Chapter 6: Scene One. The Professional Institutions. The Absent Guardians.
Scene: The Boardroom, 2025. The Interrogation Continues.
By now, the evidence was damning.
Mary Marketing had been shot at close-range, no sign of a struggle.
She hadn’t seen it coming. Or maybe she had, and just didn’t believe it would happen in plain sight.
Not like this.
Around the boardroom, the walls were lined with timelines, testimony, and half-empty coffee cups.
The fluorescent light buzzed faintly above as silence clung to the room like guilt.
The air was heavy. The kind of heavy that settles in when truth is no longer a theory, but a fact.
And yet, as the investigation advanced, a critical question remained unanswered:
Where were the professional institutions?
The governing bodies.
The industry associations.
The so-called Guardians of the Profession.
The very organisations whose mission statements dripped with noble intent - words like development, excellence, and integrity.
Where were they when Mary had needed defending?
They were supposed to be her shield. To uphold standards. To train the next generation. To fight for marketing’s place at the table. Instead, when the bullets flew, they were nowhere to be seen.
Then, the door opened.
A soft click echoed as the handle turned, followed by the measured footsteps of an entity that had long escaped scrutiny.
In walked The Professional Institutions.
Cedric, the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM) took his place at the table, immaculately dressed, posture rigid with institutional pride. Trailing behind were the business schools, still holding tightly to their laminated case studies from 2001. And the elite marketing societies, whose idea of mentorship was a speaker panel and a glass of warm Chardonnay.
They entered like diplomats; calm, composed, untouchable.
They adjusted their ties, shuffled their notes, and exhaled a collective confidence that can only come from decades of being unquestioned.
“Marketing is evolving,” said Cedric, the spokesperson. His voice was even. Practised. “We’ve supported it every step of the way.”
Across the table, Ivor sat unmoved.
He didn’t blink. Didn’t nod. Didn’t reach for the water in front of him.
Instead, he calmly reached into his briefcase and slid a thick file forward. The kind that lands with a sound you don’t forget.
It hit the table with weight, both literal and symbolic.
“Have you?” he asked, quietly.
And in that moment, Cedric’s perfectly rehearsed calm began to flicker.
Because the truth was that if they had done their job. If they had adapted, championed, and protected, Mary wouldn’t be lying in a pool of her own blood.
They hadn’t pulled the trigger. But they’d left her exposed. And the silence of their inaction had been deafening.
Exhibit A: The Outdated Curriculum
Ivor opened the file.
Its contents were documented. Referenced. Indisputable. Page after page of evidence. Missed moments. Decades of educational drift.
He placed the first sheet in front of the assembled institutions.
A silent pause followed.
Not quite the pregnant pause of suspense, but the sterile quiet of professional discomfort, the kind that settles in when the evidence points directly at you.
“Marketing,” Ivor began, “has evolved at an unprecedented pace.”
He wasn’t wrong.
Digital transformation had reshaped consumer behaviour at its core. AI and automation had rewritten the rulebook on how brands engage, personalise, and predict. The landscape was moving from mass media to micro-moments.
From awareness to attention. From reach to relevance.
And yet, marketing education had failed to keep up.
He turned to page two.
A syllabus, highlighted, annotated, annotated again.
The CIM’s Irrelevant Curriculum.
Still rooted in models born in the 1960s and 70s.
Foundational, yes. But foundational was no longer enough.
There was barely a whisper of modern B2B strategy.
No serious treatment of SaaS. No AI. No real marketing automation. No deep dive into digital transformation beyond broad strokes and buzzwords.
“If you squint,” Ivor said flatly, “you can still see the outlines of Kotler in the ink.”
The room stayed still.
And then came the data.
A survey of marketers, current, working professionals found that 64% believe their marketing qualifications had little to no impact on career progression.
Not only outdated, but also irrelevant.
But this wasn’t just about one institute. The decay ran deeper.
At the world’s top business schools, marketing had been pushed to the margins.
Finance, operations, and leadership had taken centre stage.
Marketing became the elective you took to “round out your degree,” not the discipline you built strategy on.
And when it was taught? It was through case studies from Blockbuster, Kodak, and Pepsi’s 1999 Superbowl ad.
No revenue accountability. No integration of behavioural science, product-led growth, or customer-centric operating models. Just faded casebooks and faculty clinging to frameworks forged in a pre-digital world.
Mary Marketing hadn’t just been ignored.
She’d been under-equipped.
Sent to fight a modern war with ancient weapons.
Armed with theories, not tools. Models, not muscle.
And into that vacuum?
Stepped a new kind of saviour.
Google. HubSpot. Meta.
They didn’t wait for institutional approval. They built courses. They built certifications. Fast, accessible, and free.
But what they built was tactical. Not strategic. Tools, not thinking. Execution, not direction.
And the problem?
Anyone could now claim to be a marketer.
No standards. No gates. No stewardship of strategy.
“The CIM didn’t just fail to modernise,” Ivor continued. “They failed to protect the discipline itself.”
They stood by as strategy was eroded in favour of tactics.
They allowed the role of the marketer to be redefined by platforms, not principles.
They became passive observers as the profession slipped out of their hands.
And Mary? She was left to defend herself in a world that no longer recognised her expertise. They had failed to protect marketing from becoming unrecognisable.
Exhibit B: The Martech Explosion – A Double-Edged Sword
The second file landed on the table with a sharper slap.
Not bulky like the first, this one was sleek, data-driven, dangerously precise.
Ivor slid it across without a word. The cover page bore a single headline:
“14,106 Martech Solutions. 2024.”
