Let me generalize. Marketing is too hit and miss. Advertising is in spasm. Public relations is polarized, with a minority that ‘get it’ and a majority that don’t know they don’t. Customer service is drowning. The ‘digital’ slash ‘social’ set are trying hard to live up to the false promise they promised. The Chief Exec is frustrated that things just aren’t gelling. And almost everyone is inwardly focused on the current recessionary (or at least ‘non-boom’) climate, this month’s costs and cash flows.

Is this fair? No, I said I was generalizing. But I have spoken with quite a few board directors from different disciplinary backgrounds over the last few years who hold at least one of these views about the other disciplines, and not too rarely about their own.