you'd better hope so... a good IT manager and good marketing manager
can make (or break) the operation. granted, there are
sales, finance, upper "management" and other necessary evils,
but the future of a tech company (and most other companies) is in the future...
if your marketing dept promotes product you can't deliver, you're screwed.
if your techs tell your marketeers it can be done, and it can't, you're screwed.
however, if the technical wisdom and marketing prowess come together in
harmony... well, then, folks like me get to stay at the omni park central
and folks like you get to drive new LS 430's.
the rest is footwork.
i guess it just really racks some people that geeks can draw six figures, doesn't it...
In our young company, Marketing is also tasked with product development. We are small enough to make that work. Our customers demands are not great, and any small innovation can be a gold mine. And the coolest thing is that once one customer rolls out something we have helped develop, then his competitors are hot to duplicate it.
if your techs tell your marketeers it can be done, and it can't, you're screwed.
We view the techs as tools, like a software app to be used, abused and discarded and upgraded or replaced as necessary in order to get the mission accomplished. They are plug and play components. I know that sounds cold, but there it is.
however, if the technical wisdom and marketing prowess come together in harmony..
I love it when that happens, but if it does not, we just reconfigure and carry on.