4. Breaking Down Silos
One of the talking points across business in recent years has been the existence of silos and whether they help or hinder working practices. Critics say that one of the main consequences of silos are the issues they create for company cohesion and employee engagement; studies by McKinsey and others have suggested that poor cohesion, sometimes called a poor sense of ‘belonging’, is frequently to blame for low productivity. While they allow for specialisation and focus, silos have been attacked for promoting distrust, unhealthy competition and conflict between teams, while eroding faith in the company's values and leadership, and demotivating employees from working with the interests of the whole organisation at heart.
For Omer Wilson, the existence of silos is one of the natural consequences of having a global team. ‘We have people in Singapore, Hong Kong, India,’ he says. ‘That forces you to use collaborative tools and establish best practices to pull down silos.’ Ultimately, however, it comes down to the overall culture of the business and whether that supports cooperation. ‘Any company can be very silo-orientated, and leave people to their roles. But you can usher in a collective mindset where everybody is on a level playing field, wherever they’re based, whatever they’re doing, from the CEO down to the assistant. That kind of culture is essential. It’s also what the next generation wants.’
Both culture and technology have a part to play in bringing down silos, but culture is more important – and communication in particular is key. ‘“How do you bring down silos?” is really the Holy Grail question. It’s so important. I think PR can serve as the centre point for a lot of that,’ says Heather Vana. ‘I’ve started inviting people from different areas to my weekly PR call, where we go through all the outstanding items. We devote half the time to going over the “big issue” – the next big thing we need to plan for. People come and once they’ve got the gist, they can drop off. And this is now done at leadership level as well.’
Ian Ferguson agrees that culture is what counts. Values, he says, drive behaviour. ‘What’s important is how the leadership of the company models its values,’ he says. ‘We’re set up to win as a team and lose as a team. That encourages collaboration. We start with the customer and what that person wants from us. That’s our guiding light. To solve that challenge, different internal teams have to interact and work together.’
Is there a case to be made for more siloed working practices? Scott Horn says different teams have different rhythms. ‘I’m a big believer that product marketing should live in marketing,’ he says. ‘I’ve seen some companies put it in product management. But product management has its own rhythm – its own meetings, its own workflows. And they’re different from marketing. Putting product marketing and product management together creates a clash.’ Company-wide goals and good leadership at all levels of the company are the most effective way to encourage collaboration while allowing for separation and specialisation. It isn’t an either/or, says Scott. ‘You need to have good alignment. Leadership must be cognizant of the different operating rhythms among teams. In the end, it comes down to the same old thing: good management, good leadership – in sales, product, engineering, finance, marketing.’
Both cross-functional and specialised teams have a role to play. ‘The essence of cross-functional teams is that you can streamline,’ says Aline Lemone. ‘You have everyone you need in sales, marketing, communications, product development. It means you can move forward quickly. But it’s not the answer to everything.’
