Coca-Cola and the decline of the chief growth officer
As Coca-Cola gets rid of the chief growth officer in favour of a CMO, are we now likely to see other companies follow suit?
By Sarah Vizard
Think back three years and chief growth officer was the hot job title on many FCMG companies’ lips.
This new role was popping up all over the place, from Mondelez to Coty, Colgate-Palmolive to Kellogg’s. Where before marketers had been focused just on marketing, now, or so the theory went, they would be focused on growth.
Coca-Cola’s appointment of a chief growth officer in 2017 only added fuel to the fire. For where Coca-Cola goes, others in the marketing industry all too often follow. The appointment of Francisco Crespo to a job that combined marketing with customer and commercial seemed the natural evolution of the top marketer. Soon after, Mars and Johnson & Johnson too jumped on the growth bandwagon.
Yet Coca-Cola has just jumped off. Crespo is retiring and his replacement will be, wait for it, a CMO.
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