Who should own the company’s website?

Dear Bob …

I find myself in the midst of a turf war. The president of the company is battling the CIO over the issue of who should control the website. The president says it belongs in the Marketing department, the CIO says it belongs in IT.

Personally, I’m more than happy to leave control of the website in the hands of marketing (where it’s been since 1996) – but the CIO sees this as an encroachment on IT’s territory.

The president’s argument is that IT, and specifically this CIO, is so bound up in procedures and risk avoidance, that IT cannot be responsive enough to the flexibility needed in current web site design changes.

I have a very good relationship with the company president, and a not very good relationship with the CIO (I’m hoping his is a short reign). Unfortunately, the CIO is part of the parent company (we were purchased a couple of years ago), and has influence on my career path.

Do you have any insight on this issue?

– Turfbound

Dear Turfbound …

Several thoughts occur to me. The first is, what on earth is the CIO thinking? Engaging in a turf issue with the president is politically foolish, even if he is part of corporate. If he calls the question back at headquarters, he’s asking the CEO to override a business-unit head to support the head of a service function.

Not smart.

And anyway, the whole turf issue is a perfect example of a false dichotomy – an argument based on the wrong premise that if the answer isn’t one thing, it’s the other.

Here’s how it should work (forgive me if I’m pointing out what’s painfully obvious): IT is responsible for web technology – its overall architecture, operations, data design and coding. Marketing is responsible for the web strategy, scope, design, publishing workflow, and marketing content.

To the extent that the scope of the website encompasses areas beyond marketing, other areas also have content responsibilities – shareholder relations and recruiting being two of the most common.

Another thought, that stems from the first, is that your president’s thought process also worries me. He/she is making a common mistake – making a decision about organizational alignment based on the existence of a performance problem instead of fixing the problem.

What I’m trying to say is that If IT isn’t performing, keeping the website away from it still leaves the company with an IT organization that isn’t performing.

One more, partially self-serving thought: If, for political reasons, this is too tough a nut to crack through internal decision-making processes, encourage the president to bring in an outside consulting company to help (mine, for instance). Unless the company has some issues that seriously complicate the question, any competent organization consultant should be able to bring something like this to closure pretty quickly.

– Bob