Making Marketing Matter: The Skills You Need According to Spencer Stuart’s Jerry Noonan

After 20 years in consumer marketing with such companies as Frito-Lay, Polaroid, 1-800-Flowers and Nabisco (where he held the proud title of VP of Cookies!), Jerry Noonan helped open the Boston office of Spencer Stuart, one of the world's leading executive search firms. (It has 52 offices in 25 countries.)

In his work as executive search consultant, Jerry has helped many types of organizations fill senior-level marketing positions. In a paper he wrote, called “Marketing Leadership—Good vs. Great,” Jerry outlines the critical skills that marketers need to have to build equity within their organizations.

Recently, we talked about what he sees as the unique value that marketing brings to organizations and the ways that marketing is changing.

Young: I understand the economy is picking up and the outlook for marketing is brighter than it was a year ago or so. What are your clients looking for now?

Noonan: There's no simple answer to the question. Yes, I think overall business is picking up, although we as a firm have been growing for more than a year now. But increasingly complex and demanding marketplaces, competitive dynamics, change in channel, pressures, and dynamics, etc. are making marketing jobs more complicated.

As such, people who have had good careers often reach a plateau in their ability to keep up with the demands of the role. Also, information is more available, analytical rigor is more important, investments are more carefully scrutinized.

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