Professor Luis Martins comments on "The Power of Two"

We asked our Professor Luis Martins to comment on the article - "The Power of Two". He was kind enough to share his thoughts with us on this issue.

"I have a personal opinion on this, but am not really up on any research into the arrangement. Essentially, since any differentiation in an organization’s structure requires integrating mechanisms, this type of set up depends heavily on the nature of the integrating mechanisms (which can be done by reducing dependence by having each person focus on different aspects of the role, or by routines for communicating, etc.). Overall, it is tough to integrate the roles, which is why this set up is rarely used and is often unsuccessful. For example, the following link gives some stats: http://postcards.blogs.fortune.cnn.com/2008/08/05/motorolas-co-ceo-gamble/. Which is not to say that it cannot be done, or that it will always fail, but that it is a difficult structure to pull off because of the effort required to coordinate across the two co-CEOs."

Thanks to Professor Luis for his time and valuable comments.