CMOs need to unlearn departmentalitis and expertitis: Shubhranshu Singh

New Delhi: Once upon a time, a chief marketing officer (CMO) was perceived as a storyteller-in-chief or a brand custodian with a seat near the decision-making table. 

Today, in the face of generative AI, martech stack overload, and the decision-making table expecting growth and accountability, the role of CMO is undergoing one of the most significant overhauls in the corporate world of our country. 

In most corporate functions - finance, manufacturing, legal, or even HR - the basic contours of the role haven’t changed drastically over the last few decades. But marketing? That’s a different story altogether.

The CMO of today is expected to evolve into a much more complex figure - part business strategist, part technologist, part data scientist, and part manager.

This layered transformation is not just theoretical. It is happening as you are reading this article. To understand this shifting landscape, we bring to you an exclusive conversation with Shubhranshu Singh, Chief Marketing Officer (CVBU), Tata Motors.

In this exclusive chat with BestMediaInfo.com, Singh spoke at length about the pressures and priorities reshaping the modern CMO brief. And why being a deep generalist may now be more important than ever than being a creative visionary.  

From calendars to moments

At the heart of this transformation lies the smartphone. Singh pointed at the disruptive impact not just as a media channel but as a behaviour shaper. 

“Today, there are almost 5 billion smartphones in the world. And anyone with a smartphone is a walking, talking production house, content curator, and influencer, and can access information frictionlessly,” he noted. 

The CMO used to be the poster child of brand campaigns. Now, that’s only one slice of the job.  Singh said, explaining how the marketing function is no longer defined by communication outputs but by its ability to connect marketing levers to business results in real time.

“CMOs today need a steep learning curve in digital technologies, ad tech, martech, and now, artificial intelligence. 

Machine learning has been around, but large language models with human-like interfaces are a very recent phenomenon, and have scaled up so fast that most of the agency-client ecosystem is still not fully prepared for it,” said Singh. 

From narrative building to narrative shaping

Singh reminisced about the broadcast era when brands controlled the message and the audience passively consumed it. But now, as Singh mentioned, the dynamic is completely different. 

“My own son won’t order a pizza without first checking with his friends on social media or reading reviews. Consumers want to learn from people like themselves.”  This, Singh said, is a huge shift, where the industry has moved from a closed and controlled model to one that is open, participative, and always on. 

This is also reflected in the nature of the content. “It used to be big, infrequent, and broadcast. You waited for a hit show, a hit movie, or a hit campaign. Now, content is small, social, and always on,” Singh stated. 

Tying it all together, Singh conveyed, “Earlier, when a CMO went to sleep, the market paused. Today, when a CMO sleeps, the marketing cloud is still awake. It’s live, it’s dynamic, and it never shuts down.” 

Pressure and pictures

With so much flux, the margin for error is shrinking. “It is a well-known fact that globally, the tenure of CMOs - their ability to succeed or leave behind a legacy - is under pressure,” Singh observed.

To stay ahead, Singh credits curiosity and mental agility. “By nature, I’m a curious person. I read, write, clarify concepts, meet subject experts,” he said.

But he was also quick to warn that technical knowledge alone isn’t enough. Painting a picture, he said, “Everyone has access to information. Once you know how to do something, finding someone to do it with is easy. But knowing why you’re doing something, that clarity of purpose, is still hard.”

He used a vivid metaphor to explain how marketing functions today. “Remember those comic books where you joined numbered dots to form a picture? Marketing today is a bit like that. There are a number of moving, dynamic touchpoints. You keep connecting, keep iterating; only then does the form emerge,” he explained. 

This approach - creative but iterative, reactive but data-driven - is now the core of how brand thinking must evolve. And that means letting go of some of the industry's most persistent bad habits.

Time to unlearn

Singh quipped that the CMOs of today may be suffering from two diseases - Departmentalitis and expertitis.

What Singh explained with these two (not real) diseases is that CMOs have a mindset where they believe that only their department knows the ins and outs, and with that comes the sense that what they know is right. 

This is the first thing that Singh stated CMOs need to unlearn. 

The second issue is the loss of what he calls the “common touch.” As marketers move up the ranks, Singh observed, they often lose real consumer empathy. 

“They stop riding trains, stop speaking local languages, stop experiencing how real consumers live. They sit in air-conditioned offices, meet fancy agencies, and drive around in SUVs,” he said. 

That distance, he argued, is fatal to brand relevance. “You need to be out in the world. Experience life like a normal consumer,” he suggested. 

The third - and perhaps most dangerous - trap is the illusion that hierarchy brings insight. “Hierarchy is of no use in marketing,” Singh said bluntly. “Ideas don’t recognise job titles. And when it comes to tech, younger people are digital natives. You learn by listening to them,” said Singh. 

Singh shared that he often listens to his own 16-year-old son while watching IPL matches. “He always has opinions on ads. I pay attention. That’s what his generation is thinking,” Singh told BestMediaInfo.com.  

Concluding his thoughts, Singh said, “Stay curious. Step outside the boardroom. Don’t wear the marketer’s hat all the time; be a regular consumer, walk in their shoes, and observe the world as they see it.

Marketing today is not just a discipline. It’s an evolving ecosystem. And the only way to stay relevant is to stop trying to control it - and start learning from it.”