Forbes has ranked Infosys’s Sumit Virmani among the top 50 most influential CMOs (chief marketing officers). Virmani is ranked 41st on the latest list.
The 2023 list of the top 50 CMOs was announced in Cannes on Thursday at a special luncheon at the Carlton Hotel.
Virmani joined Infosys in 2004 and took on the EVP and Global Chief Marketing Officer role in 2019. He oversees market research, business alliances and development, direct marketing, and market strategy.
Writing about Virmani, Forbes says, “At the start of last year, the company was named the fastest growing IT Services brand in the world, thanks in no small part to Virmani’s transformative B2B marketing approach with a particular focus on humanizing e-commerce. In the last year, Virmani has also emphasized building a diverse team, shifting hiring requirements to avoid certifications, and bringing fresh thinking to the company’s strategy.”
The company saw tremendous growth over the last year, with Virmani leading marketing efforts. As of the end of March, the company reported quarterly revenue growth of over 6 per cent YoY, it added.
Topping the Forbes list of most influential CMOs 2023 in order of ranking is William White, CMO, Walmart (who was second last year); Marcel Marcones, Global CMO, AB InBev; Conny Braams, Chief Digital & Commercial Officer, Unilever; Greg Joswiak, SVP Worldwide Marketing, Apple; Dirk-Jan van Hameren, CMO, Nike;
Marian Lee, CMO, Netfliz; Asad Ayaz, Chief Brand Officer, The Walt Disney Co; Mathilde Delhoume-Debreu, Global Brand Officer, LVMH, and number nine is Tim Ellis, CMO, National Football League. At 21 is Indian origin Asmita Dubey, Chief Digital & Marketing Officer, L’Oreal.
Writing about the role of CMOs, Forbes says, “Today’s chief marketers are expected to separate signals from an unprecedented explosion in noise, to adapt to changing attitudes, behaviours and events in real-time, to react to the hijacking of their brand narratives in a moment by consumers, employees and, sometimes, their C-suite colleagues; to provide absolute certainty that every dollar invested will deliver a 1:1 return (also in real-time), when no such certainty exists but is still, often, the expectation of those for whom their understanding of marketing is (often) limited to the fact that they have been marketed to.”
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Published on July 9, 2023
