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Amoeboid Organization : A Cognitively Mutable Architecture – Next Orbit

Amoeboid Organization : A Cognitively Mutable Architecture

If You are Designed to be Out-competed…You are Destined to be.

 wikipedia

 Early naturalists referred to Amoeba as the Proteus animalcule after the Greek god Proteus, who could change his shape. The name “amibe” was given to it by Bory de Saint-Vincent, from the Greek amoibè (ἀμοιβή), meaning change (Wikipedia).

In topical economic scenario every organisation has to be Amoeboid

Formless…Elastic…and Transforming.

Despite positive growth forecast in our economy, corporate world is still in distressed mood. As if their confidence is traumatized. A lot has been concluded on the subject like, perceived politically bickering environment,  inattentive government shying from necessary reforms, circumscribed flow of foreign direct investments, fluctuating rupee value, mounting interest rates, slump in domestic consumption, and continued  hesitations about growth perspectives leading to fragile traction in various sectors.

Apparently Indian companies are skeptical about future business scenario. Nevertheless, this is just the time for corporate decision makers to rethink and ensure series of comprehensive introspective sessions to examine inherent internal lumps. It is deplorable that the melancholy in business scenario has completely shifted the focus from ‘renewing within’ to ‘desperate survival shots’ at the market place. In rumbling board-rooms there is no time to recognize that the market turbulence has already prefigured a different phase of modelling for the business organisations. It is so visible and obvious. It is just the time to swiftly remodel in-built dysfunctionality.

No amount of episodic reactions, impulsive judgments, or disjointed corrections are going to reinforce organisational capabilities to respond to the volatility at market place. It is time to bolster a sense of urgency from within to bring about fundamental changes in organizational architecture and leadership behavior. Many such internal initiatives turn abortive because of the tacit resistance at apex level to disorder their comfort zones. Therefore, many organizations have yet to evolve from 20th century model of business (focus on generating revenue, hierarchical span of control, productivity through scale, unblemished policies, elaborate roles and reporting). Whereas, the naked fact is even relatively contemporary and successful practices (like, maximizing shareholder value, re-shifting focus from diversification to core business, strategy for emancipating so called competitive advantage, diluting vertical integration to embrace outsourcing, bench-marking the best practices) are also subject to exceptional scrutiny and elimination. Ever changing market realities in current limping global economy have evidenced many such robust principles unequivocally descending to redundancy.

Not often, leaders at apex, would campaign for comprehensive organisational redesigning. Most of the time such decisions are internalized based on analogous industry examples or as an assumed alternative to the current muddle. So, tempering is done to label existing structure (A matrix with SBUs or project based flat structure or a linear structure bordering towards uni-directional value chain based responsibilities). All such decisions on structuring are many a times experimented to accommodate ambitions of certain indispensable team members or to refuelling another dose of optimism in the system. All such experiments ultimately result in a disorienting mirage of illogicality. Very rarely redesigning is done to calibrate an organisation to weather the real challenge at the market place. Probably many would not even realize that such decisions may seriously undermine the business effectiveness or may not be able to diagnose “what to do” with the dysfunctionality in the organisation.

Do we know how to single out “Drivers” from the “Consequences”?

The answer is NO !…most of the time we are tangled.

It is a complex question and cannot be standardized for all the organisations. Nevertheless, I have attempted to advocate few underlying facets of organisational designing in an unsettled economy… A recipe for the fundamental transformation in the way leaders think and act.

Entwining Customer in Design

Globalization and volcanic eruption in networking possibilities have transmuted every dimension of doing business. In the process, customer has emerged as the unpretentious champion of the market. He has access to real time dependable information, multiple quality options and cost-effective choices… besides personalized care at the level of pampering. Customer has power to negotiate to the bottom-most denominator in each deal. He is not feeling obliged to you anymore. For a corporate, creative novelty (in products or services) has become mandatory for sheer survival. Organizations have no choice but to focus at every existing functional resource in an organisation to squeeze-out the profitability so that it can be passed down to the customer. Many organisations have shifted their concentration from maximizing shareholders value to enhancing customers’ profitability. If customer takes you as a “profitable option” then only you remain in business and conceivably shareholders can pocket some of the ‘value’ at the end. This is not possible with prevalent organisational design or imitative structure. Design has to be mutable. Every possible profit generating source in the organisation has to bond with the customer. The design has to entwine customer in the center, forming a cocoon of relevant functional networking. Every organization has to have pseudopods (artificial limbs) like amoeba to stretch, surround and pull the customer to make him part of the rest of the body.

