Winning Without Competition: How to Break Out of a Commodity ...

desire to -- continually discovering new ways to improve the organization for
the benefit of customers.
It’s important to note that the process goals should always supercede functional
goals because the process goals, especially processes that cut across functions,
drive what the different functions or departments spend their time on. Rummler
& Brache comment, "If we had to pick one of the three levels as the greatest area
of opportunity for most organizations, it would be the process level. We are
learning that it’s not enough to manage results. The way in which those results
are achieved, i.e., the process, is also important. If we are achieving the results,
we need to know why. If we are not achieving the results, we need to know why.
In both cases to a great degree the answer lies in the processes."
How should we organize to manage and run the company on a daily
basis to insure key processes achieve what we need them to achieve?
Organizational structure (the “white chart” that shows who reports to whom) is
one of the strongest leverage points for aligning the organization to fit its
strategies. It is critical to creating culture change and for getting people to focus
on the right kind of work, performing to the right set of measures. After your
strategy is designed and you understand the critical processes of your
organization and its strategic goals, start with a blank sheet of paper and design
the ideal organizational structure. Do not think at this stage about what people
will fit where. All that can come later. It is always better to make decisions
knowing what is ideal. (See Nadler)
Many companies with a continuous quality improvement philosophy organize
their company by process teams, instead of functions. This shift can be
instrumental in creating more effective processes, as the new structure changes
relationships and therefore culture. Nevertheless, changing organizational
structure alone is not sufficient for creating strong processes. People also have to
be willing to work collaboratively to make the processes work well. Chart Six:
Collaboration vs. Cooperation shows the difference between organizations in
which the functions only cooperate with each other versus those in which
collaboration is present. What we see here is that collaboration eliminates, or
significantly reduces problems, whereas cooperation causes problems to be
shifted to another part of the organization, which then must absorb the cost
associated with the problem. Absent collaborative cultures, organizational
change often times does little to improve operational effectiveness. (See Sidebar
C: Structure Affects, but Does Not alone Determine, Behavior.)
Do You Need a Marketing Department?
You would never consider asking the director of accounting in your firm to also
run the plant. Yet, many precast companies either delegate marketing
responsibility to the sales director or leave the market role unfilled. This is one of
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