A brief and humorous look at Organisational Design.

1. SS
Ten Slides in Ten Minutes:
A Perspective on Organisational Design
Presented by:
Bill Graham APM.APMP
July, 2013
bill.graham@sales-synthesis.co.za

2. Dominant ExclusiveEmerging PervasiveAbsent
Symbiotic
relationship
with clients
Sustainability
Making the competitors irrelevant
Projects ParticularPerforming PertinentPeople Places
The Sustainable Business Imperative
Building mutually beneficial and sustainable long-term client relationships
Source: Sales Synthesis
Multi-National Companies [MNCs] may embrace a
new dawn or a long dark night.
Know where you are going
Slide: 2

3. Leadership
Executive
Management
• Ensure that the Strategic Market Development initiatives
support business aspirations
• Delivery of revenue to the business
• Mitigation of identified risks
• Delivery of profit (value) to the client
Structure
Processes
Growing a Business is not a spectator sport
Source: Sales Synthesis
Organisational Design is a Key Component of a Sustainable
Business Centric Framework
Moment
of Truth
Slide: 3

4. • Strategy moulded by present solutions
portfolio
• Strategy stagnation
• Limited portfolio for growth potential
• Indeterminate value propositions
Culture
ResourcesProcess
Org Struct Strategy Learning
• Sales personnel have limited portfolio of
offerings
• Largest number of employees working in
security
• Low number of resources in areas where
customer contact is prime
• Low number of resources in areas where
revenue growth could be derived
• Development programmes available but
relevance needs assessing
• Potential for building skills base
•
• Open, honest, ethical
• Predominantly European
• Willing to learn
• Potential to mentor / coach & grow
• Functional structure sound
• Reporting structure confusion
• Unclear demarcation of authority
• Inadequate resourcing in certain units
• World-class employee handbook
• Appearance of sound policies
• Low adherence to policies and
resultant interventions
Relevance of Organisational Design - determined through analysis
Slide: 4
Armed with this information gaps may be determined & action plans crafted
Source: Template, courtesy of Melrose Atteridge

5. Understanding the impact of cultural differences is key to
global business success
Model of
Culture
Time Focus
Space
Structure
Action
Time Orientation
Power
Communication
Competition
Source: Centre for Promoting Ideas, USA, 2012
Culture : ‘the inherited values, concepts, and ways of living which are shared by people of the same social group’
Activities: One after the
other – with detail;
Concurrent activities – less
detail
Past, present, future:
Traditional – short term
gains through to long
term plans /results
Hierarchy versus Equality:
Dictatorial through to
involvement
Wealth, performance, ambition
versus Job satisfaction
Doing or being
Individualism or
collectivism: Individual is
self-reliant versus shared
values of group
Personal zone: Business
rather than personal
issues
High context versus low context
Slide: 5

6. Some major organisational failures can be fairly attributed to some of the C-Levels.
Drowning at C-Level
Some CEO’s have reached the age where the happy hour is a nap
Be careful when fishing at the shallow end of the Gene Pool
'Smart people believe weird things because they are skilled at defending
beliefs they arrived at for non-smart reasons'
- Michael Shermer
Fact: C-Level people are intelligent and so, when they believe something, you can be certain
they will find a way to convince others that it’s ‘the single version of the truth’. Thus,
their decisions in terms of organisational design can be disastrous
Slide: 6

7. The Organisational Design Paradox – Lowering of Productivity
Source: Sales Synthesis
Number of Resources in a key Business Unit
Productivity
The crest of sensibility
[Optimal Design]
Slide: 7
An over-resourced key Business Unit, impacts across the whole organisation
The trajectory of hopelessness

8. The Organisational Design Paradox – Over-Resourcing across
other Business Units to be able to Service at ‘Optimal Level’
Source: Sales Synthesis
Slide: 8
An over-resourced key Business Unit, impacts across the whole organisation
Over-
Resourced Key
Business Unit
Optimum Resourcing
Inflated Resourcing to
interact with the over-
resourcing of the Key
Business Unit
Business Units
Inter Business Unit
Interaction

9. Points to Ponder
Slide: 9
• Most businesses reward those that are supportive of the group’s strategies and
punish those who challenge the authority of the leaders by raising doubt/s
• 'The mere fact that a man is noted in his particular field of research, astronomy,
physics, or mathematics should not be considered as presumptive evidence of
his ability to see correctly things outside his experience.'
- Joseph Rinn
• Business Personality: The shared culture, about a company, about each other,
about the value of treating others with respect, about being proud of who you –
and your colleagues are - and about loyalty and integrity [Being good when no
one is watching]
• ‘If you are riding a dead horse, the best strategy is to dismount.'
- unknown
• Legacy structures cannot drive new business opportunities.

10. Q&A
Slide: 10