Alignment - A journey from remote islands to a common shore

In the 14 years since its birth, Cactus Communications, known to researchers and scientists globally as Editage, has been supporting academics in their endeavor to publish research. We improve scientific articles for publication and play our part in furthering human development through scientific and technological progress.
As CACTUS grew into a mid-sized enterprise, we struggled to find unified success across functions. At the heart of this disharmony was misalignment among the top leadership that had crept in through role, portfolio, and leadership changes in preceding years. We were grappling with the problem of each department speaking its own language, which caused dissonance and mistrust in the top team. We had differing priorities and didn’t understand one another. The wide geographic spread of our offices and the cultural divergence it brought reinforced the silos. At the same time, perceived roles of decision makers overlapped, making us excessively collaborative. This dilute