After the CEO, CFO, CTO, CIO and CMO, there’s now the CCO. You could be pardoned for thinking CCO has something to do with compliance; it does not, the parlous state of governance in large corporations notwithstanding.

CCO is Chief Collaboration Officer and the role has come not a day too soon. Collaboration is the big opportunity waiting to be tapped. The silos in large companies and the territorial instincts of men come in the way of large-scale collaboration.

Yet there is no denying the economic value that can be unlocked when people pool skills. Research is very much a multi-disciplinary activity, involving large groups. Breakthroughs in technology and science cannot happen without collaboration.

The crasser commercial functions are not immune to the value unlocking potential of collaboration. In an HBR blog, Morten Hansen, a Berkeley management professor, argues that one of the C-suite officers is best equipped to take on the collaboration role.

It’s a good point, not last because companies tend to balk at the expense of adding senior executives. Fast Company’s article presents a persuasive argument in favor of elevating collaboration to the C suite.

Management thinking develops in waves and we may at the beginning of a collaboration movement. Much time has been wasted in the last decade or so, studying what makes companies great and how one can best emulate them.

Time to look inward and figure out ways to unlock the potential and the talent within the organization. Collaboration may be the best starting point.