Clearly a  core skill of cost / management accountants to  bring different parts of a business together for the greater good of the organisation. The more each team / division of an organisation understands different parts of the business  the more they can add to the organisation.


Whatever the terminology communication is vital and as technology changes new way of 'linking' up needs to be employed. Whether  this is  twitter, intranets, departmental e-mail lists etc.


It is also important, especially in manufacturing industries that  daily / regular interdepartmental meetings are held  where ideas, issues and problems can be discussed. It not only leads to a general greater understanding but also innovative solutions  that may not have been thought of  by individual departments / teams.


I am familiar  with these concepts from a number of my recent contract employments within manufacturing  industries  whether it be within food manufacture ( New York Bakery ), circuit boards ( Asteelflash )  or engineering ( Cerulean ).

It was well caught that that we live in times which worships efficiency and so there is often not enough time space to slow down and have a look at our business from different perspective to find new opportunities for business growth.

Great article, i'm a strong believer in cross pollination of ideas and skills. In my organisation there is a lot of working together with other heads and this needs to be fostered at all levels in the organisation. It helps to share the experiences and then think collectively, we have often come up with good workable and unique ideas. It is critical for product development, internal processes and many other things.

Cross-team training can really help breaking down silos. It should be very beneficial to have people from multiple departments/skill sets work on projects in order to obtain a wide view of the problem at hand. People tend to focus on the issues surrounding a project which they identify with and relate to (comfort zone), and putting different people together should be able to give a better view, and also better solutions.

A potential key, untapped resource for companies. Through joining different departments together, actively encouraging identification of synergies and understanding the roles of other departments enable a business to automatically innovate and evolve naturally.  The question is how to engage and enforce the behaviour within an organisation's workforce.