‘Who Owns Growth?’ The Marketing World’s Latest Circus of New Titles and Zero Real Change
Marketing departments are once again knee-deep in the latest reinvention snake oil: hiring new roles with grandiose titles like “Growth Lead” or “Head of Expansion” while leaving the underlying organizational rot untouched. This isn’t innovation; it’s a cheap rebrand masquerading as progress. The industry loves to slap on a fresh label and call it transformation, but without structural shifts in accountability and resource allocation, these new hires are little more than window dressing.
The problem is glaring. Companies desperate to appear cutting-edge create these roles to signal they’re “future-ready,” but the actual ownership of growth remains diffuse, muddled in interdepartmental finger-pointing. MarketingWeek’s recent piece nails the issue: without concrete operational changes, these expanded remits are superficial at best. They’re often a smokescreen for leadership inertia, allowing executives to dodge the hard questions about who truly drives growth.
We’ve seen this before with the “10x agency” nonsense, “AI-powered SEO guru” grifters, and the plugin bloat epidemic that promised magic but delivered sluggish sites. This latest wave of growth roles is just another iteration of that cargo cult, where form is mistaken for function. If you’re hiring a “Growth Officer” but still siloed between product, sales, and marketing, congratulations: you’ve just added an expensive middle manager and not a damn thing else.
The industry’s obsession with titles over realignment reflects a broader malaise. Marketing teams need clear ownership, integrated data infrastructure, and accountability baked into their workflows—not a new LinkedIn badge. Until companies rip out the organizational silos and commit to measurable changes, these hires will be nothing more than a peak nothingburger.
Here’s the uncomfortable truth: if you want to “redefine” marketing, stop chasing shiny new roles and start fixing the broken internal structures that have been holding growth hostage for years. No title, no fancy job description, no buzzword will compensate for a lack of real operational transformation.
