceiling.

The statement of the problem, therefore, is quite simple: There is evidence to suggest that, although underrepresented, women are well qualified for executive level marketing positions.

The paper will focus on answering that question by developing on a few key themes, as defined in the three questions around which this paper is based. The literature review supports the formulation of the three questions, and it also supports the foundation of the concepts in the current study. There is a link between the CMO and firm performance, and that link is understood to be conditional. Those conditions are understood. Both academia and the market are in agreement that the CMO does matter in a number of different situations. Therefore, the question of whether or not a female CMO affects firm performance is very much a valid one.

The first research question is: What academic background contributes most to a woman's ascension to CMO or VP of Marketing? This question is basic, and can be answered with secondary research alone. The biographies of executives are often made public, and a comparison can easily be done between female CMOs and their male counterparts.

The second research question is: What are the critical success factors for young women who aspire to be CMOs and VPs of Marketing? This question is important. The literature review highlights some of the conditions under which the CMO has more of an effect on the firm's performance. For females to overcome the glass ceiling and demonstrate a superior level of success, there must be specific conditions for that to happen. Arguably, if there are no specific conditions, that would support the idea of eliminating the glass ceiling. The key with this question is to understand some of the details between the career paths of different women who have become CMOs and to understand how these key success factors translate to on-the-job performance.

The third research question is: Have company revenues increased following the hiring of a female CMO? In order to evaluate CMO effectiveness, a measure of company success is required. There are many potential such measures, but revenue is one that is most directly related to the marketing function. Profit is less related, because the marketing department at most firms has little control over the firm's cost structure, which is driven more by production costs, R&D and managerial spending. Market share is a somewhat nebulous concept and is difficult to use as a result. The market must first be defined, and there is no consistent way of doing that, and there is no body that publishes market share information anyway. Market share is always estimated, and is therefore subject to differences in estimation methodology. This makes markets share an unreliable measure. Therefore, revenue is the best approach to answering this question.

With these questions, the current study hopes to shed new light on the career paths that take females to the CMO role, and how they fare once they arrive in that position. The current study will therefore add breadth to the study of the glass ceiling, by covering an area that is still rather nascent in its study. The current study is expected to provide the groundwork for further studies exploring the issue of the glass ceiling as it pertains specifically to marketing executives.

Section II: Review of the Literature

The phenomenon of the glass ceiling refers to the underrepresentation of females in senior management positions. The glass ceiling has been subject to considerable academic study in recent decades, both in terms of how the ceiling has come about, what effects it has both on companies and the economy at large, and what can be done to eliminate the glass ceiling. A study of literature on the glass ceiling reveals a few core realities. The first is that the ceiling persists even today, long after one would have thought it would have disappeared. The second is that the glass ceiling is costly for both businesses and economies, and the third is that eliminating the glass ceiling typically has economic benefits in terms of unlocking talent and bringing new perspectives to business leadership.

Ragins, Townsend and Mattis (1998) note that while women "constitute nearly half of the U.S. labor force and occupy a significant and growing proportion of entry and mid-level management positions," they remain underrepresented in senior management roles. The authors also note that there has been little progress in bringing women into senior management positions over time, contrary to the expectations of sociologists and business researchers. The glass ceiling, a metaphorical invisible barrier that prevents the upward progress of females (and other groups), is deemed the cause of this lack of progress. The authors also note that 92% of executive women report that the glass ceiling does indeed exist, indicating that these women probably had firsthand experience in dealing with the phenomenon, even though they have broken through the glass ceiling to enter executive positions.

Meyerson and Fletcher (1999) condense some of the research about the glass ceiling into a manifesto for breaking through the glass ceiling. They note that at the root of the problem is that organizations have traditionally been founded by and designed by men, with male perspectives leading to structures that ultimately favor those who function better in those environments. Women can move ahead to a point, but have a more difficult time truly excelling, which is why they remain underrepresented in the executive suite. This finding is particularly relevant for the current study, because if there is to be a difference in the performance between male and female CMOs across a broad spectrum of companies, it is likely to be found in the culture of the organization, and in its organizational design. Female managers, if the arguments of Meyerson and Fletcher are to hold, will have different designs and cultures in general, and this will lead to differences in performance.

