What Do CMOs and CIOs Really Think of Each Other?

As technology purchases shift to the business side of the house, where does that leave the IT department? While the trend seems undeniable, what’s less clear is how department heads will react. Will CMOs and CIOs become partners and trusted advisors or will they merely politely tolerate one another?

To gain greater insight into the relationships, attitudes and predictions of these C-level executives, CIO Research (a sister organization to CIO.com) surveyed 237 top IT executives and 140 top marketing executives earlier this year.

The good news is that the majority of both CIOs and CMOs rate their relationship favorable, describing it as “good” or “excellent.”

What may be not-as-good news is that few CMOs or CIOs (13 and 16 percent, respectively) consider their counterpart to be their most valuable senior executive partner within the business.

While neither CMOs and CIOs see their roles as adversarial in any size organization, working for larger enterprises does make the relationship more challenging compared to marketing and tech leaders at small- and midsize businesses.

Forty-four percent of CIOs in companies with fewer than 1,000 employees described their relationships with the CMO as excellent compared to 28 percent in enterprises with more than 1,000 employees.

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