Spanning silos

In Spanning Silos, David Aaker shows the unfettered decentralisation that produces silos is no longer feasible in today's marketplace. It's up to chief marketing officers (CMOs) to break down silo walls to foster cooperation and synergy.

This isn't easy: silo teams guard their autonomy vigorously.

Aaker, a professor of Marketing, Emeritus at the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley and vice chairmen of Prophet, has published more than 100 articles and 14 books, including Managing Brand Equity, Building Strong Brands, Developing Business Strategies and Strategic Market Management.

Personal branding expert Dan Schawbel speaks to Aaker about his new book Spanning Silos.

What are silos and why are they jeopardising companies' marketing efforts?

Silos are organisational units defined by product, countries, or functions.

They can be monumentally inefficient and, worse, barriers to great marketing and brands. Most operate in isolation if not in competition with each other.

They foster inefficiency, inhibit synergy, fail to leverage skills and successes, lead to resource misallocation, diffuse competence in key marketing activities, and create brand confusion. In tough economic times, such inefficiencies and barriers can mean the difference between business success and disappointing marketing performance or even survival.

What are some ways a Chief Marketing Officer can break down silo walls to foster cooperation and synergy?

Spanning Silos has several headlines:

* First, the role of the CMO team in the absence of a crises and changed business strategy may be a non-threatening one such as being a facilitator, consultant, or service provider. Such roles can avoid organisational stress and CMO flameout while still going a long way toward creating a communication and cooperation processes and culture and thus addressing many of the silo-driven issues.

* Second, silos can and should be a vehicle to test and refine ideas. Perhaps more important, silos can be a source of ideas for breakthrough products or marketing campaigns that can be rolled out across the organisation. McDonald's "I'm lovin it" came from Germany and Pantene's "Hair So Healthy It Shines" came from Taiwan.

* Third, one way to get buy-in from the organisation is to align the role of marketing with that of the CEO's priority agenda. Focus on growth objectives instead of brand extensions, efficiency and cost objectives instead of marketing synergy or scale, and building assets to support strategic initiatives instead of brand image campaigns.

* Fourth, use cross-silo teams to create relationships and communication channels. To succeed the team needs to have members with good group skills as well as the right expertise, leaders that can deal with multiple cultures, and clarity of mission.

What is the impact of globalisation on corporate marketing programmes?

They need to be concerned with coordinating the programmes across countries and regions. Usually brands and programmes need to be adapted to local culture but, also there is potential for shared ideas and synergistic programs of the "I am different" silo culture can be overcome.

CMOs only last a few years on the job. Why is this? What stories have you heard from the more successful CMOs?

Actually, the number is 23 months -- less than half that of a CEO. The basic reason is that silos have power and don't have to communicate and cooperate. They often believe that they know their products and markets well and that anyone else inserting themselves would only waste time. They usually have no motivation to reduce the silo walls because they are evaluated solely on the silo performance.

How can we apply many of the concepts and ideas in your book to the individual trying to market their own personal brand?

The major takeaway for an individual is recognition that silos are a major organisational challenge and that everyone has an opportunity to be part of the solution. There will be a big payoff to the person who can network, establish relationships, and communicate across silos. Even more to the person who can initiate cross silo programs. Some organisations formally measure such things but even those that don't will recognise success that results.