<div class="gn-article"><div class="gn-hero gn-reveal"> <div class="gn-hero__image"><img src="https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/687a235da6861294eec73166/69fa70f0e1d583e7d1f6f391_secret-diary-cmo-68ac706cd1365021018088.jpeg" alt=""></div> <div class="gn-hero__head"> <span class="gn-kicker"><span class="dot"></span>Expression</span> <h1 class="gn-title">The Secret Diary of a CMO Entry 002: The Theatre of Influence</h1> <div class="gn-meta"> <strong>The GO Network</strong> <span class="pip"></span> <span>1 September 2025</span> <span class="pip"></span> <span>4 min read</span> </div> </div> </div> <div class="gn-body"> <p class="gn-lede gn-reveal">I walked into the executive meeting last Tuesday (the one meeting these days which is always face to face with my colleagues in the UK) with two decks, one in my hand and one in my head.</p> <p class="gn-reveal"><em><span style="color: rgb(69, 172, 98)">w/c 1st September 2025</span></em></p> <p class="gn-reveal">The printed one had data, charts, forecasts, and various bullet points that I was prep'd to present and defend if asked too. The mental one was less formal. A list of topics I wanted to push if the room felt open enough.</p> <p class="gn-reveal">Everyone shuffles in five minutes early, sits in the same seat they always do, greets each other with half-smiles that mean "I'm listening but not really".</p> <p class="gn-reveal">This one was billed as a strategic review of our five-year growth plan. Everyone arrived knowing it would be a budget meeting in disguise.</p> <p class="gn-reveal">The first hour was all about context. Macro pressures, market volatility, competitive repositioning.</p> <p class="gn-reveal">The COO spoke in terms of operational efficiency.</p> <p class="gn-reveal">The Finance Director asked why we hadn't accelerated SKU rationalisation.</p> <p class="gn-reveal">The new Group Strategy Lead walked us through a five-pillar framework I had never seen before, but which apparently we were now rallying around.</p> <p class="gn-reveal">A colleague I've worked with for over 8 years now, looked at me and said "And the Marketing perspective?"</p> <p class="gn-reveal">Not my name. Not, "Let's bring [me] in." Just, marketing perspective?</p> <p class="gn-reveal">One moment you're half-reading a side chart about projected cost savings from procurement synergies in EMEA, and the next you're being asked to make the case for brand investment to a room that already wants to cut spend.</p> <p class="gn-reveal">I believe I answered clearly. Framed the opportunity. Emphasised consistency. I mentioned long-term equity and the need to resist panic reactions in somewhat unstable trading periods. I knew they wouldn't agree, but I also knew they'd listen if I didn't sound defensive.</p> <p class="gn-reveal">Most nodded, moved on, and the next twenty minutes were spent debating whether we could delay creative development on a category we'd just labelled as "growth-critical".</p> <p class="gn-reveal">I start this, my second entry of this secret blog, by highlighting this somewhat mundane meeting simply to demonstrate that this is the game.</p> <h2 class="gn-reveal">Being There and Being Heard</h2> <p class="gn-reveal">Marketing is in the room. I have a seat. I get the invites, I get the pre-reads, I even get looped in early on some of the commercial scenarios. But being there and being heard are not the same thing.</p> <p class="gn-reveal">And yet, I'm not marginalised, far from it. I know my voice carries weight.</p> <p class="gn-reveal">I'm a core part of the leadership team, and there are weeks where I lead from the front, steering turnaround plans, shaping brand architecture, or unlocking media budget by reframing business cases in a way that lands with the CFO. I've helped avert more than one bad decision with a well-timed intervention.</p> <p class="gn-reveal">But influence isn't uniform. It moves. Some days, marketing drives the room. Some days, we get wheeled in at the end to add colour to a plan that's already locked in. The inconsistency is, to put it lightly, testing.</p> <p class="gn-reveal">Let's not be dramatic, it's not rejection. It's ambiguity.</p> <h2 class="gn-reveal">The Global Complexity</h2> <p class="gn-reveal">What makes it harder is the cultural context. We're global. We operate in 80+ markets. Which means every conversation is shaped by a dozen competing philosophies.</p> <p class="gn-reveal">In North America, the expectation is aggressive growth and clear commercial ROI. In parts of Europe, brand equity still carries board-level prestige. In Asia, the relationship with retail partners takes on an entirely different meaning.</p> <p class="gn-reveal">I've seen the same global campaign template provoke applause in one region and confusion in another. I've seen local market leads nod through a meeting and then quietly do the opposite. Influence, in a business like this, isn't just about power. It's about translation.</p> <aside class="gn-quote gn-reveal"><q>Influence, in a business like this, isn't just about power. It's about translation.</q><cite>The Secret CMO</cite></aside> <h2 class="gn-reveal">The Theatre</h2> <p class="gn-reveal">At one point, someone suggested that we bring in one of our global retail partners "to co-create the next campaign and drive value through collaboration." It was said confidently. It sounded progressive and everyone nodded.</p> <p class="gn-reveal">No one asked what that actually meant.</p> <p class="gn-reveal">We won't co-create anything. We'll send them a media plan, they'll ask for free space, and we'll settle somewhere between compromised and disappointed. But it sounded good in the room, so it stayed in the minutes.</p> <p class="gn-reveal">What frustrates me isn't the lack of understanding. It's the theatre. We pretend things are agreed, nod at frameworks no one truly understands and then we commit to pilots we won't fund.</p> <p class="gn-reveal">And then three months later, someone asks why marketing didn't deliver on the thing we all quietly knew was never going to happen.</p> <p class="gn-reveal">To give a bit of background, I've had moments of real influence here. Only recently we ran a repositioning campaign that almost certainly saved a category from being axed.</p> <p class="gn-reveal">But those moments are rare.</p> <h2 class="gn-reveal">The Psychological Choreography</h2> <p class="gn-reveal">No one prepares you for the politics of this role. Not in the textbook way, but in the real way. The psychological choreography. The calibration of tone. The need to be persuasive without being passionate, confident without being emotional, direct without being difficult.</p> <p class="gn-reveal">And underneath it all, the constant question: do they actually want to hear what I think, or do they want me to say the thing that helps them move on?</p> <p class="gn-reveal">I know what my team thinks. They see me in these meetings, then hear later that the budget was cut, and they don't always connect the dots. I presume they think I didn't fight hard enough, when often it is simply that I chose not to die on this hill.</p> <p class="gn-reveal">Because sometimes, leadership is knowing which losses you can absorb, and which ones would take too much with them.</p> <p class="gn-reveal">I often remind myself that influence is never permanent. It's earned in small moments, not big meetings.</p> <p class="gn-reveal"><strong><span style="color: rgb(69, 172, 98)">The Secret CMO</span></strong></p> </div></div>