A study published by Russell Reynolds Associates shows that CMO turnover is higher than ever. According to Ad Age, “in some industries, the trend is eye-popping — particularly in retail, where 48% of the top 30 retailers in the U.S. have had a change in marketing leadership in the last 12 months. Consumer tech, media, CPG and hospitality industries also had high levels of churn in the CMO hot seat.

“What’s more, 62% of companies replace their CMOs with someone from outside the company, a clear indicator that many CEOs don’t believe anyone else who works at their companies has the answers either.

“What the hell is going on?

“Well, in interviews with a dozen CMOs and CEOs, Russell Reynolds concluded that there were eight distinct factors — but if I were pressed to summarize them, it would be “Digital, digital, digital, digital, digital, digital, digital, and CEOs making scapegoats out of CMOs to buy more time to deal with digital.”