By William Koleszar, Chief Marketing Officer at American Family Care and Senior Research Fellow at The CMO Institute
When the Playbook Falls Behind the Pace of Change
The marketing function is undergoing its most rapid transformation in history. Artificial intelligence, predictive analytics, hyper-personalization, and automation are reshaping not only how we reach customers but how we understand them. Meanwhile, consumer expectations are being shaped by brands like Netflix, Amazon, and TikTok, regardless of your industry.
The result? The half-life of marketing knowledge is shrinking. Mastery of yesterday’s best practices is no longer enough. Today’s marketing leaders must become intentional students again—curious, open-minded, and unafraid to unlearn.
Bridging the Learning Gaps
This accelerated pace of change has created meaningful learning gaps, especially in areas like marketing technology and AI. According to a recent survey by Marketing Week, over 80% of CMOs acknowledged a significant skills gap related to artificial intelligence within their organizations. And this isn’t just about tools and tactics; it’s about strategic fluency.
The truth is, the skills most marketing leaders developed in business school or early in their careers don’t prepare them for the complexity of today’s C-suite. Modern CMOs must go far beyond marketing mastery. They need fluency in technology, financial modeling, organizational design, and enterprise strategy to be credible at the highest levels.
Why Don’t More Marketing Leaders Prioritize Lifelong Learning?
Despite the stakes, many CMOs still fail to invest meaningfully in their own development. The reasons are understandable: packed calendars, daily pressure to deliver results, and aggressive monthly KPIs often crowd out time for reflection, let alone structured learning. A compounding factor is that knowledge obsolescence occurs over an extended period and is often imperceptible. Executives don’t realize they’re losing their edge because it happens gradually, in real time.
There’s also the “expert trap”—the perception that senior executives should have the answers. In many organizations, admitting you’re still learning can feel like a liability. But the reality is, the most respected leaders aren’t the ones who know everything—they’re the ones who are actively seeking what they don’t know. They ask better questions. And they never stop growing.
The Habits of Learning-Centric Marketing Leaders
The most successful CMOs treat learning as a strategic advantage and embed it into their daily routine. In their 2019 Harvard Business Review article “Making Learning a Part of Everyday Work,” Josh Bersin and Marc Zao-Sanders highlight that fast-paced technological change (e.g., AI, automation) demands real-time skill development, not just periodic forays into learning.
Learning-centric marketing leaders also build personal learning ecosystems—subscribing to podcasts, participating in curated peer groups, attending executive education programs, and testing new technologies. They view learning not as remedial, but as essential. In their Harvard Business Review article “The Future of Leadership Development,” Mihnea Moldoveanu and Das Narayandas advocate this very approach: “Traditional leadership development programs are no longer sufficient; leaders need a personal learning cloud—flexible, personalized, and always on.”
Building the Infrastructure for Growth
Given these realities, marketing leaders should intentionally design their own learning journeys and advocate for their teams to do the same. That means budgeting time and resources for development. It may also mean forming strategic partnerships with universities, associations, or think tanks (e.g., Gartner, Forrester) to access fresh ideas and develop emerging capabilities.
That realization motivated me to create The Chief Marketing Officer Institute’s Executive Development Program (EDP). In partnership with the University of Alabama at Birmingham, the EDP is an 8-part certificate course designed to help CMOs—and other aspiring marketing leaders—close knowledge gaps in areas critical to success, such as strategy, marketing technology, and finance, all from a C-suite perspective. Hire Profile is partnering with us to reach out and offer this opportunity to their deep network of Atlanta marketing executives.
Beyond the highly curated curriculum, each of the eight sessions in the program features a world-class guest speaker whom participants can learn from firsthand. Past speakers include visiting professors from Harvard, Columbia, and Georgia Tech, as well as C-suite executives from UPS, Chick-fil-A, and Topgolf, among others.
Even though I facilitate the program from the front of the classroom, being surrounded by 30 marketing leaders with diverse perspectives, engaging with prominent guest speakers, and continuously updating the curriculum forces me to stay sharp, well beyond my own innate interest in lifelong learning.
Lifelong Learning Avenues to Consider
In closing, I would argue that the future of marketing leadership won’t be shaped by those who knew the most—it will be shaped by those who learned the fastest. Those who stop learning will be left behind. Those who embrace lifelong learning will not only shape their own careers—they’ll redefine what leadership means for the organizations and people they lead.
Detailed below are just a few avenues for lifelong learning that marketers might consider as they build their own leadership learning cloud. If you aspire to stay relevant in your marketing career, here’s my challenge to you: build your own marketing leadership learning ecosystem. Don’t wait—start today. The rewards are great. The risk of standing still is career-threatening.
About the Author
Bill Koleszar currently serves as Chief Marketing Officer of American Family Care, the nation’s leading provider of urgent care, accessible primary care, and occupational health. He has also previously held senior leadership roles in global financial services companies, including BBVA, The Royal Bank of Scotland, and Bank of America.
Mr. Koleszar’s groundbreaking research in marketing has been featured in various publications, including the Developments in Marketing Science, published by the Academy of Marketing Science, Enhancing Knowledge Development in Marketing, published by the American Marketing Association, and The Chief Marketing Officer Journal, jointly published by The CMO Institute and the American Marketing Association.
Mr. Koleszar has a bachelor’s degree in marketing management from Florida State University and a master’s degree in business administration from the University of Central Florida. Continuing his postgraduate education, Koleszar also studied marketing strategy at Georgia State University and completed executive education courses in leadership, strategy, and service excellence through Harvard Business School.
He additionally serves as a Senior Research Fellow at The Chief Marketing Officer Institute, where he leads its certificate course in Marketing Leadership at the campus of The University of Alabama at Birmingham. Developed in collaboration with university researchers, each session of the Executive Development Program features an instructor-led discussion of a preassigned reading or case study, followed by a panel discussion or presentation led by a C-suite executive from a widely admired company. Topics covered during the program include leadership, strategy, managing cross-functional relationships, and marketing finance, among others.
