And whether leaders admit it or not, the health of that reality shows up everywhere: your reputation, the client experience, the pace of decision-making, how well teams collaborate, and ultimately, whether the business grows.

Here’s the part most organizations miss:

Culture is business infrastructure, not decoration.

You don’t create culture.

You reveal it through the choices you make.

Companies rely on CMOs to operate across functions — influencing product, brand, sales, communications, culture and customer experience — but still judge them by marketing-owned metrics. The result is a role that is critical to the business but often treated like a cost center instead of a growth lever.

This is the shift modern CMOs are navigating.

They are no longer simply driving campaigns. They are shaping how the company operates. They influence alignment, expectations and decisions across the business. They integrate how the brand shows up with how the business performs. Their value is structural. Their impact is cross-functional. Their work is commercial. But the measurement model hasn’t caught up.