#26 - Corporate Strategy to Incentivize Collaboration Across Functions

Originally published in The Times of India.

In earlier Media Flywheels issues, I discussed critical organizational challenges in media companies:

Media Flywheels #6: How divisional structures and “House of Brands” strategies hinder algorithmic media platforms from achieving their potential.

Media Flywheels #9: A recommendation for Big Media to split into two business units:

1. Logged-out websites earning by collaborating with BigTech.
2. Algorithmic walled gardens (logged-in websites and apps) fostering loyalty and increasing ARPU.

Media Flywheels #19: The operational separation of left-brain systems (data and processes) from right-brain projects (creative endeavors).

• Media Flywheels #17: My advice to journalism students of Asian College of Journalism was to prioritize news gathering and verification over generalist functions.

Central Argument

The obvious next step is how to put yourself in a position to act on this. This requires organizational restructuring and a clear focus on incentives. I’ll explore this in two parts:

1. How to incentivize collaboration within teams (this issue).
2. How to incentivize collaboration across business units (next issue - Media Flywheels #27).

Is Organization Restructuring Required?

When Netflix shifted from DVDs to streaming, would it not have necessitated a significant overhaul of roles, responsibilities, and workflows across the company? Media companies, too, must focus on incentivizing their workforce for sustainable transformation.

Why It Matters

The goal of digital transformation is to achieve a competitive edge through technology or AI. However, without significant people transformation—including changes in workflows, expectations, and skill sets—technological investments often fail to deliver.

Unused tools and low adoption rates create a vicious cycle: minimal revenue generation justifies funding cuts, stalling development further. This often leads to a “graveyard” of underutilized proofs-of-concept.?

To succeed, media companies must integrate technical and cultural changes, beginning with how they incentivize their teams.

Incentivize being a ‘Functional Expert’ instead of a ‘General Manager’

Media companies today are often led by general managers, much like Boeing after its 1997 merger with McDonnell Douglas. At Boeing, a finance-focused leadership culture deprioritized engineering expertise, contributing to the 737 Max crises in 2018. Similarly, media companies must avoid prioritizing generalist leadership in a world increasingly dominated by algorithmic platforms and niche content.

Algorithmic media platforms require deep technical leadership to compete with other marketplaces. D2C (direct-to-consumer) media products thrive when they excel in a specific production style or niche—content that 20% of the audience loves, rather than 80% merely likes.

Functional leaders offer two key advantages:

• Strategic bets: They have the technical acumen to identify emerging trends and guide their teams toward differentiation and growth.
• Foster a culture that appreciates depth: Functional experts immerse themselves in their domain, often delving three or more levels into the specifics of processes, challenges, and progress. This granular knowledge informs their decision-making, enables them to provide meaningful guidance to their teams, and fosters trust throughout the organization.

By fostering technical expertise over general management, media companies can position themselves for success in the evolving digital landscape.

Incentivize your ‘Functional Experts’ to Collaborate

The best engineering managers have product sense. The best editors leverage analytics. The best reporters produce their stories themselves. The best business leaders can sell. The best platform builders can do financial modeling. I think you get the point.?

However, becoming cross-functional isn’t easy primarily because one cannot delegate understanding. Each functional team must do at least three things:

Make your function understandable: Take the onus on themselves to articulate the nuances of what they are doing, why, and how other teams can understand them.?

Understand other functions: Take the time out to read up on the other team’s articulation of what they do and ask questions.

Understand their defaults: While doing this, develop an understanding of other teams' "thinking techniques" to empathize with their perspectives and build trust:

• Economists, data scientists, and investment bankers are often driven by predictive and mathematical thinking,using models and analysis to anticipate trends and outcomes.
• Accountants, quality assurance testers, and lawyers excel in attention to detail, meticulously examining data and information for accuracy and compliance.
• Engineers, management consultants, and product managers thrive on creative problem-solving, developing innovative solutions to complex challenges.
• Salespeople, politicians, and diplomats are skilled in influencing and negotiation, using persuasion and relationship-building to achieve their goals.
• Editors, information designers, and information architects specialize in curating and organizing information,crafting clear and compelling narratives.
• User researchers and reporters embody skepticism and inquiry, constantly seeking truth and uncovering hidden insights.

By understanding and respecting these differences, teams can build trust and work cohesively to achieve shared goals.

Eliminate Overlaps

To become user-first, media companies must ensure that no two divisions have any overlap, however minor, between the users they target and the platforms they operate on. If there is, then both divisions should merge.?

This is necessary to ensure that, at the incentive and structure level, all conflicts of interest between teams are eliminated to ensure everyone knows they are encouraged to work cross-functionally to maximize the company's overall revenue rather than focusing on individual division goals.

Conclusion

Digital transformation in media companies requires more than just technology; it demands a people-first approach. By incentivizing collaboration and investing in functional expertise, organizations can unlock the full potential of their technological investments and build a culture of sustainable growth.

Want to republish it? This post was released under CC BY-ND — you can republish it as is with the following credit and backlinks: ‘Originally published by Ritvvij Parrikh on The Times of India. The author retains the copyright and any other ancillary rights to the post.