This is business today:

As a manager, you focus on one area – and you know chapter and verse on this one area. This one area’s P&L is all that matters.

So, in far too many modern enterprises, the reality is that you don’t care about your colleague’s area, or any area other than your own.

Welcome to Corporate One-derland. The place where a siloed focus on individual profit areas has caused us to lose sight of the wider mission of the business; and in far too many cases, chances to help other parts of the business to everyone s mutual advantage get lost or ignored.

I was in Corporate One-derland recently when I sat down with a senior manager at a household name utility who told me that he agreed our software could help him, but that as he’d already secured his bonus, he didn’t see any value in engaging with us. The rest of the business could basically, go hang.

I was glad to get my passport and check out of Corporate One-derland.

What’s going on? The danger of the over-focus means we have forgotten what business metrics are for.

They can help you track progress, understand where you are in the game today, spot promising or worrying patterns and better inform decision-making. They are also there to help drive common, organisational improvement measures. For instance, my company often helps people in one team reduce headcount by introducing efficiencies. One way to measure that is to say Division X has cut its headcount and is operating more profitably.

Those staff – 60% of the original team – are a very valuable, skilled resource, are now freed up to contribute to much higher-value activities elsewhere. So just as importantly as the reduced headcount in Division X, other parts of the organisation improved, reported better numbers as a result of good work in this one area.

I think many of us would like to see more of this joined-up thinking happening, where we look to see not just what’s in it for me as a manager but for the company as a whole.

That’s the way smart, integrated, responsive companies outperform their competitors, best satisfy their customers and partners and their shareholders and investors, too.

If you’re in Corporate One-derland, look for an exit visa, soon.

• 
•