Big data and new technologies are continuing to change the way companies in every industry do business, and no team can afford to self-select out of updating processes with so many new tools hitting the market. Christopher Penn (pictured), vice president of marketing technology at SHIFT Communications LLC, is vehement that all businesses accommodate data-crunching tech into their process — or risk extinction.

“One of the things that a lot of veteran marketing and [public relations] practitioners have to overcome is this idea that the PR folks sit over there and they just smile and dial and get hits. And then the ad folks are over here … it’s all the same thing,” Penn said of the interdepartmental turmoil that can emerge when data isn’t usefully exchanged.

Old schools of thought around departmental structures are proving fatal, while holistic integration of new strategies can keep an organization thriving. “If we don’t, as an industry, realize that those silos are artificially imposed … we will eventually end up turning over all of it to the machines, because the machines will be able to cross those organizational barriers much faster,” Penn said.

Penn spoke with Rebecca Knight (@knightrm) and Dave Vellante (@dvellante), co-hosts of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE’s mobile livestreaming studio, during the IBM Chief Data Officer Summit event in Boston, Massachusetts. They discussed the effects of artificial intelligence and machine learning on business and marketing, as well as what companies must do to remain competitive.  (* Disclosure below.)

Organizational inertia increasingly fatal

While the essential creative functions of a marketer remain unchanged, companies striving for recognition must incorporate new functions into their processes at the individual level. “A lot of people like to say, well there’s the left brain and the right brain. … You can’t really do that anymore. You actually have to be both brained. You have to be just as creative as you have always been, but now you have to at least have an understanding of this technology and what to do with it,” Penn said.

For teams ready to modernize their offerings, the first step is knowing when and how to utilize tools for automation to streamline work. “You have the internet, which is … the ability to connect machines and people. … You’ve got this confluence of networks, and cloud, and technology, and processing power that we’ve never had before,” Penn said.

As the space continues to be characterized primarily by its ever-changing nature, Penn warns companies to remain open. The number one thing that does not work is for business executives to have pre-conceived ideas of the way things should be, he explained.

“Like, ‘Well this is the way we’ve always done it, and it’s gotten us this far.’ But what they don’t realize is the incredible amount danger they’re in, because their more-agile competitors are going to eat them for lunch,” he concluded.

Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of IBM Chief Data Officer Summit. (* Disclosure: TheCUBE is a paid media partner for the IBM Chief Data Officer Summit. Neither IBM, the event sponsor, nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE