Diseño de la organización de la empresa

Main ideas / lessons

• Organizational design shouldn’t be rigid or arbitrary

  • Don’t structure the company based on whim, habit, or custom.
  • Avoid overly “mechanical” thinking about roles.

• Core principle: “structure follows strategy”

  • How you organize employees, define power relationships, set communication systems, and emphasize areas should be determined by:
    • your strategic plan, and
    • your business model.

• Business model connects market needs with company capabilities

  • The business model defines how the company will serve its market based on:
    • market characteristics, and
    • internal capabilities.

• Two proposed ways to model/shape the business

  1. Four-pillar business model
     • Identify which pillar(s) are emphasized based on strategy.
     • Establish the necessary connections, processes, and procedures between pillars.
  2. Osterwalder & Pigneur-style “nine blocks” model
     • Use their framework of nine blocks to describe how the business works.

• The organization must be designed as an integrated system

  • An organization’s job is to transform inputs into desired outputs.
  • Effectiveness depends on achieving high congruence/alignment among four elements:
    1. Work (what tasks get executed and how work flows)
    2. People (skills, knowledge, competencies, behaviors)
    3. Formal arrangements (explicit structure)
       • organizational chart
       • workflows/processes/procedures/systems
    4. Informal organization (relationships and culture that emerge over time)

• Congruence drives performance; misalignment creates problems

  • Average or poor performance is treated as a symptom, not the root cause.
  • To fix problems, examine causes such as:
    • environment
    • available resources
    • company history
    • strategy
    • mission and vision
  • The gap between expected output and current output indicates what must change.

Methodology / process presented (detailed)

• Start from strategy

  • Define a strategic plan.
  • From it, define a business model that enables realization of the company’s mission and vision.

• Evaluate the four organizational elements

  • For each element, determine:
    • Current state (what exists now)
    • Ideal state (what should exist)
  • Identify gaps and hypothesize why they exist by looking for problems caused by low alignment (congruence) among:
    • work, people, formal arrangements, informal organization

• Use outputs as the test

  • Check whether the organization’s outputs match expectations.
  • If not, the difference reveals where adjustments are needed.

• Implement adjustments

  • Changes can be:
    • small and specific, or
    • a total restructuring
  • The goal is the right resource arrangement that matches strategy and market conditions.

Types of organizational arrangements (with when they fit)

• Activity-based (function-focused)

  • Emphasizes:
    • functions
    • work processes
    • skills and knowledge

• Output-based

  • Organize around:
    • outputs (results/deliverables)
  • Ideal when:
    • there’s a strong focus on product/service
    • selling projects is central

• Customer/segment-focused

  • Structure around:
    • market segments or customers
  • Used when:
    • customers/segments are a key strategic driver

• Combination is common

  • Companies often mix these structures internally to implement strategy effectively.

Communication “links” across organizational barriers (practical guidance)

• Barriers between groups will naturally emerge.
• Good design ensures communication and “doors” across barriers by creating links that:
  • are established using criteria based on needs
  • are formalized, not left to chance or individual goodwill
  • are supported by:
    • processes and
    • systems

Definitions

• Processes = sequence of work by individuals/groups toward shared objectives.
• Systems = tools that enable execution of work required by those processes.

Speakers / sources mentioned

• Alexander Osterwalder
• Ev Sper (likely intended as Yves Pigneur, commonly co-authors with Osterwalder on the business model canvas)