Bass and Avolio (1994) present a case that women may make better managers. Such a case would argue that eradicating the glass ceiling would be optimal for businesses and for society in general. The authors argue that corporate management is trending towards "high-involvement work teams, consensus decision-making and empowerment" and that females in general are more adept at these management styles. The authors also argue the case that females are more transformational as leaders, something that might reflect different perspectives. This paper is useful to our current study because it presents some arguments as to why female managers might well outperform their male counterparts. The underlying argument is the same as well -- that eliminating the glass ceiling makes for more effective organizations.

Also relevant to our current study is the work of Wirth (2001). This work features a section that outlines the career paths of female and male corporate leaders. One key section highlights educational opportunity and choice as a factor in the glass ceiling, but there is also evidence presented that the career paths of women post-education play a role. The gender differences in career paths are important to understanding the issue of the glass ceiling, and are the focus of the current research. In this paper, survey results are presented that show the men will often follow the career path of older, successful men while women do not emulate such career paths as closely. The career paths of women, therefore, are more frequently derailed. This is an important consideration in the current study as well, because the question must be asked whether the women who have proven successful as CMOs are those whose career paths emulate those of male CMOs or if they have taken different paths to the position. It is also worth considering whether there is a difference in performance between women with a more traditional "male" career path to the position and those women who take an atypical career path. The current study should lay a foundation for future studies that draw on Wirth's work to answer questions such as these. This paper also supports the idea that the glass ceiling should be eroding, as women are better suited (in general) to open, diverse organizations that emphasize consensus decision making.

Liff and Ward (2001) also present some interesting background study on the nature of the glass ceiling. The authors examine two related concepts. The first is that women do not reject leadership positions but rather they reject the way in which management/leadership is currently organized. This fits in with a trend in the rest of the literature that holds, roughly, that a lot of women do not seek out senior management positions because they are turned off by the way that such work is organized. The second element of Liff and Ward's work is that they feel women are given an understanding of senior management work that turns them off of such positions, whether or not that understanding is founded in reality.

The literature with respect to the glass ceiling repeats the same themes regarding career paths and the nature of senior management work. There appears to be a lower level of compatibility between stereotypically "female" management styles and stereotypically "male" ones. These differences contribute to the gender gap. Based on this analysis, the current study should probably lead to a finding that females who have made it to the CMO position will have experienced a career path very similar to that of males in the same position. If the career path is the same, then that might mean that the outcome of female leadership is not going to be that much different than the outcomes associated with male leadership. The current study therefore makes an important contribution to the body of literature in that it will help to understand if there are career path differences, and whether those career path differences lead to differences in performance.

One of the common themes in the literature regarding the general concept of the glass ceiling is the notion that there are fundamental differences between male and female managerial styles. If there are differences in managerial styles, it would logically flow that there might be differences in the hiring rates of male and female executives. As trends in the desired managerial style change, so too would the rate at which females are employed in senior management roles. Yet, the glass ceiling remains despite the changes and shifts in trends in management over the decades. The differences between the two genders in terms of leadership style, however, are perhaps overstated. Eagly and Johnson (1990) note that in many key areas, there are no significant differences between the management styles of males and females. The one key difference that does exist lies with the female tendency for democratic leadership, while males skew more strongly towards autocratic leadership. In other aspects of leadership, the differences appear to be stereotyped based largely on the characteristics of members of the genders who are not in leadership positions -- those in leadership positions exhibit the same characteristics with regard to interpersonal/task orientation, for example.

Other studies have focused on the differences between the ethics of female marketing executives and their male counterparts. Dawson (1997) explains that there are differences in the ethics of male and female sales managers when there are relationships involved but not when the issue is non-relational. The differences arise because females tend to view ethical dilemmas in terms of relationships and compassion while males tend to derive ethics from a sense of justice, rules and rights. These differences are developed in childhood and remain with the person for life, according to the author. If this is a major point of difference between male and female marketing managers, the implication would be that female marketing managers would ultimately achieve better results in the long run because there would be fewer ethical issues to drag down the firm's profits.

