Doug Bell

Picture of Doug Bell
A 20-year SaaS and technology veteran, Doug is adept at driving revenue growth across well-known brands and nimble startups. A gifted strategist, storyteller, and hands-on leader, he passionately unleashes the power of communities, brand advocacy, and the wrap-around marketing mixes that drive sustainable growth. Organizations looking for breakout growth while facing diminishing returns from their go-to-market approach seek Doug’s help.
Find me on:

Recent Posts

What Is Marketing, Really? Why Founders and CEOs Must Lead the Most Misunderstood Function in the Business

What Is Marketing, Really? Why Founders and CEOs Must Lead the Most Misunderstood Function in the Business

Thu, Jul 9, 2026 | Posted by Michael Lang

 

Executive Takeaways

  • Marketing is a core enterprise capability, not a support function, and deserves the same CEO-level engagement as Finance and Operations.
  • Without a unifying system, individually reasonable decisions accumulate into random acts of marketing.
  • Modern tools make execution faster, but they don't create strategic clarity, so the gap between activity and alignment keeps widening.
  • CEOs can't delegate marketing entirely. Leading it means ensuring insight, strategy, and execution stay connected.

This blog is part of Chief Outsiders’ Marketing Leadership for CEOs series, an ongoing examination of the critical dimensions of Marketing (the capital “M” is intentional, as you’ll see) that every CEO needs to understand.

Read More