An eyebrow twitched on Cedric’s otherwise motionless face.
“27.8% growth,” Ivor said, tapping the number. “In a single year.”
Around the table, no one spoke. Not because they didn’t understand. Because they did.
What began as a craft rooted in human behaviour, storytelling, and brand-building had mutated into something else entirely. A profession once grounded in psychology, anthropology, and strategy had become a battlefield, littered with automation, optimisation, AI-powered predictions, and algorithmic warfare.
The human element? Stripped out.
Replaced by dashboards and data visualisation tools that blinked and pulsed like a city grid on surveillance.
CMOS now oversee 16 or more Martech tools on average, platforms stacked like Russian dolls, each promising clarity but delivering complexity.
And critically: Marketing leaders now spend more on technology than on talent.
The irony was bitter.
As the software budgets soared, investment in skill-building fell silent.
Mentorship dried up.
Capability-building was left to YouTube and the occasional vendor webinar.
Strategic skills such as segmentation, pricing strategy, brand positioning were deprioritised. They didn’t get the airtime.They didn’t get the budget. They didn’t get the respect.
In their place?
API integrations.
Data pipelines.
AI prompts.
And a new breed of marketer, trained not to understand people, but to optimise funnels.
Ivor turned to the next exhibit.
Example: Martech as a Distraction
A global B2B SaaS company had invested heavily in automation and AI-powered tools. The goal was clear: streamline lead generation. And it worked. Technically.
More leads flowed in. The dashboards lit up green. Executives clapped. But something wasn’t right.
Conversion rates dropped.
Sales teams complained.
Customers weren’t converting. They were confused, overwhelmed, underserved. Why?
Because the marketing team had become so consumed by the technology-by the integrations, the data flows, the dashboards, they had forgotten the customer entirely.
The human touch had been lost in a forest of automations.
Campaigns were running. But no one was listening. Marketing had once been about understanding human behaviour. Now, it was about understanding dashboards.
And the institutions?
Still teaching the same frameworks.
Still running the same lectures.
Still pretending the Martech explosion was a side note rather than a seismic shift.
They hadn’t integrated Martech literacy into their syllabi.
They hadn’t equipped marketers to lead the tools, rather than be led by them.
They watched the explosion from a distance. And called it progress.
But here, in the evidence file, the truth was clearer. Martech wasn’t the enemy.
But it had become a distraction. And in the hands of the unprepared, a dangerous one.
Mary hadn’t just been outgunned.
She’d been overwhelmed.
And nobody had taught her how to fight in this new terrain.
The institutions had failed to train her for this battlefield.
And so, the tools took over.
As Ivor closed the folder, the room seemed colder somehow.
Mary hadn’t been killed by a single bullet.
She’d been worn down.
Layer by layer.
Year by year.
By outdated frameworks.
By tactical distractions.
By a profession that forgot its purpose.
The institutions didn’t pull the trigger.
But they stood by while she bled, untrained, undervalued, and overwhelmed.
And still, one question loomed larger than the rest:
If they weren’t willing to defend her mind… would they defend her role?
The next file was already waiting on the table.
Thinner. Sharper. Like a knife.
And as Ivor reached for it, a quiet tension filled the air.
Because what came next…It wasn’t about education.
It was about power.
To be continued…
Lost Your Influence? It’s Time to Fight Back.
If Mary’s story feels uncomfortably familiar...
If your role has been absorbed under revenue targets, sidelined in strategic conversations, or reduced to "doing" instead of leading...
Then it’s time to take your power back.
The Influential Marketing Leader Accelerator is now open.
A 10-week transformational course designed for marketers who are done playing small and ready to lead with strategy, credibility and confidence.
The next cohort starts 29th April
Built for senior marketers ready to reclaim authority, elevate influence, and lead marketing the way it is meant to be led.
If you're tired of marketing being misunderstood, misused, or diminished — this is your moment.
Enrol now and start the comeback.
Ways to Work With Me
I partner with ambitious B2B companies, marketing leaders, and executive teams to unlock sustainable growth through marketing transformation.
Here’s how we can work together:
1. Strategic Growth Consulting (for B2B companies)
Revive stalled growth, refocus your go-to-market strategy, and turn marketing into a commercial growth engine.
Outcome: Clearer strategy, tighter execution, and marketing fully aligned to business goals — so growth accelerates without adding chaos.
2. Marketing Team Development & Operating Systems
Audit your marketing team’s skills, reshape your org structure, and build systems that enable high performance and strategic thinking.
Outcome: A stronger, more confident marketing team equipped to lead — not just execute.
3. CMO & Leadership Mentoring
Build strategic confidence, stakeholder influence, and executive presence. For CMOs, VP-level marketers, and rising stars.
Outcome: Become the trusted growth advisor your CEO can’t live without.
4. Internal Academies & Custom Learning Programmes
Create internal academies that elevate marketing maturity across your organisation and foster cross-functional alignment.
Outcome: A more commercially savvy, strategically minded marketing team that earns trust across the business.
5. The Influential Marketing Leader Accelerator (Open Enrolment)
A 10-week online programme for senior marketers ready to lead with confidence and make marketing matter again.
Outcome: You’ll gain a strategic toolkit, influence the C-suite, and finally stop firefighting and start leading.
6. Keynotes, Workshops & Offsites
For executive teams, cross-functional leaders, or marketing teams who need clarity, energy, and alignment.
Outcome: Shared language, stronger collaboration, and renewed focus on what marketing can (and should) do.