The focus and constant challenge for business today is to try and drive out costs without diminishing the product or service. It is finding those costs that are not adding value, or are not ones the customer/consumer values. Having been in this cycle now for a few years it is now getting harder and harder to find those fat spots.

Yet businesses ignore a key lever that is cheap and available to everyone. Teamwork. Many organisations believe they have teamwork. The answer is they don’t. What they have is groups of individuals working under the same leader. The individuals focus first on their own objectives and if it is in line with another person’s in the team then there can be overlap but this is not the intention. The intention is for the individual to deliver and others objectives are not important.

Operating this way creates silos, double handling, less than ideal execution, limited communication all of which slows down a business and limits its performance.

When teams are connected, engaged and in sync then the opposite is true. Silos disappear, challenging business issues are solved and the objectives achieved quicker.

This lever is available to all and enhances the business and therefore the customer’s experience. Why not utilise what is the cheapest and most valuable resource a business has.