In the original 1967 movie Dr. Dolittle, a mythical animal called a pushmi-pullyu is portrayed as llama with two heads. Each head wants the body to go in its own forward direction, leaving the animal stalled and doubly frustrated.
I recently heard about a company that made a remarkable organizational decision: The information technology (IT) department now reports into marketing. But is this company charting the new path to success for both functions, or has it created a pushmi-pullyu organization?
One of the fundamental challenges of the marketing/IT relationship is the contrast between the overall mission and motivation of these two functions. Marketing is under pressure to help produce revenue and constantly looks for new ways to attract, nurture and retain prospects and customers. Marketing departments want to try new technologies and fear being left behind by competitors’ actions. They can also be notoriously short-term thinkers in pursuit of a quarterly target.
IT departments feel the pressure of integration and uptime and are frequently risk-averse. A major part of their mandate is to make things work every single day, keep maintenance costs in check and build a strong foundation that can support unknown future needs.
With one function racing forward – sometimes haphazardly – and the other overwhelmed or holding back, can the marketing/IT relationship work without a radical organizational change?
I believe the answer is yes. But as is the case with all healthy relationships, it takes effort, understanding and compromise. A good place to start is recognizing the common challenge: Both functions carry the burden of proving the relative value of their work or being labeled a cost center.
Here are five other ways to bring marketing and IT together:
In most companies, developing a marketing/IT alliance requires willingness and hard work, but it can create an enormous competitive edge that will pay dividends to the company and elevate both functions. Although the merits of a full organizational shift are yet to be known, there is no better way to really understand the operations of another function than to be right next to it.
Monica Behncke is Vice President and Group Director of Demand Creation Strategies at SiriusDecisions. She has more than 20 years’ experience in global positions across marketing disciplines ranging from product marketing to field marketing. Follow Monica on Twitter @mbbaustin