Why Collaboration Matters
XIP (short for Xerox International Partners)--based in Palo Alto, California--is a sales, marketing, and distribution arm of Fuji Xerox. The organization offers printers, full-system copiers and other document imaging systems for resale under other companies' brand names.
XIP operates in a tough, highly competitive global environment (come to think of it, these days, who doesn’t?) One would think that to survive in this Mad Max market, the boss would be a kick-ass, take-no prisoner type. I have no doubt that CEO Sunil Gupta is a tough guy, but what really intrigues me is his (correct) assessment that in today’s marketplace, it’s in-house collaboration—not command-and-control, not intimidation, not turfism, not pure Darwinian survival of the fittest--that will create corporate winners.
In a recent phone conversation, Gupta told me that one of his main priorities is to get three internal constituencies to work more closely and more transparently with one another. He cited his own management and technical team as one group, the folks at Fuji Xerox-- who are XIP’s exclusive supplier of technology as another group, and the members of XIP’s Board of Directors as the third group. Gupta’s belief is that pooling the talent and resources of these three stakeholders will create a faster, more cost-efficient and more innovative XIP. He doesn’t expect, or want, these three groups to second-guess or micro-manage each other’s affairs. He wants them to contribute their brains and passions towards common goals, without regard to artificial organizational barriers.
Gupta’s goal is absolutely valid. Today’s global marketplace is unbelievably fast, fluid, and transparent. In that environment, it’s the most agile and “smart” organizations which will prosper. And to become agile and smart, organizations must encourage—indeed, demand—that genuine collaboration become real, and not just lip service. Several years ago, Bob Ulrich, CEO of retailer Target, told me that one of the main reasons that the Target corporation stayed so innovative and vibrant is because he was unequivocal about pushing “boundarilessness” throughout the organization, so that divisions and units and departments and management levels freely shared information with one another, and freely allowed migration of people and data among themselves. Companies as diverse as Target, GE, 3M, Gore Associates, Genentech, Google, and Public Financial Management have strong cultures marked by performance accountability, to be sure, but also by collaboration, openness and transparency.
It’s not easy to break down beliefs and cultures that revolve around status, rank, turf, secrecy, separateness, closed doors, and “for your eyes only”. But Sunil Gupta, Bob Ulrich, and other exceptional executives believe that it ought to be a top leadership priority to try.
XIP operates in a tough, highly competitive global environment (come to think of it, these days, who doesn’t?) One would think that to survive in this Mad Max market, the boss would be a kick-ass, take-no prisoner type. I have no doubt that CEO Sunil Gupta is a tough guy, but what really intrigues me is his (correct) assessment that in today’s marketplace, it’s in-house collaboration—not command-and-control, not intimidation, not turfism, not pure Darwinian survival of the fittest--that will create corporate winners.
In a recent phone conversation, Gupta told me that one of his main priorities is to get three internal constituencies to work more closely and more transparently with one another. He cited his own management and technical team as one group, the folks at Fuji Xerox-- who are XIP’s exclusive supplier of technology as another group, and the members of XIP’s Board of Directors as the third group. Gupta’s belief is that pooling the talent and resources of these three stakeholders will create a faster, more cost-efficient and more innovative XIP. He doesn’t expect, or want, these three groups to second-guess or micro-manage each other’s affairs. He wants them to contribute their brains and passions towards common goals, without regard to artificial organizational barriers.
Gupta’s goal is absolutely valid. Today’s global marketplace is unbelievably fast, fluid, and transparent. In that environment, it’s the most agile and “smart” organizations which will prosper. And to become agile and smart, organizations must encourage—indeed, demand—that genuine collaboration become real, and not just lip service. Several years ago, Bob Ulrich, CEO of retailer Target, told me that one of the main reasons that the Target corporation stayed so innovative and vibrant is because he was unequivocal about pushing “boundarilessness” throughout the organization, so that divisions and units and departments and management levels freely shared information with one another, and freely allowed migration of people and data among themselves. Companies as diverse as Target, GE, 3M, Gore Associates, Genentech, Google, and Public Financial Management have strong cultures marked by performance accountability, to be sure, but also by collaboration, openness and transparency.
It’s not easy to break down beliefs and cultures that revolve around status, rank, turf, secrecy, separateness, closed doors, and “for your eyes only”. But Sunil Gupta, Bob Ulrich, and other exceptional executives believe that it ought to be a top leadership priority to try.
posted by Oren Harari at 12:30 PM
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