Defining the objectives

Organisational design describes the target picture for an organisation in order to achieve its purpose. The key questions for that organisation are: “Where to go?” and “What to do?”

Our organisational design model is based on 6 domains with 12 building blocks and for the sake of clarity only the top two levels are shown here. The complete model is further subdivided into 29 activity groups, each with several key success factors, which we will be happy to provide upon request.

Defining and communicating the strategy

The starting point for organisational design is the definition of the vision and strategy. Contrary to the vision, the strategy itself includes specific goals and objectives for the organisation or business. Failure to do so would result in a lot of dispersed activities. It is equally important to communicate that strategy as well as the goals in order to make sure to provide a guiding compass for the organisation.

Understanding and developing the customer

Many product centred organisations focus almost exclusively on how to sell their products to the customers. While this being a naturally key aspect of the business it is nonetheless important to develop a continuous customer understanding independent of the current product portfolio in order to derive which solutions to develop today in order to produce and sell them tomorrow. That would be a customer centred approach. Especially in light of today’s trend towards digitisation the management and analysis of data and knowledge to derive requirements for solutions has become increasingly important.

Aligning processes and operations

Often organisations are blocked by their internal processes, in many cases due to the historical development. In order to stay competitive, operations and support processes need to be considered as well. In the past that aspect has not been given the attention it deserves, because those operations may not be visible or directly produce a sale, but nevertheless, they are key to make the organisation function. The breaking down of functional and operational silos is a continuous task in almost every larger organisation in order to stay agile and be able to react fast to business changes.

Defining the organisational structure

When designing an organisation, the evolution of roles and responsibilities are as much of importance as the definition of the structure. The various objectives from the strategy need to be broken down into smaller and tangible goals. This applies to teams as well as individuals in order to make sure that all the elements of the organisation work towards the common business objective.

Motivating and developing people

Motivating people in an organisation in a changing environment is a particularly challenging task. It goes far beyond remuneration based on financial and non-financial incentives. It encompasses the development of existing personnel as well as the recruitment of new people and the assignment of people and capabilities to where it is needed. Although there is a general understanding for the need of a gap analysis in business, much less attention is paid to the skill and capability gap inside an organisation and how to fill it with existing and new people.

Leading and steering the effort

Leadership is the steering wheel of the organisation, providing direction for the organisation in line with the strategy. In general, a lot of attention is given to the role and responsibilities of leaders and much less to their style. However, that aspect is of equal importance when aligning the operational objectives with the strategic ones. In a fast-changing environment and especially with moving targets it is necessary to have a continuous exchange and feedback loop between the top management and the rest of the organisation.