TODAY’S CMO IS THE CHIEF ORCHESTRATOR OF INNOVATION AND OPERATIONAL EXCELLENCE

NIKHIL DUDWADKAR
Head of Marketing, India, Kaspersky

“Traditional marketing focuses on activities like event management, email marketing, and webinar operations, primarily middle and lower funnel efforts. Today, my role has evolved into strategic leadership where the focus lies on brand and thought leadership, demand generation, and customer engagement at the upper funnel. This includes leading Product Marketing, running Account-Based Marketing (ABM) workshops with large enterprise clients, developing case studies, and overseeing campaign strategy. Instead of a one-size-fits-all promotional approach, the goal is now long-term value creation with strategic products tailored to B2B enterprise audiences, and talking points are now more business-outcome driven than just features and benefits.

Marketing’s role today extends well beyond just generating leads; it’s now a direct contributor to business revenue.
The top three metrics we track are -
•    Revenue and Pipeline Contribution: Measures how marketing efforts convert into actual sales and future opportunities.
•    Campaign Performance (Demand Gen): Assesses how different campaigns perform in driving interest and engagement across the funnel.
•    Operational Efficiency Metrics: Includes budget spend effectiveness, campaign ROI, and improvements in the marketing cycle time.

Future role of CMOs

The CMO’s future is rooted in being the chief orchestrator of innovation and operational excellence. Beyond representing the voice of the customer, CMOs must now act as connectors between innovation, growth, and execution. They play a critical role in aligning marketing with product, sales, and customer success teams to ensure agile responses to market needs. As digital disruption continues, CMOs will lead organizations in staying competitive, customer-centric, and forward-thinking.”