Social Hives for the Supply Chain

Concept term I had not heard of: 

" .... The age-old problem of disconnection in the supply chain can be eased through the use of social media, argues Tony Martins. He recommends powerful but somewhat informal "hives": "A hive is not a functional group. A universal principle I've learned over the years is that, generally speaking, collaboration isn't needed within a functional group; it is needed across skill sets. So, you should not create functional hives," Martins advises ... "