Functional directors, aka department managers, do a good job of optimizing business processes inside their own functional areas: marketing, sales, service, manufacturing, accounting, HR, and the rest. Functional directors have no authority to optimize processes between and across functional areas. That’s why things break down between marketing and sales, manufacturing and service, manufacturing and sales, etc. Only the CEO is responsible for the business as a whole. If the CEO doesn’t connect the dots, the company will never operate efficiently.
