Chief-of-staff to regional chair (CMO calibre) — Media & Entertainment · Malaysia

Position overview

Gladwin International Leadership Advisors is representing a confidential organisation in Media, Entertainment & Sports on a senior CMO leadership mandate anchored in Malaysia. The remit explicitly spans Singapore, Middle East, Canada.

This is a strategic transformation mandate at CXO level — equal parts operating leadership, change orchestration, and investor / board narrative ownership.

The mandate fits a leader comfortable owning the narrative externally while upgrading how decisions are made internally.

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Context you will inherit

• Market & sector: Monetisation in a low-ARPU market — India's media companies must find creative ways to generate revenue from users who resist paying for content, requiring innovative commercial leadership
• Geographic spine: Primary hub Malaysia with explicit corridor responsibility across Singapore, Middle East, Canada.
• Organisation stage: Growth agenda collides with legacy cost base; productivity and automation are board-level topics, not staff functions.
• Stakeholders: Owners may include PE operating partners, a promoter family office, or public-market investors — each with different tempo and KPIs.
• Secondary lens: Sports commercialisation — premier cricket and emerging sports leagues need professional commercial, marketing, and operations leaders who can build sports businesses to global standards

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The mandate (12–24 month arc)

1. Growth playbook: Define repeatable plays for new logo acquisition, cross-sell, and retention in priority verticals.
2. Content & thought leadership: Elevate executive visibility in forums that matter to buyers and regulators (where relevant).
3. Pricing & packaging: Partner with sales and product on packaging that reflects value, not internal cost structures.
4. Marketing organisation: Structure team around journeys and segments — reduce silos between brand, demand, and comms.
5. Crisis & reputation: Build protocols and narratives for high-stakes communications scenarios.
6. Measurement: Tie marketing KPIs to revenue proxies the CFO and CEO will accept.

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Responsibilities (representative)

• Build product marketing capability tied to roadmap and revenue plays.
• Improve marketing ROI measurement — acceptable proxies where full attribution is impossible.
• Develop partner and channel marketing where indirect routes dominate.
• Instil crisis communications readiness with legal and corporate affairs.
• Coach the organisation on narrative discipline — one story, many channels.

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Leadership profile

• Education: Strong undergraduate grounding; MBA / advanced degree / professional qualification common at this level.
• Modern marketing: Fluency with data, segmentation, and accountable spend — not only creative excellence.
• Judgment: High signal-to-noise under pressure; ethical clarity; willingness to halt initiatives that break risk appetite.
• Communication: Executive presence in English; additional languages valued where market-relevant.
• Geographic muscle: Comfort operating from Malaysia with regular engagement across Singapore, Middle East.

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Team & culture

You inherit a mixed-tenure team — pockets of excellence beside roles that need upgrade. The mandate is to raise the bar without demoralising the organisation: clear standards, fair process, and visible wins that prove the new pace is achievable.

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Success measures (examples)

• Growth quality: Mix of recurring revenue, new logos, and cross-sell — not volume for its own sake.
• Productivity: Unit cost, automation savings, or throughput improvements with audited baselines.
• Customer: NPS / CSAT where tracked; contract renewals; reference-ability in strategic accounts.
• Franchise: Clean compliance record; reputation stability in industry and government forums.

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First 90 days (orientation arc)

• Days 1–30: Listening tour — customers, regulators (as appropriate), top team 1:1s, and unfiltered view of numbers; pause major reorganisation.
• Days 30–60: Publish a short memo on priorities, non-goals, and decision rights; align executive committee on three enterprise bets.
• Days 60–90: Lock operating cadence; fill or upgrade one to two critical seats; deliver one visible win (customer, cost, or culture).
• Commission a pragmatic view of data, cyber, and automation posture; sponsor one bounded pilot with ROI hypothesis.
• Establish escalation discipline with matrix partners — fewer meetings, clearer decision logs.

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Stakeholder map (illustrative)

• Internal: CEO or regional president, CFO, risk / legal, CHRO, CIO or CDO, business GMs, internal audit.
• External: Strategic accounts, channel partners, industry associations, regulators (where material).
• Owners: PE operating partners, promoter office, or public investors — pace and clarity matter as much as vision.

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Travel & mobility

Travel weighted to priority markets and quarterly global or regional forums; flexibility for crisis windows.

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Compensation

Market-aligned CMO remuneration in Media, Entertainment & Sports with performance linkage; sign-on and relocation considered for exceptional fits.

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Application process

Gladwin International is managing this search confidentially. Shortlisted candidates will engage in structured conversations with the firm’s partners before client introduction. Please apply through the careers portal with a concise note on why this geography, sector, and remit fit your trajectory.

We review every submission personally; unsolicited outreach to the end client is discouraged and may disqualify candidacy.

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Reference: media-entertainment · CMO · Malaysia · Gladwin International Leadership Advisors