The discipline of marketing is full of people with high energy, great communication skills, high adaptability and proven strategic ability. Their understanding of brand and customer/consumer is innate. Marketers have the ear of the CEO and board - indeed, they have a good chance of being on that board.
Even Wikipedia rubs it in. Marketing is "the activity, set of institutions and processes for creating, communicating, delivering and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners and society at large". Human resources, meanwhile, is "the name of the function within an organisation charged with the overall responsibility for implementing strategies and policies relating to the management of individuals".
No wonder, then, that organisations are increasingly looking to marketers to head their HR strategy. The discipline is one of a number identified by global executive search firm Heidrick & Struggles as a career path to the chief HR officer role Les mer