No battle between logic and magic: Forging CMO-CFO power alliances

Traditionally marketing and finance have worked in silos. They were separate entities. Some would go as far as to call them frenemies. But recent trends have seen the collaboration of Chief Marketing Officers (CMOs) and Chief Financial Officers (CFOs) reshaping brands and businesses. The dynamic alliance between CMOs and CFOs can have a profound effect in today’s world. The partnership has emerged as a game changing force driving success and growth.

In a conversation with Storyboard18’s Delshad Irani, Shubhranshu Singh, vice president, marketing - domestic & IB, CVBU and GV Ramanan, vice president - finance & group controller at Tata Motors discuss these two functions from a historic lens and also share insights on how the two functions can collaborate together for business growth. Ramanan states, “Finance always thought marketing to be a budget guzzler and marketing always thought finance never understood what a brand means. Over the years, both these functions are able to find a common ground. Both these functions are enablers, they have to enable the profitable growth of the business.”

Singh says that the partnership between both functions has been stereotyped as the battle between logic and magic, between creativity and number crunching but if logical creativity and creative logic can be hybridised, then one come to a meeting point.

Ramanan shares his views on forging alliance between a CMO and CFO. He says, “:An individual needs to be secure at heart. He should be clear about what competency he brings to the table. Shubhranshu and me can never replace each other. Each of us have our core strengths. But the focus should be on how we collaborate with each other for the best of the company. Self-awareness and security needs to be there for this chemistry to work.”

Ramanan highlights that the engagement between both the functions has been collaborative and in a problem solving mode with the right partnerships and right expertise.

Singh addresses how the partnership between him and Ramanan has led to business growth and shares, “We are trying to address segments, richness of content to showcase technical facets and feature unique to Tata Motors. And we want all of this to funnel up to the mother brand to give it greater strength and momentum.” and adds, “In the last year when Ramanan and I have partnered actively, we digitally pushed sales, tried influencer marketing- , experimented on scale and ensured there was necessary investment happening so that it can come to fruition. This is why the partnership is an important one. “