20 - Was James Moriarty the best CMO Ever?

“He is the Napoleon of crime, Watson. He is the organizer of half that is evil and of nearly all that is undetected in this great city, He is a genius, a philosopher, an abstract thinker. He has a brain of the first order. He sits motionless, like a spider in the center of its web, but that web has a thousand radiations, and he knows well every quiver of each of them..”

Now hold on…not for a minute am I suggesting that CMOs follow the nefarious actions of the fictitious master criminal but there are parallels between how Conan Doyle visualized Moriarty running his underground organization and the expectations stacked up against modern marketers. Before we get into that, Moriarty had an absolutely unique position in the annals of crime – he was -A criminal consultant much like Sherlock himself –the world’s first consulting detective. Like Holmes expounds Moriarty’s role–“He does little himself. He only plans.”

 Now to the common traits between the fictitious criminal master mind’s organization and a Modern marketing organization. Moriarty was an assignment based consultant – a Napoleon of crime.

1) He delivered the blue print for the “finalized approach” –(pun intended) to execute an assignment –end to end. –“.First he would content himself by using his machinery in order to find their victim. Then he would indicate how the matter might be treated. Finally, when he read in the reports of the failure of this agent, he would step in himself with a master touch. “ –The Valley of Fear - Think Customer Lifecycle.

2)He allocated, hand picked the right tools, people and skills to bring the assignment to closure.-“Ha! It came like that, did it?” said Holmes, thoughtfully. “Well, I've no doubt it was well stage-managed. There is a master hand here. It is no case of sawed-off shot-guns and clumsy six-shooters. You can tell an old master by the sweep of his brush. I can tell a Moriarty when I see one. .” –The Valley of Fear. 
 Think Mature Marketing Technology, Cross Channel and Personalization.

3)He innovated constantly -“The old shikari’s nerves have not lost their steadiness nor his eyes their keenness. A soft revolver bullet, as you perceive, Watson. There’s genius in that, for who would expect to find such a thing fired from an air-gun.” Adventure of the Empty House. Think Send Time Optimization, Geo Fencing and Predictive marketing.

4)He always knew where and how to get to his target.-"You will get no worse than your deserts from      that, Mr. Douglas. But I would ask you how did this man know that you lived here, or how to get into your house, or where to hide to get you?” The Tragedy at BirlStone. Think Behavioural Targeting & Omni Channel.

5)Finally, a word about Mycroft Holmes “The conclusions of every department are passed to him, and   he is the central exchange, the clearinghouse, which makes out the balance. All other men are specialists, but his specialism is omniscience.” –The Adventure of the Bruce-Partington Plans. Think Integrating Brands and Business Strategy across Sales, Service and Operations.

In summary, the CMO is now a C-Suite operator who is responsible for corporate customer interactions across myriad functions and direct the ebb, flow, context and relevancy of those responses.