We talk a lot about transformation. But hardly anyone talks about what it means to be in the middle of it.
Not as an observer. As the person responsible. With a running business, rising expectations and an agenda that changes faster than any three-year plan anticipated.
I have been in the communications and consulting industry for many years. I have lived through waves of consolidation, the rise of digital, platformisation, the content boom. Change was always part of this business.
But this simultaneous and this decision-critical? That is new.
The situation is demanding - and the numbers prove it
B2B marketing budgets in Germany are falling in 2025 for the first time in five years - by 3.1 % on average, while external costs have risen by around 17 %. 59 % of CMOs worldwide say their resources are not sufficient to deliver their strategies. (Sources: bvik – B2B Marketing Budgets 2025, Gartner CMO Spend Survey 2025)
At the same time, AI is fundamentally changing how communication is created, steered and made effective. 88 % of companies already use AI in at least one function. But only a third have truly scaled it - and merely 6 % achieve measurable business impact from it. The technology has long been here. What is often still missing is the strategic frame. (Source: McKinsey – State of AI 2025)
This is not a criticism. It is the logical consequence of a situation in which everything happens at once - no pause button, no experience to draw on, no blueprint.
The scarcest resource right now is not budget. It is clarity.
In many conversations I currently see the same pattern. People who know very precisely what is coming at them - but have hardly any time to sort out what really matters. What now. What next. What can safely be deferred.
And that is exactly where the real risk arises. Not through wrong decisions. Through postponed ones.
Those who only react lose room to shape. Those who defer future topics pay a higher price later. That is not a new insight - but right now it is becoming very concrete.
Pausing briefly is not weakness. It is a method.
The most effective changes I have been able to accompany in recent years rarely originated in large strategy processes. They almost always began with an honest conversation. No agenda. No slides. But with a shared will to see things clearly - and then act consistently.
It is precisely from this thought that we developed a CX session at Chromedia: a structured exchange for decision-makers who want to zoom out for a moment. On a concrete challenge along the customer journey. No pitch. No seminar. A conversation on equal terms - with the goal of creating clarity and placing possibilities that will be relevant the day after tomorrow but are not yet obvious today.
Perhaps now is a good moment for it.