Akaah (1989) also found that female marketing executives exhibit higher ethical standards than do their male counterparts. While the most crushing of ethical scandals typically do not involve marketing, the marketing and sales functions should have a high degree of ethical integrity. Without this integrity, the company can find itself subject to higher costs and of course unethical behavior typically affects the stock price of a company as well.

There are two further threads of research that need to be tied into this study. The first is the literature about marketing executives, the second is the literature about female executives. Naturally, any research about female marketing executives specifically is going to be important.

In terms of the latter, Adler (no date) published a study for the European Union that examined the issue of success of female executives in general. This study came to the conclusion that promoting women into the executive suite had a positive effect on corporate profits. The study provides some insight into the construction of the current study. The Adler study was conducted on 19 years of data and 215 Fortune 500 firms. The 25 firms with the best record of promoting female executives were determined, and the profitability of these firms was compared directly to the profitability of the median Fortune 500 firms in their same industries. Although there are some differences between the specific implementation of the Adler study and the current study, the methodology is similar in identifying firms with female CMOs and comparing their performance against non-female benchmarks. The Adler study lends further support for the hypothesis of the current study that firms with female marketing executives will be more successful.

MacIaran, Stevens and Catterall (1997) are among the authors who have specifically tackled the subject of females in marketing leadership roles. They discuss what they have termed the "glasshouse effect," wherein values traditionally viewed as female as stifled in the workplace. The concept here is that there are horizontal barriers to success in addition to the traditional glass ceiling vertical barrier. When females break through the glass ceiling, the authors contend, they will face barriers to managing in a "female" style. They found support for their theory among females in marketing management roles. This finding is counterintuitive to the hypothesis of the current study because it would suggest that females would struggle in positions of leadership, rather than thrive. Corporate results, therefore, would be worse rather than better. The authors here predicate their research on the notion that there are strong differences between the way that women and men manage, differences that other research has shown to be overstated. To the extent that such differences exist, they can explain elements of the glass ceiling, but would not explain horizontal barriers once a woman enters a senior marketing management position. The research is also dependent on first-hand recollection of experiences, something that is inherently subjective and biased. It can be difficult to determine the precise nature of challenges in a leadership position and ascribe those challenges to gender differences without some form of counterbalancing element in the study. This is unfortunate that the study would have been conducted in this manner, because the authors are providing a reasonable explanation in the event that the hypothesis of the current study is not upheld.

A contributing factor that is being studied directly in the current study is that of education. The objective is to determine what educational background females in marketing management roles possess. One of the reasons for the glass ceiling in some professions is that there is a gender disparity in terms of the education in that field. This is actually the case in marketing as well. Carrel and Schoenbachler (2008) note that only 26% of a study of an MBA marketing program were female, with 74% being male. This sort of imbalance on the educational side would have two implications. The first is that the glass ceiling would be perpetuated, especially in conjunction with the realization that family obligations are keeping 22% of women with higher degrees out of the workforce at any given time (Hewlett, 2002). The pool of potential female marketing executives is much smaller than the pool of male marketing executives, at least when a traditional MBA education is used as a starting point. Another implication of this study, therefore, is that females might find alternate routes to the executive suite. While non-traditional educational and career paths might be more challenging, they are an option for women who wish to pursue a senior management position in marketing at a later point in their career.

Another element of the current study is executive performance. The hypothesis that female CMOs are going to outperform their male counterparts depends in part on understanding the nature of executive performance. On that subject, there are no shortage of opinions, and there are a number of different approaches to analysis in the literature. The first issue is whether executive performance can be detached from outside factors. That is to say, does the performance of the executive matter at all, or is firm performance simply a reflection of broader firm and industry characteristics. This is a valid question for CEOs, much less other executives. A marketing executive, for example, is dependent on factors such as product. If the firm's products go from cutting edge to behind the curve -- such as occurred at a company like Palm for example -- then the performance of the marketing executive is going to have little effect on the performance of the firm. Russell (2000) argues that executive performance (competency) does matter, even when other factors are taken into consideration. It helps, however, when designing a study to find executives in relatively stable firms or industries in order that the influence of external factors is minimized.

