Afterword

“The history of the periodic table is also a history of the discovery of the chemical elements. The first person in history to discover a new element was Hennig Brand, a bankrupt German merchant. Brand tried to discover the Philosopher’s Stone—a mythical object that was supposed to turn inexpensive base metals into gold. In 1649, his experiments with distilled human urine resulted in the production of a glowing white substance, which he named phosphorus.”

“History of the periodic table,” Wikipedia, last modified July 23,2015, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_periodic_table

While the elements of marketing didn’t have similar origins worthy of Mel Brooks or Monty Python, I want to wrap things up by calling attention to the first sentence of that excerpt, which does illustrate the most important similarity of all.

The ultimate evidence of Dmitri Mendeleev’s genius is that he left spaces open on his initial version of the Periodic Table, knowing that there were still elements yet to be discovered and classified. He was not under the impression that his first version of the table would be the be-all and end-all of elemental organization.

Nor am I. Like its source of inspiration, The CMO’s Periodic Table is very much a work in progress. As long as technology’s breakneck pace continues and neural fireworks are still erupting inside the brains of great marketers, there will be new elements of marketing to master...and brilliant new CMOs to set the standard for how to do it right.

I’m still hopelessly afflicted with the interviewing bug, and even as this edition of the book goes to press I’ve got a long list of scheduled interviews, plus a shorter list of “dream” interview subjects I’m pursuing whose brilliance is certainly worth its weight in “Au”—that is, gold—to you, me, and every other marketer. Some of them will debut on thedrewblog.com, and all the best ones will have a place in the next edition of this book, which I fully intend to be a living, breathing document that evolves alongside marketing itself.

Like all world-changers, Mendeleev “stood on the shoulders of giants” to realize his amazing vision that was the Periodic Table. The prior work of Antoine Lavoisier, English chemist John Newlands, and others were essential building blocks of the then-contemporary scientific understanding that led the Russian to create the arrangement that chemists still use today.

I, too, stood on the shoulders of giants to create The CMO’s Periodic Table, and I consider it a great privilege to have snatched a precious slot on the calendars of the sixty-four “giants” you’ve heard from in the preceding pages. These men and women embody the elements of quality marketing, and the greatest privilege of all is to share their wisdom with you.

My ultimate hope is that this book has embodied Renegade’s core principle of Marketing as Service by helping you to do your job better, and will continue to do so in the future.

Please contact me any time at [email protected] with questions, feedback, or just to say hi. Better yet, if you happen to be a CMO, look for me at one of The CMO Club Summits or at their dinners in New York City and let’s talk about your “element.”