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To execute organization strategy, several internal functions have to collaborate. Marketing and Sales typically lead the charge (or they think they do), and Finance, IT, Manufacturing, and HR bring up the rear. Enlightened companies will challenge each internal function provide a competitive advantage. For example, if HR can hire top notch talent who have business acumen, and creativity to match, all internal functions will benefit and be firing on all cylinders.

Yet there seems to more harm done be “friendly fire” than by competitors efforts. This happens because internal functions do not negotiate among themselves to establish inputs and outputs, quality of those outputs, and Service Level Agreements. This results in bureaucracy, bottlenecks, and frustration. Not to mention higher costs of doing business, and lower productivity.

Different companies have different ways of doing business. For legacy reasons, or for other reasons. This means no out-of-the-box “standard” can be adopted and each company has to work out the inter-function interfaces to drive their business model.

For example, HR may take care of the recruitment process, soup to nuts, or the hiring manager may have to play an active role to ensure quality control. The latter happens because HR lacks the knowledge of the business. If HR determines that it must become a true partner and “trusted advisor” they will step up to guarantee quality, if they are overwhelmed by administrative duties or if they are in a complex, technical, fast moving business, they may take time to do so.

Similarly, in some organizations IT may be best suited to manage the systems infrastructure, leaving the business teams to take on analysis, design, prototyping, and proof of concept for applications. In other cases, IT may not be a competitive advantage, hence all such functions are outsourced or in the cloud.

Establish your organization’s place in a maturity model, then craft your interfaces between internal functions to execute your strategy.