Cavusgil and Zou (1994) make the case for the link between marketing strategy and firm success. At the outset of their study, they argue that the case for such a link has been well-established for firms operating domestically, but they proceeded in their paper to show that the same relationship holds for firms operating internationally. Export performance is dependent on three main factors, the authors determined. These are export marketing strategy, the firm's international competence and managerial commitment. The latter and to a certain extent the second factor are both presupposed in the current study, because the firms involved have a longstanding international strategy, or are operating only in the domestic market. This leaves the marketing strategy as a key determinant, so it is reasonable to use firm measures like sales and market share as proxies for the performance of the marketing executive.

The links between the marketing department and firm performance are demonstrated further. Morgan, Vorhies and Mason (2009) show how marketing capabilities through which resources are deployed into the marketplace are key drivers of firm performance, using a cross-industry sample. This means that no matter the industry, the marketing department is critical to success, placing a high level of emphasis on the CMO role in particular for firm performance. Smart and Conant (2011) make the same connection and link marketing, performance and the entrepreneurial mindset. This could make the case that if female marketing executives come from an entrepreneurial background, they could succeed even without following a more traditional career path, something that has been established as holding less appeal to females marketing managers in their career paths.

It is interesting to note that there are a number of dimensions along with the CMO has power, and what that power means for firm profitability. Nath and Mahajan (2011) note that the power of CMOs is not equal among firms. When the CMO has control over the sales function as well, that increases the CMO's power, for example. The authors find that CMOs in firms where the other executives have limited marketing experience are given more power than firms where the other executives do have marketing experience. However, increased CMO power is only a positive for the firm when it has a divisionalized structure. When the firm has a lot of unrelated diversification, CMO power is correlated negatively with growth. This implies that the marketing approach for the firm should be at the product level, rather than the firm level, especially where the products are not related. An example of this might be Pepsi, where the overall marketing executive of the firm should have only a limited amount of power and significant amounts of power should be delegated to product CMOs.

There are even some companies where the CMO role is subsumed into product or geographic roles. The CMO in such companies might not even be included in the top management team, something that obviously indicates that the CMO has less of an effect on the firm's overall performance. The study of CMO power is important to the current study because of the links that are being tested between female CMOs and firm performance. The context of the paper must be understood in that the CMO role is not usually the most powerful in an organization, despite the evidence that suggests that CMO position is of critical importance to the organization's success. Nath and Mahajan (2007) note that there are a number of factors that drive the inclusion or exclusion of the CMO from the top management team. For this paper, CMOs who are a part of the top management team are sought for study, since clearly the credibility of the link between the CMO and the overall organization performance depends on the CMO having a fairly high degree of power within the organization.

Boyd, Chandy and Cunha (2010) make the case to support the idea that CMOs affect firm value. They argue, in support of the other literature, that the relevance of the CMO to firm value depends on the power that the CMO has. Without power, the CMO is not likely to affect firm value, but when given greater discretion within the firm the CMO does frequently have the ability to affect firm value. The authors showed this using stock returns, and the authors focused on a customer power dimension. When customers have more power, this limits the ability of the CMO to affect firm value; when customers have less power, the CMO has greater ability to affect firm value.

Vafeas and Vlittis (2009) showed that the market recognizes that the individual appointed to the CMO post does make a difference to firm value. Their study shows that abnormally high stock returns are recorded on days when a CMO announcement is made under the following conditions: if the new CMO has prior marketing executive experience and if the new CMO explains marketing strategy the same day. Abnormally low returns are noted for other conditions. The findings indicate that the market does not respond to the announcement of a new CMO in a uniform manner, but rather assesses the characteristics of the new CMO and those of the firm as well. That the CMO's characteristics are taken into consideration by the market is an indicator that there is a link between the CMO and firm performance, and that the market recognizes this link. Arguably, the link is stronger in some firms than in others, again supporting the findings of other research that makes the same conclusions. What this body of literature shows, however, is that it is perfectly reasonable to use firm performance as a proxy for CMO performance, as this is supported both in academic literature and by the market itself.

