The CMO's blueprint for building a world-class marketing team

Marketing team building is the foundation of every high-performing brand. We are introducing another of our Guest Thinkers, marketing experts we have invited to share their independent views on issues that matter to marketing readers. The opinions given are the authors' own and do not necessarily represent the opinions of a given organization. Jim Lecinski, a professor of marketing at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, is once more a Guest Thinker and the author of The AI Marketing Canvas. He has written before on:

• how to recycle your yearly marketing plan
• the agile approach to marketing
• the way marketers may use the 3 A's to implement AI
• how to get the most out of marketing conferences with AI Here, he shares his advice on how marketing leaders can build a strong team. I have been working closely with top CMOs to understand how they hire, train, and keep their marketing teams. What I have found is a clear pattern, a deliberate strategy that the best teams share. Here is that blueprint: how to recruit, develop, and retain the people who can make your marketing organization genuinely competitive.

Hire based on flexibility, not experience

The traditional method of hiring is to recruit applicants who have relevant work history. Marketing skills and technical ability matter, much like building custom software development teams, but in a fast-changing landscape, flexibility and curiosity matter more. Research from McKinsey on people and organizational performance consistently shows that organizations prioritizing adaptability in talent acquisition outperform those relying solely on credentials and past experience. Dave Schneider, CMO of Red Wing Shoe Co., put it this way: we look for curious marketers. The real differentiator is the desire to understand. Whether it is business performance, consumer behavior, or an emerging technology, the best marketers stay humble and keep asking, why? Ask candidates during interviews to describe a time when they pivoted successfully or picked up a new technology and delivered results. Focus on people with future potential, not just a fixed list of skills that will be outdated in a few years. When I discussed this with Carolyn Dawkins, CMO of David Yurman, she said she looks for talent who have strategy developed through leadership across different experiences or projects, and who bring a high level of curiosity and desire to learn. That is future-proof decision-making.

Find a variety of skill sets, not only variety of resumes

Diversity is not just about backgrounds. You need a mix of experiences and skill sets, both left brained and right brained, that broaden what your marketing team can do. Schneider says they look for people not afraid to be themselves. The most successful organizations welcome and encourage diversity of thought, experience, and opinion. That kind of inclusivity lets everyone perform at their best. This might mean recruiting from a completely different industry or hiring someone with both creative instinct and data-driven marketing knowledge. In an AI-enabled world, blending human creativity with data insights is the real challenge. A product development specialist can give you a fresh angle on marketing problems, and a candidate who knows coding can bring insight into AI algorithms that improve brand narrative. Together they form a team where analytical, technical, and creative skills push against each other to solve hard marketing problems.

AI can help identify skills gaps

AI can also help you hire smarter. Use AI-powered analytics and insights to run a skills gap analysis on your current team. Feed publicly available profiles of your team members into AI and ask it to generate a combined skills list. It will surface what you are missing and where you need to invest. Here is what matters: you cannot do a skills gap analysis without a clear statement of what value marketing produces for the business. First, align with leadership on marketing's responsibilities. Then let AI help you pinpoint where you need more expertise. Hire talent who can handle tomorrow's challenges, not just today's. For a complete picture of where marketing leadership is headed, explore our guide on building a digital marketing strategy for 2026.

Upskill to be adaptable and impactful

Once you have your marketing team in place, the next step is helping them grow. The single biggest factor behind a strong marketing team, supported by the right IT services and expertise, is a culture of continuous learning. Dawkins says talent should be curious not just about competitors or the category, but about new technology and the macro shifts that can reshape your brand. Your job is to find ways to help your team expand their marketing knowledge every day. One way Schneider builds a learning culture at Red Wing is through Insights and Inspiration sessions. Roughly every week, the group meets to discuss topics like:

• AI
• creative effectiveness
• consumer experience using outside speakers
• thought-provoking events
• team-building activities This kind of collective learning keeps the group ahead of consumer industry trends, makes them more flexible, and prepares them to shift direction when needed. Look for partnerships with professionals or agencies who are further along in specific areas, such as strategic consulting for digital transformation. Dawkins says David Yurman uses such partners to challenge the status quo and develop the team's expertise. That external exposure can accelerate your team's growth. AI works best in environments with integrated, cross-functional insight. The same is true for marketing teams. Train your people across fields like content creation, data analytics, and brand strategy. You will break down silos and spark new ideas at the same time. This gives them a fuller view of the marketing system and helps your staff get more out of AI tools. Schneider puts it directly: Marketing leaders should create both the opportunity and the expectation of continuous learning. That gives the team room to grow professionally and build a sharper marketing strategy. Cross-functional collaboration and training does more than speed up learning. It lets your marketers see the full business picture behind their work. Understanding how brand strategy drives long-term growth can shape the way you train and develop your team.

Cultivate an innovation culture

Money is not enough. People stay where they feel appreciated, heard, and encouraged to try new things. Dawkins motivates her staff at David Yurman through real-time sharing and showcasing work beyond their direct categories. Encourage your team to experiment, especially with AI and emerging technologies. Give them the space to fail, learn, and improve. That builds a culture of growth, helps you keep talent, and keeps employees energized and willing to stay.

Career advancement matters

People leave when they do not see a path forward. Fight that by offering specific career growth opportunities, or scale your team with dedicated support, that align with where marketing is headed. At Red Wing, Schneider creates learning themes and special sessions where team members share what they have learned with peers. Personal development becomes a shared process. I have run many of these developmental programs, helping marketing teams learn about AI. People who keep growing this way and get to lead new programs develop real ownership and pride in their contributions. Create paths for your marketers to become AI champions by leveraging advanced AI technology solutions, whether through certifications or internal roles where they train colleagues. If you want them to stay, give them a chance to go deep. Not just AI-competent, but AI-proficient. This builds capability across your organization and makes your best people feel they are leading the marketing future of your company, now and for years to come.

Let AI help with work-life balance

Work-life balance and flexible team scaling solutions remain top concerns for retaining talent. Technology can help here in a surprising way. Automate the routine work that used to slow teams down, like data collection, analysis, and reporting, with AI. AI handles that well, and it frees people to focus on strategic and creative work. Morale goes up when people realize they can use technology to be more productive instead of more overwhelmed. They get to focus on what actually matters: doing great work that moves the needle.

To build a marketing organization that can succeed in a fast-changing environment, rethink how you hire, train, and retain talent. Explore our full range of IT services that can support your marketing transformation. As a CMO, your goal is a versatile marketing organization that stays flexible, invests in learning, and never stops asking questions. Jim Lecinski is a clinical professor of marketing at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University and was named 2022 Professor of the Year. He has spent more than 30 years in marketing, teaching MBA courses on marketing strategy, omnichannel marketing, and AI in marketing. His book Winning the Zero Moment of Truth (ZMOT) has been read by more than 300,000 marketers worldwide. His latest book is The AI Marketing Canvas, published by Stanford University Press.