The wonderful opportunity, however, is that the handicaps suffered by both communities could swiftly become a mutual win through simple cooperation. But how would such cooperation occur? Through the Performance Marketing Office, of course.

Today, the Holy Grail for both communities - and the C level executives to which they report - is "organizational alignment", also known as the highly desired state within an organization where the energies of the people at all levels of the company are focused on achieving strategic goals and carrying out strategic initiatives through the application of aligned tactics. Trouble is, without some kind of organizational "linchpin" connecting strategy with execution, such modern goals will remain elusive.

I propose that the PMO can be this linchpin, but not the Project Management Office project managers have come to know over the years, but in fact, something much more powerful.

First, by branding marketing as more performance oriented, the baggage of unaccountability is immediately neutralized. Second the "performance" in performance marketing is more than just a flavor-of-the-month buzzword, since it now possesses the credibility that comes by co-existing with the company's project management office. Such a "new" PMO would immediately and automatically accomplish the following goals:

However, since marketing operations is a relatively new discipline, there aren't a lot of "experts" from the field of marketing available to champion its more process oriented demands. And while companies like Wal-Mart are increasingly looking for project and program managers "with marketing experience", such companies are also placing a premium on PMPs with people skills. So what the modern enterprise is increasingly looking for are "hybrid" workers to meet the demands of a changing world. Therefore, isn't it obvious that such hybrid workers should co-exist within a new, centralized hybrid department that doesn't add a new layer of bureaucracy and management, but in fact, merges existing layers into a cross-functional "super cell". Such a super cell would not only make marketing more "process oriented" and project management more "strategic", it would provide a central operating theatre which would simultaneously balance projects and resources while proactively "connecting" strategy with execution.

Tell me what YOU think?

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Join us on Tuesday, July 22nd at 2:00 EDT for this webinar with Ali Pulver, Global Project Management Director for Enfatico (a WPP agency)

Ali is the Global Project Management Lead for the new WPP agency Enfatico and has been in the WPP family since 2004, having led the Project Management team for Microsoft (as part of Young & Rubicam Brands) and leading the PM team for Wunderman NY.

Prior to joining Wunderman Ali spent several years as a Project Manager for Digitas where she managed Web development, marketing strategy, software builds and traditional advertising projects for clients such as American Express, Wolters Kluwer and Barnes & Noble. She has also been a Producer for eMarketplaces, Inc., where she led the design and implementation of new vertical marketplaces and the company's intranet. Please watch for details about this exciting webinar in upcoming bulletins.