Section III: Methodology

A number of different methods will be used for the research gathering in this project. The first method will involve a study of the literature. A full literature review has been conducted, covering a number of the different areas that are critical to this study. The topics covered are the glass ceiling in general, issues pertaining to the performance and background of female executives, and issues pertaining to the measurement of CMO performance. The results of the literature review have formed the basis and justification for the current study. Most of the literature review comes from academic journals searched via Google Scholar, using journals that are available in full text.

Another component of the research is to search for the biographies of female marketing executives. For this component of the paper, five female marketing executives are identified, and their biographies searched. The key elements of these biographies are explanations of their career paths with respect to their prior work before becoming a CMO, and their educational background. These will be contrasted with the backgrounds of five male CMOs. The males will be a control group, and the group of females will be scanned for differences in their backgrounds. It is expected that there are no significant differences in the backgrounds of female marketing executives -- it is not expected that there will be differences among executives who have broken through the glass ceiling.

Another component of the research will be to examine annual reports and financial information to determine whether or not firms that have female CMOs have been more successful than before. Revenue will be the key measure, as this is the function that is most affected by the marketing executive. It is hoped that the CMOs in question are going to be from firms where they have high levels of power, if five female CMOs can be found from firms that meet that description. Again, conclusions will be drawn from this sampling of data with respect to the performance of female CMOs vs. their male counterparts. For this study, the performance of the five female CMOs will be measured against the performance of five male CMOs in the same industry, or against the performance of the same company under a male CMO.

The biographies of top executives are often found on corporate websites, or in annual reports. When possible, these sources of information were utilized. Other potential sources of this information include information aggregators such as Forbes, which hosts executive profiles on its website. Press releases often outline career paths of newly-hired executives. In addition, for all of the CMOs in the survey, the time frame for his or her employment needs to be ascertained. This was done using announcements of hiring and departures, which are commonly published for members of senior management teams at public corporations.

Firm performance information mostly came from annual reports. For the subsidiary (Gatorade) the figures were extrapolated loosely from graphs. For some other figures, press releases were utilized that announced sales figures. The time period for measurement was dictated by the female CMO's term of employment, so that the time period was comparable. In one instance, the two eBay CMOs, the female CMO's predecessor was used and this resulted in a longer time period of study. The key to this form of analysis is that the female CMO should have seen stronger performance than her male predecessor in order to be seen as successful -- one always wants to best an outgoing executive in order to justify the firm's faith in the hiring decision.

There are several outcomes that are expected from this study. The first such outcome is that women's skills at collaboration and communication, which are formed early in life and do not change much into adulthood, will emerge as a primary success factor in their ascension to CMO roles in organizations. It is also expected that the skills women bring to their roles will be transferable across industries.

There was originally to be an interview component to the study, wherein female CMOs would be interviewed for their experiences. This component of the study was scrapped for two reasons. The first is that it proved to be unfeasible, and was a third line of study. With the project already encompassing two distinct components, any additional components would have to be justified with considerable value added and it was felt that this was not the case with the interviews. Additionally, there were studies uncovered in the literature review where such interviews were conducted, so it was determined that new interviews would not have a high value relative to the other elements of the current study.

It is expected that the outcome of the current study is going to show that females in senior marketing positions arrive at those positions largely through the same career paths as males in those positions, and that female marketing executives deliver superior performance over time.

Section IV: The Data

The first CMO profiled is Sarah Robb O'Hagan, the CMO at Gatorade, a billion-dollar unit within PepsiCo. Her educational background begins with the Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Auckland, after which she began her career. She entered marketing management within two years at Air New Zealand, moving into directorship positions shortly thereafter. Ms. O'Hagan became a regional marketing director for Atari and then Nike, both positions in the U.S., and then became General Manager, U.S. Western region for Nike. She held positions for only 2-3 years on average prior to her appointment to the Gatorade post. Her career path includes no MBA, but does feature a rapid progression with a number of different companies. Ms. O'Hagan was promoted in May 2012 to become the President of the Gatorade Group, after spending four years as CMO for the group.

