‘Synergy’ is not a false promise

Research in microbiology is perhaps the last place you would look to find validation for the notion that ‘synergy’ in organisations is something real and not some magic potion from a Harry Potter novel that delivers continuous growth in per-share earnings.

For those uninitiated into the arcane world of management theory, the concept has traditionally been described by the mathematical equation, 2+2 equals 5.

The reference is not to some new insight from ‘Vedic Mathematics’ but merely a metaphorical way of denoting that extra beneficial outcome when different units of an organisation come together and work towards a common purpose.

However, for those somewhat arithmetically challenged, there is a more vivid description of how, when different units of an organisation come together and work as a team, the results are often far more significant than when they operate in their respective silos.

Think of the satisfaction one derives from drinking a cup of coffee. The process is familiar to most Indians. Mix the right quantities of coffee liquor, milk and sugar. Add some fizz to it by repeatedly pouring from a height, the contents from a tumbler into a holding container and vice versa and preferably in gravity defying patterns. Then take a sip. The experience is akin to being transported to a heaven full of elves and wood nymphs.

But drink the stuff in sequence: a thimble of coffee liquor followed by a teaspoon of sugar, rounded off with a cup of milk. You can’t be faulted for draining away the lousy taste in the mouth with a measure of Listerine from the medicine cupboard in the bathroom.

But not everyone is convinced (George Bush is one such. He has a healthy disdain for all things that come clothed as management theory.) that ‘synergy’ is low hanging fruit in organisations that is simply waiting to be plucked.

Indeed, in the coffee analogy it is difficult to convince the average Brazilian, who typically prefers his coffee to be black and has the added disadvantage of being a diabetic and lactose intolerant, to boot, of the synergistic benefits of the South Indian concoction.

Many years ago, the venerable Harvard Business Review cautioned companies ( Desperately Seeking Synergy , Michael Goold and Andrew Campbell, September 1998) that their ‘synergy’ initiatives may often fall short of expectations — a more genteel way of describing the whole thing as just plain bunkum. They may be right.

Put two groups of employees together and form a team. The first thing they will do is start comparing line entries in their payslips. Not the ideal way to start realising synergies from group working.

Companies have moved on to other things such as ‘core competencies’ and ‘capabilities’ in their constant quest for creating value to their stakeholders. But ‘synergy’, it would seem, is far from dead.

Despite annoying distractions such as pay differentials or expense account privileges that team members are prone to focus on, there just might be something to this ‘synergy’ business.

Popular Science magazine in its latest issue, talks of the work done by researchers at the University of Nottingham who have come up with an interesting insight as to how things work at the molecular level when the individual forces act in concert.

These researchers found that a thousand-year-old Anglo-Saxon treatment for eye infections works as an antibiotic against one of today’s most notorious bacteria, the Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). The article goes on to state that they will shortly present their findings at an annual microbiology conference to be held in the UK.

Christina Lee, one of the professors involved in the research, is a professor in Viking studies at the University of Nottingham.

She has translated the recipe for treatment of eye infection from an old 9th century medical textbook. It consists of two species of garlic and onions, wine, and bile from a cow’s stomach brewed in a brass cauldron and allowed to ferment for nine days before use.

The translation from 9th century English into modern language deserves to be quoted in full: “Take crop leek and garlic, of both equal quantities, pound them well together, take wine and bullocks’ gall, of both equal quantities, mix with the leek, put this then into a brazen vessel, let it stand nine days in the brass vessel, wring out through a cloth and clear it well, put it into a horn, and about night time apply it with a feather to the eye; the best leechdom.”

The researchers, it appears, tested the concoction on cultures of MRSA bacteria in synthetic wounds as well as in rats.

This is the interesting point. No individual ingredient had any effect on the cultures, but the combined liquid killed almost all the cells; only about one in 1,000 bacteria survived. As if this were not enough, the concoction had some potency even in its most diluted concentrations.

The highly diluted salve didn’t kill the bacteria, but still interrupted their communication, preventing them from damaging tissues. The article goes on to state that researchers have been looking to this type of communication interruption as a possible new way to treat antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

The management insight is this: Good strong teams deliver on the intended outcomes. Even when they are not the most cohesive ones they still might do the job in ways other than what was initially anticipated. The colour of the cat doesn’t matter as long as it catches mice, as Deng Xiaoping famously noted once.

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