Communication is one of the main objectives that an organization needs to have in place to stay efficient and productive. A breakdown in accurate and efficient communication between departments at any point in the organization can result in conflict or loss of business.  Sadly, the efficiency between different departments in an organization becomes most evident when communication breaks down. As an example, David Grossman reported in “The Cost of Poor Communications” that a survey of 400 companies with 100,000 employees each cited an average loss per company of $62.4 million per year because of inadequate communication to and between employees.

With the dawning of the big-data era and the global competition that Machine Learning algorithms has sparked, it’s more vital than ever for companies of all sizes to prioritize departmental communication mishaps. Perhaps, today, as a result of the many emerging markets, the most essential of these connections are between IT and the business units. CMO’s and CIO’s are becoming natural partners in the sense that CMO’s, in order to capture revenue opportunities, are expected to master not just the art of strategy and creativity but also the science of analytics. The CIO, on the other hand, is accountable for using technical groundwork to enable and accelerate revenue growth. Since business and technology people speak very different languages, there’s a need on both sides to start sharing the vocabulary or understanding of what is expected in order to avoid gridlock.

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In the McKinsey article, Getting the CMO and CIO to work as partners, the author speaks to five prerequisite steps that the CMO and the CIO can take in order to be successful in their new roles.

--- Be clear on decision governance
Teams should define when decisions are needed, what must be decided, and who is responsible for making them.

--- Build the right teams
Have a common agenda of defining, building and acquiring advanced analytics capabilities. Break-down each stage in the value chain and assign appropriate roles for people with the appropriate skill-sets.

--- Provide transparency
The CMO, CIO and potentially the CTO should meet regularly to review progress and maintain collective efforts to keep agendas on track.  

--- Hire IT and marketing ‘translators’
Realistically, in order to have the right balance, each one may need to hire translators.  The CMO should hire/contract professionals that understands customers and business needs that are also technically versed.  The CIO needs to hire/contract technical people with a strong grounding in marketing campaigns and the business side. 

 --- Learn to drive before you fly
Rather than expect to get the model right firsthand, focus on a few pilots to test team compositions and new processes for collaboration.