How a 200-Person Company Broke Down Silos and 2x'd Cross-Team Collaboration

The Mid-Sized Company Paradox

Unipart Digital had a problem most startups would envy: they were succeeding.

200 employees. 4 departments. Revenue growing 40% year over year. But Director of Operations Adam Walker had a secret: nobody knew what anyone else was working on.

Sales closed deals for features Product hadn't built. Marketing launched campaigns for initiatives that got deprioritized. Leadership made decisions based on 3-week-old data in spreadsheets.

They were scaling revenue but shrinking visibility.

The Invisible Problem

Here's what Adam's day looked like:

• 7:30 AM: Check 4 different Slack channels to piece together what happened yesterday
• 9:00 AM: 90-minute department sync meeting (40 people half-paying attention)
• 11:00 AM: Answer the same question 6 different times via DM
• 2:00 PM: Manually pull data from 5 tools to prep all-hands slides
• 5:00 PM: Still have no idea if they're on track for Q2 goals

Sound exhausting? It was. And it's the reality for most mid-sized companies.

The Breaking Point

During a quarterly review, the CEO asked: "Why are we missing our product goals but Sales is crushing it?"

Awkward silence.

Nobody had visibility across departments. They were all working hard—but not together.

"We had 200 people rowing in different directions. Fast boats going nowhere." — Adam Walker, Director of Operations

The Fix

Adam made a controversial decision: implement Grapevine company-wide. One platform for all 4 departments.

Here's what happened:

Week 1: Real-Time OKR Visibility

Adam opens his laptop at 7:30 AM. Before coffee, he sees:

• Product is behind on Q2 goals (Engineering is blocked on hiring)
• Sales is 120% to quota (crushing it)
• Marketing launched the new campaign (it's working)
• Customer Success hit 95% retention (personal best)

He schedules a resource reallocation meeting. Problem solved before 9 AM.

Week 2: Async Department Syncs

Instead of 90-minute meetings with 40 zombies, department heads post updates in Grapevine:

• Engineering: Major release shipped, 2 weeks ahead
• Sales: New enterprise deal closed, needs custom feature
• Product: Feature prioritized, shipping next sprint
• Marketing: Campaign ready to announce the release

Everyone aligned in 30 minutes. No meeting fatigue. No information loss.

Week 3: Cross-Department Magic

Sales rep Maria sees in Grapevine that Product just shipped the feature her key prospect requested. She reaches out immediately with a demo. Deal closes same day.

Old way: She finds out 2 weeks later via newsletter.
New way: Real-time visibility creates real-time opportunities.

The 6-Month Results

• 12 months to billions in pipeline growth (alignment unlocks velocity)
• 2x cross-team collaboration (measured by shared projects)
• 5-point NPS improvement (employees felt more connected)
• 50% fewer meetings (async-first culture took hold)

Why Mid-Sized Companies Struggle

At 20 people, everyone knows what everyone is doing. At 200, it's impossible without systems.

Most companies try to solve this with:

• More meetings (coordination theater)
• More managers (information gatekeepers)
• More tools (data silos)

None of it works. You need radical transparency.

The Grapevine Playbook for Scale

Here's exactly what Unipart did:

1. Connected all department OKRs to company goals
2. Made project updates visible across teams
3. Implemented async-first communication (meeting last resort)
4. Built recognition systems (celebrate wins publicly)
5. Gave leadership real-time dashboards (no more data archaeology)

Rollout took 4 weeks. Adoption hit 85% in month one.

The Leadership Unlock

The best part? Adam's job got easier.

He went from:

• Chasing updates → Seeing real-time progress
• Reactive firefighting → Proactive problem-solving
• Manual reporting → Auto-generated insights
• Information bottleneck → Enabler of transparency

"I finally have time to think strategically instead of playing telephone between departments." — Adam Walker

The Hidden ROI

Revenue impact aside, here's what changed:

• Employee engagement up 12% (people want to know they matter)
• Voluntary turnover down 8% (connection creates retention)
• Decision speed 3x faster (no more waiting on meetings)

Your Move

If you're a mid-sized company where departments feel like separate companies, you have two choices:

1. Keep scaling the chaos (spoiler: it gets worse)
2. Implement radical transparency (uncomfortable but effective)

Unipart chose #2. They're now planning to double headcount without doubling complexity.

What will you choose?

Book a demo to see how Grapevine connects every layer of your organization.