Breaking down internal silos to Move Faster

Breaking down internal silos is critical when you are trying to quickly bring to market brilliant ideas from external sources. Few companies who have understood the importance are given below with their stories:

Facebook
Facebook knows this, although its subscriber base has grown to more than 80 crore users, the company still employs only about 35 designers, using a flat organizational structure. Soleio Cuervo, the second designer that Facebook CEO Mark Zucherberg hired in 2005, says “When I started, it was only a handful of product designers. Now, engineers work with us directly. We don’t throw documents at them with specs. We all focus on the site’s user experience versus the code.

SAP Labs
Similarly V.R. Ferose, Managing Director of SAP Labs India has set up ‘AppHaus’. An open space within the campus where designers, engineers and marketers work collaboratively & intensively on new products. Recently a small 10 member team worked around the clock in the AppHaus using limited resources to develop a social networking site called Charitra. The website connects people with need (NGOs and volunteers driving the cause) to the people who can give (other NGOs or volunteers willing to work for a cause). This initiative won the IAMAI ‘Best use of internet for economic and social development’ award and the National Award in IT Excellence in 2012 in the category of ‘Use of IT for social cause’.

Proctor & Gamble
Proctor & Gamble has established a mechanism called Connect & Develop to fast track the sourcing and commercialization of bright ideas from creative external partners. Now P&G can launch promising products within months rather than years. One such product is the Pulsonic toothbrush, which P&G co-developed with a leading Japanese firm. P&G alone could not have brought out this product on its own.

The New York Times Company
The New York Times Company has successfully demonstrated its ability to think and act flexible by providing dedicated space and time for its creative employees to experiment with radical new ideas. With the Internet slowly killing the print media and sucking away advertising revenue The New York Times Company decided to improvise. NYTC set up a R&D department that identifies emerging consumers and technology trends, such as social media, e-readers, and mobile devices, and formulates strategies for NYTC to proactively embrace them rather than being disrupted by them.

In the midst of uncertainty and ever changing technology, long term plans become blunt and even dangerous. To thrive in this volatile world, the ability to think and act flexibly is crucial.