In the fast-moving business world, organizations are constantly strategizing to keep ahead of a crowded field of competitors. Time is always a commodity and decisions that take too much of it can cost an organization money, positioning and other setbacks. As a result, there is a tremendous amount of pressure
To fully benefit from an Agile organization design effort, you need effective teams and means of engaging stakeholders and customers. True to Agile principles, your team should be customer-centric, flexible enough to respond to market changes, and capable of producing design “products” that you can test and implement immediately. But,
The world is moving fast. Today’s most successful businesses employ agile practices and processes that enable them to keep pace with rapidly changing markets, customer trends, global events and economic shifts. That level of flexibility requires ongoing assessment, analysis and realignment—a willingness to implement work process changes when necessary to
HR, finance, and other functions play a vital supportive role in every organization. Like the air conditioning in a car, it isn’t essential to getting from point A to point B, but it sure makes the journey much more comfortable. Just as air conditioning with no engine or chassis or
A colleague once told me a story about an acquaintance of his who was asked to take over management of a failing manufacturing plant in the hopes that he could turn it around. All he did for the first month or two was walk around observing: listening, watching, and learning.
In our previous blog, we discussed how organizational strategy impacts the design choices organization leaders must make. We also touched on the concept of organization alignment with strategy using our Cube model of organization design, which equates the organization systems (work processes, structure, information and metrics, etc.) of a business
There is a tendency among organizations to equate strategy with goal setting: what we want to become, where we want to go, what we want to achieve. These goals are often set from a financial or operational performance perspective. For example, targeting revenue goals, achieving a market leadership position, or
Many companies are setting up internal centers of expertise (COE) to help do and manage the work of implementing organization change. Having these capabilities in house can be an efficient and cost effective way to manage change within an organization. However, COEs that operate in isolation or as a bolt-on
In a recent post, we addressed the topic of linkages within an organization. Linkages, or informal relationships within an organization, make up the organization’s “unseen,” informal structure: how people relate to and work with each other across organizational boundaries. Linkages often have as much or even more impact on organizational
The design of commercial organizations inside of companies brings unique organization alignment challenges for executives and practitioners alike. Because most sales and marketing functions touch the end-customer in very real and tangible ways, the design of these functions must create an extraordinary experience for customers and also deliver differentiated marketplace