Run your organization as one company, not many. This episode shares a practical one-company strategy to break silos and move faster with real examples from Goldman Sachs, Heinz, Fidelity, Nordstrom, Walmart, Apple, Sony, Applebee’s, and TGI Fridays. You’ll learn how shorter, scannable artifacts unlock selling time at Goldman Sachs, how factory matchmaking at Heinz turns excess capacity into savings, why over‑servicing overnight support in retail destroys ROI, and how procurement and marketing misalignment leads to waste that companies like Walmart avoid with smarter vendor partnerships. We also discuss what Apple’s unified approach got right, why Sony’s division‑driven model struggled by comparison, and how brand collaborations like Applebee’s and TGI Fridays' product licensing demonstrate cross‑team wins that compound.
What you’ll learn
Chapters:
(00:00) Intro
(00:32) Why companies don’t act as one company
(01:26) Glassdoor example at Fidelity
(02:30) Why silos happen and how they hurt execution
(03:09) Goldman Sachs binder problem and the “Chinese wall” myth
(04:25) Fix: shorter report formats approved by audit/legal
(05:31) Heinz Europe: 30 factories, siloed awareness
(07:07) Heinz US: cross-division collaboration and licensing idea
(08:07) Applebee’s/TGI Fridays licensing to retail (Walmart pitch)
(09:21) Heinz “dices in tomato sauce”: smaller dices reduce downtime, boost sales
(12:06) Retail call center: overnight support analysis and right‑sizing
(14:47) Service design notes and the Nordstrom piano anecdote
(15:29) SKU chaos: frozen pizza pepperoni consolidation to cut costs
(17:29) Procurement vs. product assumptions and vendor poster waste
(18:52) Poster fix: custom counts beat blanket seven‑poster orders
(19:23) Force multiplier: talk across divisions to find simple wins
(20:25) Cross‑pollinate managers to break silo thinking
(21:07) Apple vs. Sony: unified org vs. divisions (Walter Isaacson insight)
(22:02) Speed collaborating: 10–20 minute cross‑team rotations
(22:58) Budget challenge: make cost‑imposers justify requirements
(23:33) Steering committee: shared visibility to spark collaboration
(24:38) Incentives: align bonuses to shared goals, not divisions
(26:03) Recognize cross‑team wins to reinforce behavior
(26:38) Boots‑on‑the‑ground rule for new projects
This episode is great for leaders and operators who want faster execution, fewer handoffs, and better customer experiences, especially at enterprise scale, where silos form easily
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