Dismantle Your Pyramid

In most packed down de-layered structure also hierarchy remains ingrained. Hierarchy is not about the positions, it is the attitude of superiority. In every organisation, you will observe two classes, the strategic apex class for “thinking” and the rest of the organisation for “execution”. Moreover, CEO and his team sincerely believe that they know everything about the organisation to take a resounding decision. How it is possible for any strategic apex team to know all about ground realities? The conception of treating a CEO as the crucial strategic constituent is no more treasured. Nothing emerges as substantial from inconclusive meetings behind the closed doors at apex level. It is all about analysis of borrowed information and presentations on anticipated alternatives. Where is the grass-root representativeness in such meetings? Where is the stripped familiarity of the doers? A board room is so far-off from the demanding customers. It was quite workable in a predictable business environment but not now. Not in current scenario. No more top-down instructions can lead to a blooming life-force. My recommendation is to quickly erase few sticky concepts like ‘singularity of authority and individual “KRAs”. Every member of the organisation has to act as an empowered CEO. This is possible only if the design encourages a very iterative horizontal mesh of people. A structure should offer highly transparent and self-authorized collaborative units. The role of a leader has to change from a regulator or an instructor to inspirational.

Cleansing traditional Mind-Set

The problem in an organisation lies most of the time at leadership level. They set the culture for the rest of the organization. The culture of opportunism and instructive decision making. Culture of adulterating shared purpose. The flourishing culture of insensibility and misconceptions. Creating blind power pockets. Yielding to the sycophants in hindering collaborative group processes. Encouraging persistence of incompetency behind the drapes of functional blame-games. Regrettably, now power hookers have to internalize a bitter lesson that concentrated authority at apex is going to be a royal road to doom.

Even an exercise like right sizing should be first targeted at apex. A company board has to demonstrate zero tolerance towards apex team. I genuinely believe that elimination of a non-contributing dictatorial desperate leadership team will not have any impact on the performance of the organisation. Illusion of their importance is most of the time a self- induced rumour. One should call it a bluff.

The global geopolitical and economic realities are likely to remain unpredictable. It is increasingly becoming luxury for an enterprise to envisage a strategy even for the next few days. The best preparedness is to turnaround all conventionality in the system .The question is not to what degree a corporate need to adapt. The question is of existence. The question is of being out-competed…the choice is to achieve a balance.

Consistency in continuity and rigidity in elasticity…Like an ever-changing but agile Amoeba.

         

 

 

Corporate World

CorporateDesignleadershipmiddle managementObjectivityresponsibilityrole obligationstructuresycophants

13 Comments

  • Thanks for sharing a deep insight, Bhagwat … adaptive and transformational leadership is the only way forward in world governed by quantum change. This is a primordial principle embedded deep in Nature. We, as humans(and leaders), keep re-discovering it in our journey towards Excellence.

    • Thanks for your comments. You are so right. The struggle is that we have permitted our mind to become the master. Our life is regulated by Desires, Dogmas, and Questions…bringing us into direct conflict with the evolved ones. A softer, unperturbed and inspired mind—will first search the existing truths around us.

    • Today’s customer wants value for money, relationship and networking but our organisations are designed around product, functions and geographies. I do not think we have learnt to prepare customer based P&L account…We have to change a lot to survive.

  • Thanks for sharing your thoughts. Of what I have seen as need of the hour – Agility, Innovation and Collaboration are the 3 ingredients that a good driver / leader can positively infuse. That would happen when we get rid of hierarchy/power hungry/awfully insure & many a times non competitive management staff…who occupy a position by virtue of chance not a best fit though. One has to start with getting the right Leadership Team first, doing the Skill-Will analysis of so called APEX team, based on strength and there CORE contribution

    • Rajita, honestly divisions, departments, and management hierarchy have all lost their purpose in current socio-economical turf. Why we should have so called “management” with glamorous and ornamental designations, like President, VP, executive, etc. today our customers should be at the top of the hierarchy.

  • Good to see the modern day requirements in the Corporate world giving rise to another dimension in the Org structure.

    • Thanks Partho for your comments.. Our traditional “known” structural alternatives are not going to lead us anywhere.The time is right to amalgamate front-end and back-end to shift profitability to the customer.

  • 25-04-2014,
    Dear Mr. Bhagwat Yagnik,
    Thanks for writing a prescription applicable to over 90% of the organization that are suffering from cerebral amebeosis. It is important to add that the prescription has been written after doing differential diagnosis. You prescription will do a amazing things for employees too by becoming customer centric. Most appealing points are:
    1.The global geopolitical and economic situation is likely to remain uncertain. Can I say it will remain so in view global dynamism ? correct me if I am wrong.
    Organizations can certainly discover a growth formula by restructuring as mentioned by you.
    2.Every member of the organization has to act as empowered CEO.
    3.The whole approach needs to be customer centric.
    Warm regards,
    H.K.Pahwa

    • You are on the dot! Today strategy is a luxury. We can not even predict next 7 days in business. Knowledge has become commodity. The only alternative left is to push each function to generate sufficient profit so that same can be transferred to the customer. Once customer is happy with you…you are in business.
      Your conclusions are very appropriate.Thanks

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