We’ve all had the experience of working within an organization that was highly silo’d and breaking through to other departments was a virtual impossibility.  More frustrating is when you’re tasked with developing, and delivering on a project that requires the participation and cooperation of those departments that won’t even respond back to you.  And when they finally do respond back it’s to tell you that your data is garbage and “not consistent with what they already know”.

     In an article titled “The Cat That Came Back”, authors Gary Neilson and Bruce Pasternack profile the amazing turnaround of Caterpillar and their transition from a heavy siloed operation to one of improved decision rights, information flow, renewed motivators, and an improved structure.  While the article was written in August of 2005, the information contained in the article is just as valid today as it was then.

     This is a huge topic to capture in a single blog entry so I would encourage you to download the article from the Strategy+Business site (Booz /Allen / Hamilton) and read about the transition that $30 billion company went through and ask yourself…”what’s stopping my own company from effecting similar change?”  More than likely you’re at a much smaller company that can effect that change quicker.  I know, as one of the companies I worked with broke down some of those same barriers and increased EBIT levels at a growth rate of almost 4x that of our revenues, without decreasing headcounts.

Thanks for reading…..

 Jeffrey Ishmael