In this deep dive into organizational strategy, Alexey Loganchuk of Deep Ocean Partners hosts Feifan Wang (SourceMedium) and Josh (a seasoned marketing strategist) to dismantle the myth of the “perfect” marketing hire. The conversation tackles the billion-dollar question plaguing CEOs: Why is hiring marketers so hard, and how do you actually judge their performance when traditional metrics like ROAS can be misleading?
The trio explores the evolution of marketing roles—from siloed campaign managers to cross-functional “unicorns” who must translate brand vision into revenue while navigating P&L responsibilities. They discuss the critical friction between finance (CFO) and marketing (CMO), arguing that any conflict there is a failure of CEO leadership to align the organization around a unified decision-making framework. Feifan adds a data-driven perspective, explaining how “perverse incentives” in reporting often lead marketers to optimize for vanity metrics rather than true business profit.
Key Takeaways
- The Unicorn Marketer: Great marketers are rare because they must now bridge the gap between creative brand building and quantitative financial discipline—traits that rarely coexist in one person.
- Unified Decision Framework: CEOs must define success from the top down (e.g., profit contribution vs. ROAS) to prevent marketing teams from “shopping for green metrics” to justify their existence.
- Scale in Proportion to Complexity: Don’t hire a massive team just because you raised a Series B. Scale your marketing org only when the business complexity (channels, regions, product lines) demands it.
- The CFO-CMO Alliance: If your finance and marketing leaders are at war, you have a dysfunctional business. They must be partners, with marketing understanding the P&L and finance understanding the investment nature of brand.
- In-House vs. Agency: The rule of thumb: In-house what is core to your DNA (voice, values, customer understanding) and outsource executional tasks until they become too strategic to sit outside the building.
- Strategic Sequencing: Successful growth isn’t about doing everything at once. It’s about disciplined sequencing—knowing when to over-index on top-of-funnel for a launch vs. harvesting efficiency at the bottom of the funnel.
