For decades, businesses have been structured around functions, departments, and organisational silos, believing this is the most efficient way to operate. Strategy sits in one corner, Marketing sits in another, Sales in another, PR somewhere else, and so on. Each function is treated as a separate entity, managed with its own targets, objectives, and KPIs. But here’s the problem: this fragmented thinking and siloed organisation breeds inefficiency, lack of alignment, and ultimately, poor commercial performance.
The reality is that businesses don’t succeed because their departments function well in isolation and even where they work together, they are often pretty inefficient ways to deliver value to market. They succeed when operations and processes are designed to be complete—seamless, interconnected, and focused on delivering value from end to end. They succeed where operations are led by principle, to create and deliver more custiomer and commecial value. This is where operational, process-driven discipline takes over and delivers real impact and where functional, departmentalised concepts fade away.
Misconceptions of Marketing, PR, and Marcomms. they Are Functions—Not Disciplines
One of the biggest misconceptions in business is treating Marketing, PR, and marcomms as disciplines rather than what they actually are—functions. A function is simply a structural category within an organisation, but it has little intrinsic value unless it is embedded within a process-driven commercial discipline.
The real value lies in the underlying shared disciplines and processes that drive these functions, such as commercial strategy, customer insight, value proposition development, relationship management, demand management, capability building, intellectual calital management and so on. When businesses focus on "marketing" as a function, they often fall into the trap of isolated campaigns, vanity metrics, and disjointed customer exepreinec and brand.
It's not about whether a company has a marketing department—it’s about whether the right processes exist to create a seamless, measurable, and process-complete approach to driving revenue and brand impact. Even where there is a common reference model, the introduction of functional thinking inevitably leads to inefficiencies, conflict, inability to adapt and disruption in the flow of customer and commercial value. It's not about better definition either, or description of sub-functional elements, transition to more effective operational, process-complete and discipline-led operations is about fundamental decomposition and redisign of commercial strategy and operations from the ground up based on process and shared discipline, not based on function or some accepted wisdom.
Why Organisational, Functional, and Departmental Thinking Fails
Inefficiency & Waste: When every department has its own strategy, tools, and objectives, resources are wasted. Duplication, variable disecription, meaning, interpretation and irrelevant boundaries, conflicting priorities, and internal competition slow things down.
Lack of Integration & Cohesion: Sales, marketing, PR, and marcomms should be de-composed and the disciplines that drive them should be embedded in a single, coordinated entity, a connected flow of commercial strategy and operations. But in siloed functional structures, they often operate independently, leading to disjointed messaging, fragmented customer experiences, and lost revenue opportunities.
Failure to See the Whole Picture: Organisational charts force businesses to think in vertical hierarchies rather than horizontal, process-complete workflows. This means teams optimise for internal success, not customer value.
Inability to Adapt Quickly: In a fast-moving market, agility is key. But departmental thinking locks businesses into slow-moving, bureaucratic decision-making where change is difficult to implement.
How Operational Rather than Organisational Thinking Creates ‘Process Complete’ Operations
Instead of organising around functions, businesses should focus on operational workflows that deliver customer and commercial value. The goal is to design the entire process from start to finish, ensuring that everything flows seamlessly towards a clear customer and commercial objectivs.
A "process complete" approach means:
The underlying shared disicplines of Commercial Strategy, Marketing, Sales, PR, marcomms, Brand-Building, Capability Building, Intellectual Capital Management, Performance Improvement and Operations are interconnected within a single, efficient operation.
Instead of each function working towards separate KPIs, they work towards a unified, revenue-driven process - a Unified Commercial Engine (UCE).
Technology and data unify decision-making rather than being department-specific tools.
Customer experience is managed end-to-end, ensuring consistency and effectiveness.
Commercial value creation is optimised and driven through a single operating model
Why Functional Thinking Has Been Bad for Commercial Strategy and Operations and Functions like Marketing, Sales, PR, and Brand-Building
When marketing, sales, PR, and brand-building are treated as separate functions:
Marketing focuses on lead generation but isn’t accountable for how those leads convert into revenue.
Sales struggles with lead quality because marketing isn’t aligned with the sales process.
PR creates media exposure but doesn’t connect to customer acquisition.
