What Amazon Can Teach Payments Companies About Collaboration

Aiming for Interoperability is the Trait of Non-collaborative Payments

Most companies have a difficult relationship with collaboration.

On the one hand, they espouse the benefits of diverse ideas to make projects succeed. On the other, companies pay for individual performance, which pits employees against each other.

Mary Poppendieck, co-author of Lean software development, put it best:

Competition between teams, rather than individuals, may seem like a good idea, but it can be equally damaging. Once, I worked in a division in which there were two separate teams developing software products that were targeting similar markets. The members of the team that attracted the larger market share were likely to have more secure jobs and enhanced career opportunities. So, each team expanded the capability of its product to attract a broader market. The teams ended up competing fiercely with each other for the same customer base as well as for division resources. In the end, both products failed. A single product would have had a much better chance at success.

— Unju…