I think where BBCoach is coming from is not so much the types of situations where SEOs encounter this issue; Situations where either marketing or IT are the centre of the business.
I guess it goes back to the 70s-80s debate about how to run manufacturing companies (famously car companies): Engineers at the helm or 'professional management.' The proponents of the former assumed that running these companies without technical knowledge and often company specific experience is insane. Proponents of the latter viewed beleived in great managers being able to manage anything. After all, there is nothing technically specific about Bill Gate's famous insight, Toyota's QC system. The CEO is not actually engineering, coding or working a production line regardless of their background.
In a lot of the areas where the crucial part was technology, the engineers/programmers ended on top: Software, Biotech, etc.. In a lot of other areas professional managers became the leaders. There have been some failed experiments: Apple was always more successful under technical leadership. Most manufacturing is today under non-technical leadership. Google is an example of a compromise. In many consumer markets: retail, consumer products etc., The centre of gravity for the companies'
is marketing. Developing laundry powder or breakfast cereal is really a marketing exercise. Developing the product is important, but it is less of a bottleneck. The difference between good & great isn't as big as it is with the marketing. The opposite is true for a company like Google. In these cases I would argue that marketers are the equivalent of scientists in a bio-tech company.
In general, this kind of a 'who should be in charge' debate breeds bitterness. Programmers (or "hackers" like BBCoach;) react to certain things, especially those in the 'build me a site that makes lots of money' category. They also probably class way more things in that category then fair but they do get some of it & it really annoys them. Marketing people react to being told to just 'sell what we make,' pointing to the 4 Ps of marketing (Product, Price, Promotion, Place). To which the hackers reply that just because something starts with P doesn't mean they can have it & stop thinking that because something is a buzz word it's true. The first P is
not their domain, the last P should really be an L or part of the other Ps & the two Ps in the middle... well you know where you can stick them!!! Naturally, the marketers react to this by taking a coffee break & trying to figure out where to get someone less moody to
manufacture code. Then the programmers hear the italicised word & go ballistic with all sorts of bits about
manufacturing poetry & monkeys & Dilbert. They leave.
Then somehow a computer virus comes.
Edited by nethy, 13 January 2009 - 10:27 PM.