Prior to Ms. O'Hagan's appointment as CMO of Gatorade, brand revenues were around $7 billion and the brand was facing low single-digit growth. As of the 2011 Annual Report, having gone through a recession, Gatorade remained between $6.5 and $7.0 billion dollars in revenue, but Gatorade in the 2011 fiscal year recorded double digit growth in the key North American market. Ms. O'Hagan's promotion to CEO of Gatorade is also an indication that the company views her tenure as CMO as adding significant value to the organization.

The second CMO profiled is Mary Dillon, who served as CMO for McDonalds prior to joining U.S. Cellular as CEO in 2010. Ms. Dillon signed on as CMO for McDonalds in 2005. Prior to joining McDonalds, Ms. Dillon had worked for PepsiCo and was President of the Quaker Foods division as part of her experience there. Ms. Dillon has a Bachelor's degree in Marketing and Asian Studies from the University of Illinois at Chicago.

McDonald's in 2005 recorded revenues of $14.726 billion and these had grown 7% in that year. The company's revenues grew to $16 billion in 2006, a jump of 9.2% and then leapt 41.6% in FY 2007. However, after that point the company's revenues stagnated and by the end of fiscal 2009 were just $22.744, lower than the 2007 level. The annualized return was around 8.8% per year, slightly higher than what the company was experiencing prior to Ms. Dillon's appointment.

The third CMO profiled is Clair Sheikh, who is the global brand director for Vodafone, one of the world's largest mobile communications company. Although not holding the title of CMO, there is no CMO title at Vodafone and Ms. Sheikh is the top marketing person. Ms. Sheikh has a steady career of progressive marketing positions. Prior to joining Vodafone, she worked for Alliance Trust, and prior to that at iTV, a major UK television network. The Vodafone position is her first at the top marketing executive. Her educational background includes a bachelor's degree from the University of Cambridge. She has been in the position for a little under one year. During her tenure, sales have been decreasing in U.S. dollar terms. In the six months preceding 2011 Q4, the company had revenues of $23.281 billion, increasing to $23.5 billion in Q2 of 2012 for the six months prior. For the six months ended at the end of Q4 FY2012, the company's sales were $22.897 billion.

The fourth CMO to be profiled is Richelle Parham, the CMO of eBay North America (the vast majority of the company's revenues). Ms. Parham has two Bachelor's degrees, one a BA in design and merchandising, the other a Bachelor of Business Administration in marketing, both from Drexel University. Ms. Parham's career path included working at Visa as the head of global marketing and work for 13 years at a marketing consulting company. Ms. Parham joined eBay in the fall of 2010.

Since she joined eBay, Ms. Parham has guided the company to increasing revenues. These were $2.5 billion in Q1 of 2011, and increased each quarter throughout that year. While there was a dip in Q1 of 2012, that quarter was up 28.7% on a year-over-year basis. Thus, there has been some success for the company since Ms. Parham's arrival in 2010.

The fifth CMO to be profiled is Deborah Conrad, CMO of Intel. Ms. Conrad joined Intel in 1986 in the PR department, later working in marketing in the Asia Pacific division. She enjoyed a progressive career at Intel, including work on Team Apple, which she created and directed. She was named to the CMO post in 2008, after 22 years with the company. She has a Bachelor of Science from Indiana State University.

Since she was name to the CMO post, Intel has seen varying levels of success. The company's revenues declined in 2008 and 2009, but have since recovered, so that the company has on average gained 10.2% per annum since Ms. Conrad was appointed to the CMO post.

There are five male CMOs that are included as the control group. The first is Joseph Tripodi from Coca-Cola. He is an experienced marketer with a background in a number of different industries. He has an M.Sc. In Management from the London School of Economics and a BA in Economics from Harvard College. Since 2008, Coca-Cola's group revenues have increased 11.4% per year on average. The second is Craig Bahner, CMO of Wendy's. Mr. Bahner has a B.BA from Ohio State and spent many years working at Procter & Gamble in marketing. In the 2005-2010 period, sales went from $2.4 billion to $2.3 billion, a decline during that period (figures for the Wendy's brand only).

