Forbes Communications Council: The Collapse Of The Marketing Leader: Why 'Head Of Marketing' Roles Are Setting Talent Up To Fail And How To Fix It

We’re not short on marketing talent.
We’re short on the structures that allow that talent to thrive.

Across the industry, we see the same pattern: talented marketers stepping into senior roles only to burn out—or quietly step away. Not because they lack skill or ambition, but because the role itself was never designed to succeed.

Titles are handed out without the authority, clarity, or organizational support required to deliver on the expectations attached to them.

This structural disconnect is exactly why Pinyahta exists.

Our mission is to bring greater transparency to the realities of marketing leadership—how roles are designed, how teams are supported, and what conditions actually allow marketing to drive revenue.

In a recent article for Forbes, our founder Cody Gillund explores what’s happening inside modern marketing leadership roles and why so many are set up to struggle from the start.

The piece explores:

• Why “Head of Marketing” roles have quietly become overloaded by default
• How performance marketing reshaped expectations around leadership
• The growing gap between revenue responsibility and organizational authority
• Five structural shifts companies can make to design marketing leadership roles that actually work

This isn’t about criticism. It’s about clarity.

If we want marketing to be a true driver of growth, we have to be more intentional about how leadership roles are defined, supported, and structured.

Read the full article:
The Collapse of the Marketing Leader: Why “Head of Marketing” Roles Are Setting Talent Up to Fail—and How to Fix It

Pinyahta exists to surface these realities so the industry can have a more honest conversation about what marketing leadership actually requires, and how we design roles that allow both marketing leaders and the companies they serve to succeed.