Executive Alignment and Marketing Performance, Part 1: Community Health System Perspective
Three different health system models, one central question: What does executive support look like where marketing truly performs? In this first installment, a community health system offers a practical blueprint built on access, trust, and shared accountability.
// By Susan Dubuque //
In many organizations, marketing still operates downstream, pushed into a reactive role long after strategic decisions have been made.
In high-performing systems, the dynamic looks very different.
This series examines executive partnerships by reverse-engineering them. Instead of asking marketing leaders whether they “feel supported,” we are exploring something more concrete: What structural and relational conditions exist in organizations where marketing demonstrably drives growth, protects brand integrity, and aligns tightly with operations?
Over the coming weeks, leaders from a community health system, an academic medical center, and a faith-based system will share how C-suite relationships influence marketing performance. Patterns will emerge along with distinctions shaped by mission, governance, and scale.
We begin with Tanner Health, a community health system in rural Georgia, where collaboration, candor, direct executive access, and shared metrics shape marketing performance.
The story that follows shows what executive partnership looks like when marketing is fully integrated into enterprise decision-making.