How CMOs Win Back the Boardroom in the Age of AI with Andy Lark

Andy Lark has sat on 15-20 boards across ASX, Fortune 100 and startup companies, and he's blunt: most boards barely think about marketing. He explains why, what actually earns a marketer a seat at the table, and why commercial relevance beats campaign metrics.

The chat then turns to AI: how marketing lost three of the four Ps, why most AI content is making brands worse, and the exact agent workflow Andy runs daily to track sales calls, competitors and market signals.

Guest Introduction

Andy Lark is a globally awarded CMO, entrepreneur and board director who helped build Xero into a global software company, reimagined Commonwealth Bank's brand and digital experiences, and helped build Dell's eCommerce site. He is Chair and Founder of Group Lark, leads The Accelerants, advises Nomni, co-authored the best-seller Augmented, and coaches thousands of leaders yearly on AI-first growth. 

Key Topics

Why boards rarely care about marketing, and the two triggers that put it on the agenda: major change, or something going wrong.How marketing lost three of the four Ps (product, price, place), keeping only promotion.What "commercial relevance" really means: being the voice of the customer and of the market.A telco board wanting to cut brand spend for "not driving growth," and why that's the wrong call.How businesses train buyers to wait for discounts, and why ABM and brand building fix it.Andy's AI agents that score every sales call each morning and scan the market for signals.Why AI content is flooding LinkedIn with noise, and how to use AI without losing brand voice.A five-level AI maturity model for marketing teams, plus Andy's 30-day plan for heads of marketing.

Resources & Links

People

Joan Withers - former Mercury Energy chair, cited for prioritising brand at board level

Companies & Tools

Liven - Andy's CCO roleThe Accelerants - Andy's marketing consultancy for CMOsDell - past CMO roleCommonwealth Bank - past CMO roleXero - past CMO roleMercury Energy - from the Joan Withers storyMondelez's AI briefing tool - AI-automated creative briefsClay's AI writing policy - content rule exampleClaude - primary AI toolChatGPT - secondary AI toolCodex - coding tasksGemini - image generationPerplexity - quick researchGrok - quick researchLovable - app prototypingReplit - app prototypingClickUp Brain - marketing calendars

Contact & Credits

Host: Shahin Hoda

Guest: Andy Lark

Produced by: Shahin Hoda and Alexander Hipwell

Edited by: Alexander Hipwell & Dave Somido

Music by: Breakmaster Cylinder

Podcast Co-ordinator: Jonah Igsie

APAC's B2B Growth Podcast is presented by xGrowth