PKF Texas: The Entrepreneur’s Playbook® - Collaboration

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Greg Price
Episode: 256
May 01, 2010

Summary:

Commitment and communication are not always enough to solve a company’s problems, but they can be a step in the right direction. Greg Price offers a puzzle.

Full Interview text

Greg: This is Greg Price with PKF Texas' Entrepreneur's Playbook.

The other day I was listening to a presentation made by a highly successful local CEO of a technology company with offices here in Houston. One of the subjects he covered was the trials and tribulations of getting two previous competitive organizations working together collaboratively as one company.

I found that discussion interesting because I have begun to notice other common patterns in both business and leisure that parallel the CEO's comments. Here are some examples:

I was on my way to watch a collegiate softball game the other day and a friend of mine said, "I hope you all do well this weekend". He was on his way to watch the baseball team. My response to him was, "I hope we win in baseball too."
I was visiting with a prospective client, and the Controller said, the operations personnel cannot do anything right. We have to spend hundreds of hours each year correcting their mistakes. When I met the operations personnel, they said no one ever asked them if they knew what they were supposed to do, or if the processes were correct for their business model.

In these two small examples, you can see how commitment and communication, or the lack thereof, contributed to both problems. My friend is not committed to the success of the university's sports programs. He is committed to his sport, baseball. And only provides passive support at best towards the softball program. And at our prospect, just the simple act of listening to both sides of the organization and leading a focused and directed discussion brought daylight to a highly poisoned relationship.

So what did our CEO do to get his organization working together? I will leave you with two thoughts:

Aerial photography, and Two bricks

Any guesses as to what they did?

To read and comment on the PKF Texas' Entrepreneur's Playbook, visit my blog, fromgregshead.com. And be sure to check out the new mobile ready website at PKF Texas.com - PKF Texas, The Fit That's Right!