The third male CMO included in the study group is Bill Malloy of Sprint. He has worked extensively in the wireless business in both marketing and operations. He has an MBA from the Kellogg Management Institute. His company has seen sales increase 5% in the past five quarters. The fourth male CMO included in the study group is Gary Briggs, who was the former CMO for eBay prior to Ms. Parham. In the years preceding Ms. Parham, Mr. Briggs guided the company to sales increases averaging 6.4%. The fifth male CMO in the study group is Nigel Dessau, the former CMO at AMD, the closest competitor to Intel. He was replaced December 2011. He had joined the company in 2008 after fulfilling a similar role at other companies in the Silicon Valley. His educational background is not known. During his tenure, AMD sales increased an average of 3.6%.

The first area where the two groups will be examined is in the educational background. As predicted, there are some differences between the two groups with respect to their educations. Two of the men had Master's degrees in the small sample size, while only one of the females held a Master's degree. The men in the survey were in general older (in their fifties) while the women were younger (thirties and forties). Most of the CMOs in the survey were educated in marketing. Among all respondents, there was some variance in the quality of the school as well, with only a handful of respondents attending what would be considered top business schools.

It was expected that the level of educational attainment would be somewhat divergent based on the literature that held that males tended to follow the career paths of other successful male executives, while females sometimes followed unconventional career paths. The study findings support the literature in this respect, because the males in the survey were more likely to obtain a Master's degree as part of their career progression, while the females were more likely to use their Bachelor's degree combined with work experience to achieve their CMO position.

With respect to the work experiences, it was expected on the basis of the literature that there would be some differences between the two groups as well. This appeared to be the case, based on the survey groups. The typical male CMO is older than the female CMOs in the survey. This implies that the CMO is more of a final position for these male marketing professionals. Indeed, the one male who is no longer in his CMO position is now a consultant. This compares with the female CMO group. Among that group, two have left their CMO positions to be promoted to higher roles within their companies. This, combined with the younger age of the female CMOs, shows for female marketing executives the CMO post is more likely to be a stepping stone, compared with male marketing executives.

The stepping stone finding was not touched upon in the literature. While the literature review noted that the career paths for male and female executives differ, it was not expected that this would affect the career paths of male and female CMOs in particular. Yet, the findings of the survey indicate that there is a significant difference. Younger female marketing executives are more likely to be seen as rising stars within their organizations.

In common with both males and females in the survey was that they tended to have careers focused strictly on progressive marketing positions. Only one of the ten CMOs in the survey had significant experience outside of the marketing context prior to taking the CMO position. It was worth noting, however, that most of the CMOs had not served in that capacity before their most recent appointment. This held true for both CMOs with extensive experience in their current company and for those who came to the CMO role from another company. In general, CMO is a role that a person is promoted into, and there is little lateral movement.

The next section of the study is to evaluate the success of female and male CMOs. This section proved more difficult for a couple of reasons. The main reason, however, is that none of the CMOs surveyed were members of the top management team. The literature suggested that there are limits to the effect of a CMO on firm performance, but that CMOs who are part of the top management team are more likely to have a direct and attributable effect on organizational performance. However, it is actually uncommon for the CMO to be a part of the organization's top management team. In only one instance, Bill Malloy at Sprint Nextel, was the CMO a part of the top management team. The literature also noted that the CMO's influence would be stronger if he or she had more power within the organization, including over the sales function. Sprint Nextel has a Chief Sale Officer in addition to a Chief Marketing Officer, indicating that even Mr. Malloy is going to have a relatively low level of impact on the firm's overall sales performance.

