Marketing. Sales. Finance. Human resources. Run as distinct silos, these and other functions are too big, too slow and too expensive to be effective.
They can be barriers to speed, agility and decisiveness as each area, in turn, weighs in on key decisions. It’s something incumbents understand more and more each day: Only 25 percent believe their company’s operating model has evolved quickly enough to align to their strategy.
Innovators, startups, and disruptors organize around
customer experiences and value propositions and bring in functional skills as needed, eschewing the sequential and gaining speed in the bargain.
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Hurrying evolution
Given the speed at which business is moving, incumbents can no longer afford to group skillsets solely within an organization in functional silos. Because the lapsed time from idea to action has shortened too dramatically to accommodate sequential processing, and companies can no longer afford planning approaches that take weeks or months to design.
It’s a natural tendency: as businesses grow, they tend to adopt more traditional structures which leads to centralized functions and divisions.
Over time, organizations respond according to their internal needs over those of the market and the customer. And silos spread, ultimately inhibiting collaboration and innovation.
The trick comes in breaking them down by redesigning work to redefine end-to-end processes. Then giving employees the right tools for what’s most important: driving a relevant customer experience.
Redefine work
Empower market-facing teams to make decisions that break down functional silos and embed functional expertise in multi-disciplinary teams.
Enable teams with AI and analytics
Agile companies provide employees with a suite of digital tools to enhance job performance.
Redefine end-to-end processes
Integrate functional capability at the optimal point in the process; execute short sprints to prove value; and rapidly scale to build momentum.
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