Key Thoughts:
Once in a while, I come across a story so intriguing I just have to share it immediately. This is one of them. One of the key tenets of Toyota Lean principles is looking across industries to find inspiration to a problem. In a similar context, this story of Sony's American boss, Sir Howard Stringer is doing the same with management issues. And one of the perennial management issue is getting people to work across functions, across department.
Summary:
Sir Howard Stringer famously launched "Sony United" back in 1995 to break the silo mentality at Sony. The walkman guys do not talk to the Bravia guys, who in turn do not talk to the Cybershot guys. Change management was crucial, but it proved hard to dismantle. But when he attended the Sony Orchestra he found something to embody his message: "Here they were, right in front of me, engineers from all the company bound together only by their talent in music. If they managed to collaborate, why couldn't the organisation?"
The orchestra was founded by Stringer's predecessor, Norio Ohga, who was a former opera singer. Stringer in turn is a talented boyhood musician. Ohga has 'likened the job of company leader to that of a conductor, who brings out the best from diverse individuals."
So when Sir Howard was invited to the board of Carnegie Hall, he cajoled its executive director into hosting Sony Philharmonic Orchestra at Carnegie Hall. Through Sony's vast array of subsidiaries, he secured the principal guest conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra and Yo Yo Ma, famous cellist and Sony BMG to record it of course.
'When Sir Howard announced at Sony's management conference that the orchestra would be performing outside Japan, "I did not use it shamelessly, I wanted the symbolism to be self-evident," he says. The effect was swift, however. "We had a lot of calls and e-mails from people wanting to be members," says the orchestra's GM. More than 60% of the members are engineers.
Does it work? A recent orchestra rehearsals led to collaborations on noise cancelling headphones and home theatre amplifiers. Expanding this to other forms of networking activities has resulted in side projects in the weekend.
My comments:
I normally do not summarize webpages, but this was too good a story to just bookmark and file. Do we have silo problems? I'm sure we do, and I'm sure we have find a similar networking opportunities that will result in collaborations and innovation. i would seriously think about such possibilities as I sleep tonight.
Reference: Staff sing from one hymn sheet, Andrew Edgecliffe-Johnson, FT.com, [accessed: 14 October 2008] http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/63bb4a52-96f1-11dd-8cc4-000077b07658.html?nclick_check=1
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