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February 22, 2008

re: Complaints about Silos -- Who's really to blame?

I had a great, short conversation with Efrem "Skip" Zimbalist III, Chairman and CEO of Active Interest Media (AIM) about silos in the modern publishing company. Efrem drove home a few points that I found to be right on the mark.

The first, Skip feels that there is usually a silo problem when there is not strong leadership at the top of the organization. In my years of consulting -- not just in publishing technology -- I have noted that a culture of infighting tends to brew when there is a passive CEO at the helm who is not defining the direction of the company early and often. There are plenty of books on the market from Good to Great (Jim Collins) and The Five Temptations of a CEO (Patrick Lencioni) that go over this fatal flaw of the CEO, but having a successful and vibrant CEO like Skip tell it to me straight and simple was just about as powerful as any message I've ever gotten.

The second, Skip lamented how companies spend too much time fighting each other rather than the competition, and that if they focused more on getting things done rather than placing blame they might be more successful. Again, I have seen this at a number of companies where vision is not well articulated and the culture is a reflexive one -- always looking inward as opposed to what opportunities and threats are happening in the marketplace.

Third, Skip brought up classic change management when he spoke about 'inclusiveness' with newly acquired brands. His feeling is that these businesses often bring in their own best practices that the rest of the organization can share. Conversely, by including them in the conversations about the future, Skip feels he will get better results and buy-in from those businesses than by just foisting decisions upon them.

You don't get to meet 'real' CEO's every day, so just spending a few minutes with one like Skip Zimbalist was very gratifying. Sure hope I get another chance someday!

Posted at 12:15 pm by Joseph Bachana