Yes, CMOs and CIOs are on Different Planets. Now What?

Chief Marketing Officers (CMOs) and Chief Information Officers (CIOs) are on different planets. They have different agendas and they speak different languages. There’s lack of coordination, working at cross-purposes, and full-scale political warfare. For businesses that fix this problem now, there’s immense and growing potential. For businesses slow to fix it, there’s stagnation and decline. You’ve seen it yourself and it’s a much discussed feature from CIO Magazine (10/4/2010, “CMOs and CIOs: Can this Relationship Be Saved?”). Everyone knows about it, but what’s to be done?

The marketing-IT relationship is broken in a deep way. The organizations and their leaders lack trust and norms for cooperation. A fundamental shift, which bridges the two planets and provides new momentum, is required. The shift depends upon a bridge to overcome the barriers of entrenched agendas and different languages. The shift also depends on new momentum based on shared success. When woven together, the bridge and new momentum reinforce each other. The result is unification of existing skills and knowledge, leveraged to realize strategic business potential.

Infusing the fundamental shift from an external source is expedient. The CMO and CIO want to make the shift on their own, but they are mired in past behaviors and politics. Attempts to pull out of the downward spiral by internal mediation, visioning, or edict will be too slow or completely ineffective. In comparison with the historical animosities between marketing and IT, the external source presents an opportunity for success. Neither CMO nor CIO can continue the failures of the past, and allying with an external source presents them with an alternative they could not achieve on their own.

In a difficult marriage, the husband and wife seek the assistance of a counselor to change chemistry. The marketing and IT functions must align through a fundamental shift, but like the husband and wife, the CMO and CIO can’t do it on their own. Without an infusion from an external source, they’ll continue the dire status quo. The benefits of aligned marketing and IT are too great to pass up. The CMO and CIO may not be able to agree on much, but one thing they should agree on is to get an external infusion that bridges their different planets and provides new momentum.