The stereotypical relationship between marketing and procurement is often portrayed as a fractious one. With marketing professionals resenting the interference of the ‘cost police’, and procurement frustrated by creatives who fail to consider the impact on the bottom line.

But does this generalization really hold true, or have marketing and procurement learnt to coexist and value the others’ input? To examine this more closely, we spoke with leading marketing and procurement professionals and asked them to share their experiences – the good, the bad and the ugly. We also review the tangible lessons we can take away as we aim to forge productive partnerships with colleagues, who are often incentivized to pursue different sets of goals.

Featuring insight from Cath Hill, director at CIPS, Kate McNamee, director of marketing and communications at Alliance Manchester Business School, Richard Beaumont, former VP at Rolls Royce and CPO at the Co-operative Bank, Michael Tierney, brand and marketing manager at OneFamily and Marium Ali, marketing director for EMEA at ECCO Safety Group, we identify five common themes:

• Valuing complementary skills
• Nurturing respect for innovation
• Agreeing shared objectives
• Seeking collaboration, not confrontation
• Keeping communication constant