The Commercial Dilemma: Who Owns Growth When Everything Blends?

Is There Commercial Alignment?

This article comes from a recent discussion of a marketing advisory board, where the conversation moved quickly from structure to accountability because that is typically where we see things break.

Executive survey data show a sharp disconnect between belief and behavior.

91% of leaders agree strategic alignment matters, while fewer than one in seven believe their organization actually achieves it. Companies that align outperform financially, yet most commercial teams still struggle to decide who owns growth when disciplines blur.

The Promise and the Problem of the Commercial Model

The commercial model promised fewer silos and better decisions. On paper, it works.  Sales, marketing, revenue, and technology now share data, dashboards, and meeting time.

However, often ownership did not consolidate at the same pace. While growth became everyone’s job, it became no one’s responsibility. That gap shows up most clearly at the property level, where incentives, reporting lines, and short‑term pressure collide.  And that is really where alignment either becomes real, or falls apart.

Is the Real Issue Customer Ownership?

The consensus among the group was that customer ownership remains unresolved.

• Marketing often controls demand generation and data.
• Sales manage relationships and volume.
• Revenue governs price, pattern, and displacement.
• Technology feeds them all, then waits for someone to decide what matters.

The result is plenty of information, limited action, and frequent disagreement about what success looks like.

It’s Not a Tools Problem

What also became clear during our conversation was that tools aren’t really the issue. Most organizations have:

• Business intelligence platforms
• CRM systems
• Revenue analytics
• Marketing automation

The question raised repeatedly during the discussion was who decides what happens after the data appears. Without clear authority, insight becomes observation instead of action.

Where is the Break in Alignment?

Alignment appears to be working at the higher levels, but it tends to fracture as you move closer to the guest.

Accountability also breaks down through incentives. At higher levels, commercial leaders often share goals tied to top‑line performance, but closer to the property, bonuses and KPIs diverge.

• Volume vs. rate
• Channel contribution vs. profitability
• Brand priorities vs. asset expectations.
• Alignment weakens exactly where execution matters most.

Some teams are addressing top line growth through shared goals with different measurements, while others rotate leadership of commercial meetings so each discipline drives discussion and decision‑making. These approaches reduce tunnel vision, but they still rely on leadership clarity to hold.

The Shift in Commercial Leadership

The modern commercial leader does not need mastery of every system. The discussion emphasized respect, humility, and enough cross‑discipline understanding to ask better questions. Commercial leadership now depends less on functional depth and more on the ability to connect decisions to budgets, forecasts, and asset outcomes across the organization.

By the end of our discussion, it was clear that growth ownership does not require more structure, it requires visible accountability, aligned incentives, and permission to prioritize long‑term performance over individual wins.

This role is less about expertise in one lane…
and more about connecting the lanes in a way that drives profit, not just performance.

I look forward to continuing this conversation in June at HSMAI’s Commercial Strategy Conference!

Recommended Reading

What Leaders Get Wrong About Strategic Alignment

Tapping into the full power of CMOs | McKinsey

Avoiding pitfalls in operating model transformation | McKinsey

Commercial Strategy Accelerates | HSMAI Americas

Questions for Teams

• If growth is everyone’s job, is it anyone’s responsibility?
• Who ultimately owns growth at the property level: GM, commercial leader, brand, asset management?
• Where does accountability actually sit today, and is that working?
• Are we integrating strategy or just adding more tools?
• Who decides what action gets taken from all this information?
• Where does commercial tension show up most: sales vs revenue, marketing vs sales, brand vs property, technology vs usability?
• Does your organization reward collaboration or performance within a silo?
• If incentives changed but structure didn’t, would behavior change?