Marketing 50 is a five-year-old peer-to-peer organization for the world's top marketing honchos, created by former Spencer Stuart executive recruiter Richard Smith, who heard time and again from marketing executives that as they ascended the ranks of their companies, their trusted peer networks shrunk. The CMOs were leading so much they had increasingly fewer opportunities to open up and learn. These days, companies continue to pony up for membership -- $50,000 -- because CMOs have convinced higher-ups they can solve problems more efficiently by networking with peers than by hiring consulting firms.
