The sharing imperative

PurposeThis paper aims to explain how undue emphasis on unit accountability can foster parochial behaviors and silo thinking that drive out inter‐unit cooperation. It also aims to warn that growth strategies depend on cross business sharing.Design/methodology/approachThe author, Royal Dutch Shell Chair Professor of Sustainable Business Growth at IMD, details four steps senior executives can take to fight the growing insularity among a firm's businesses and promote better sharing among them.FindingsThe four steps are: reinforce the company's shared purpose and values; nurture boundary spanners; provide score cards that are balanced between horizontal contributions and vertical contributions; and support the informal organization by encouraging interactions, such as social events.Practical implicationsBy nurturing the informal organization, managers encourage a culture of sharing. Sharing between two business units is helped if at least one of them has a boundary spanner who can act as the bridge.Originality/valueParadoxically, the very features of a competence that make it distinctive and hard for competitors to procure or copy are also the ones that are more tacit and difficult to share internally as well.