Marcomms develops campaigns without a clear commercial link to business impact.
This results in misalignment, wasted budgets, and lost opportunities.
The Better Alternative: Process-Complete Commercial Strategy
Instead of asking, "How do we optimise each department or each function?" the right question is: "How do we design a commercial process that seamlessly delivers customer and commercial value?"
A process-complete model ensures that the undelying and shared discioplines of strategy, marketing, sales, brand-building, capability building, intellectual capital management, performance improvement and comemrcial operations are integrated into a single operational framework, designed around:
Customer journeys (not internal structures)
Customer and commercial value-driving processes (not departmental KPIs)
Capital asset and intellectual capital accumulation (not just cost efficiency and revenue)
Continuous feedback loops (so every part of the process improves the next)
The Strategic Value of Silos (In the Right Context)
While siloed structures can be problematic, there are cases where focused, independent teams within an organisation have driven breakthrough innovations. A classic example is Sony’s development of the Walkman—a project that was incubated within a specific division, allowing for rapid innovation without interference from broader corporate constraints. Similarly, in R&D-heavy environments or highly specialised areas (e.g., deep-tech innovation, pharmaceuticals, or creative industries), focused silos can help accelerate expertise, streamline decision-making, and protect intellectual property.
However, even in these cases, success is not due to the silo itself but to the effectiveness of the process governing it. The moment an internal function becomes self-serving rather than contributing to an overall process-complete operation, inefficiencies creep in. For example, Sony’s inability to integrate its various business units (hardware, software, content) efficiently led to missed opportunities in the digital era.
The takeaway? Strategic focus can be valuable, but the ultimate performance driver is not siloed thinking—it’s an operational, process-complete model that ensures seamless alignment between innovation, execution, and commercial success.
Final Thought: Shift from Silos to Seamless Operations
The best-performing businesses don’t organise around functions. They organise around customer and commercial value creation and delivery and they design their operations to be process complete from end to end.
It's time to break the cycle of siloed functional thinking and start designing businesses that actually work—efficiently, effectively, and in total alignment with customer and commercial success.
Useful sources
McKinsey & Company:"The Silo Syndrome: The Silent Killer of Productivity and Profitability": This article delves into how organizational silos impede performance and offers strategies to foster cross-functional collaboration.
Harvard Business Review (HBR):"Breaking Down Silos: The Path to Operational Excellence": HBR discusses the detrimental effects of siloed thinking and presents case studies on companies that have successfully adopted process-oriented models.
Forbes:"How Breaking Down Data Silos Unleashes Organizational Growth": This piece explores the importance of integrating data across departments to drive informed decision-making and enhance organizational agility.
Accenture:"Organizational Culture: From Always Connected to Omni-Connected": Accenture's report outlines how companies can strengthen culture and connection by delivering "omni-connected experiences," enabling people to participate fully and have an equitable experience, regardless of where they physically work. In their publication, "Breaking Through Functional Silos to Gain Speed and Agility," Accenture discusses how traditional functional silos render organizations "slow, bureaucratic and complex." They argue that while these structures were once necessary, they now hinder competitiveness in the digital age.
Bain & Company:"The Firm of the Future: Process-Led Transformation": Bain examines how organizations can transition from traditional functional structures to process-led models to enhance efficiency and customer satisfaction.
Gillian Tett: "The Silo Effect" Why every organisation needs to disrupt itself to survive
Academic Perspective:"Organizational Agility: How Targeted Network Investments Promote Organizational Responsiveness" by Rob Cross et al.: This research paper discusses how organisational network analysis can help leaders make targeted investments to enhance agility by fostering better collaboration and breaking down silos.
PwC: The report titled "Seven Strategies for Breaking Down Silos" describes silos as "a legacy of command and control leadership symbolising outmoded and inefficient management." It emphasises that during times of significant change, silos become obstacles to growth and profitability.
References
Investopedia: Silo Mentality: Definition in Business, Causes, and Solutions
Industry Week: The Pathe to Operational Excellence Throuhg Operational Discipline
Forbes: How to Improve Cross-functional Collaboration With Agency Clients
Wikipedia: Process-based Management
Forrester: The What, Why, And How Of Cross-functional Alignment
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