Those limitations notwithstanding, the results of the survey show the following. Ms. Conrad did not perform as well at Gatorade as Mr. Tripodi did at Coca-Cola over an equivalent period. However, this finding is tempered by the fact that PepsiCo was sufficiently impressed with Ms. Conrad's performance to promote her to CEO of Gatorade. Ms. Dillon outperformed Mr. Bahner over the study period. Mr. Malloy outperformed Ms. Sheikh over the study period. Ms. Parham has outperformed Mr. Briggs; and Ms. Conrad has outperformed Mr. Dessau. Thus, in three of the five pairings studies, the female CMO outperformed her male counterpart and in one of the other pairings the female's performance was enough to earn her promotion to CEO of the same unit.

These findings constitute somewhat tenuous support for the hypothesis that female CMOs outperform male CMOs. None of the CMOs studied could be said to have enough power in their respective organizations to take credit for the successes and failures of their organizations in generating revenues. Thus, the findings are only of limited value. However, there is certainly no evidence to suggest that females are not fully capable of performing well as CMOs. Firms on both sides of the gender ledger performed well, and firms on both sides of the gender ledger struggled. The fact that two of the females performed well enough to earn promotions is a strong side that their contributions were valued.

Section V: Analysis of the Data

There were two main research questions addressed with this data. The first of these questions concerned the background of the typical female CMO. The hypothesis, based on the literature, is that there should be a difference between the career path for a female CMO vs. that of a male CMO. The survey showed this to be the case. Female CMOs are atypical among executive ranks in that their educational background does not usually include an MBA or M.Sc. In Business. Male CMOs, by contrast, frequently have such academic qualifications.

While both male and female CMOs have arrived in the position on the strength of progressive careers in marketing, the females tend to arrive more quickly and often they started lower on the corporate ladder as well. This illustrates two interesting findings. The first is that female do face some barriers to success early in their careers, but it also illustrates that the CMO post is more likely to be a progressive position for a female executive compared with a male executive. Therefore, they are more likely to be promoted into the CMO role early, and will build on that role to a more advanced managerial role following time spent as CMO.

The data also supports the idea, albeit weakly, that female CMOs outperform their male counterparts. Certainly, that was the case among the survey group. It is worth noting that this was expected. However, there can be no attribution from the current study as to why this is the case. The literature supports the idea that in certain specific respects there are differences between males and females with respect to leadership styles, and it has been theorized that these differences might make female CMOs more effective. However, the leadership styles of the different CMOs in the two survey groups was not known, and therefore leadership styles of the different executives cannot be assumed. Thus, no specific reason can be given for the outperformance.

The outperformance must also be tempered by the realization that CMOs have a limited effect on firm performance in most circumstances. While the literature recognizes that there are certain situations where the CMO does have the power to impact overall firm performance, few firms give the CMO enough power to have such an impact. As a result, even though the results of this survey are encouraging, they must be tempered by the realization that the CMOs in these instances likely did not have enough power to have a strong impact on firm performance anyway. The performance of these firms is likely due to other factors, and it would be difficult indeed to eliminate these other factors from consideration.

If the specific firms involved are taken into consideration, the results looks fairly reasonable. Coca-Cola is a stronger company and brand than PepsiCo or the Gatorade subsidiary. Intel is a stronger company than AMD. eBay's marketing performance should have increased with the hiring of a new CMO, especially since the previous CMO had become stale in the role. McDonalds is a superior company is most respects to Wendy's. Sprint Nextel has outperformed Vodafone, which is a fairly tired brand that has struggled in overseas markets vs. The superheated American wireless telecom market. In general, the results comparing these different executives are fairly predictable based on the companies involved and the situations in question.

Section VI: Summary, Conclusions and Recommendations

The current study was formulated around the issue of the glass ceiling and the performance of female Chief Marketing Officers. The glass ceiling phenomenon has been well-documented, with most literature dedicated to understanding the nature of the phenomenon, documenting its destructiveness and to finding ways to demonstrate its failure as corporate and economic policy. One of the ways in which the glass ceiling manifests is in the different career paths that females often take and how those are often not given the same credence as the more conventional career paths that males follow. This concept led to the first research question, which asked "what academic background contributes most to a woman's ascension to a CMO or VP Marketing position?"