1. 9-1

2. Chapter Organizational Agility 9 9McGraw-Hill/Irwin Management, 7/e Copyright © 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

3. 9-3 Learning Objectives  After Studying Chapter 9, You will know  Why it is critical for organizations to be responsive.  The advantages of an organic organization structure.  The strategies and dynamic organizational concepts that can be used to improve an organization’s responsiveness.  How a firm can be both big and small.  How firms organize to meet customer requirements.  How firms organize around different types of technology.

4. 9-4 Organizational Agility It is change, continuing change, inevitable change, that is the dominant fact in society today. No sensible decision can be made any longer without taking into account not only the world as it is, but the world as it will be. - Isaac Asimo

5. 9-5 The Responsive Organization  In today’s fast-changing business environment, responsiveness – quickness, agility, the ability to adapt to changing demands – is vital to a firm’s survival  Two broad forms of organizational structure include  Mechanistic organization – seeks to maximize internal efficiency  Organic structure – an organizational form that emphasizes flexibility

6. 9-6 The Responsive Organization Mechanistic OrganizationOrganic Structure

7. 9-7 Strategy and Organizational Agility  Certain strategies, and the structures, processes, and relationships that accompany them, seem particularly well suited to improving an organization’s ability to respond quickly and effectively to the challenges it faces  These strategies and structures are based on:  Core competencies  Strategic Alliances  The organization’s ability to learn  The organization’s ability to engage all its people in achieving organizational objectives

8. 9-8 Organizing around Core Competencies  Core competence is the capability— knowledge, expertise, skill—that underlies a company’s ability to be a leader in providing a range of specific goods or services  Successfully developing a world-class core competence opens the door to a variety of future opportunities; failure means being foreclosed from many markets

9. 9-9 Organizing around Core Competencies  Using the core competency model effects the organization  Strategically it means the organization should commit to excellence and leadership in competencies before they commit to winning market share  Organizationally this means that the corporation should be viewed as a portfolio of competencies, not just a portfolio of specific businesses

10. 9-10 Organizing around Core Competencies  Managers who want to strengthen their firms’ competitiveness via core competencies need to focus on several related issues:  Identify existing core competencies  Acquire or build core competencies that will be important for the future  Keep investing in competencies so that the firm remains world-class and better than competitors  Extend competencies to find new applications and opportunities for the markets of tomorrow.

11. 9-11 Strategic Alliances  A strategic alliance is a formal relationship created with the purpose of joint pursuit of mutual goals  In a strategic alliance, individual organizations share administrative authority, form social links, and accept joint ownership

12. 9-12 Strategic Alliances  Companies form strategic alliances to develop new technologies, enter new markets, and reduce manufacturing costs  Alliances are often the fastest, most efficient way to achieve objectives

13. 9-13 Strategic Alliances

14. 9-14 The Learning Organization  Being responsive requires continually changing and learning new ways to act  Learning faster than the competition is the only sustainable advantage according to some experts  A learning organization is an organization skilled at creating, acquiring, and transferring knowledge, and at modifying its behavior to reflect new knowledge and insights

15. 9-15 The Learning Organization  There are 5 key ingredients to a learning organization  Their people engage in disciplined thinking and attention to details, making decisions based on data and evidence rather than guesswork and assumptions  They search constantly for new knowledge, looking for expanding horizons and opportunities rather than quick fixes to current problems

16. 9-16 The Learning Organization  5 key ingredients to a learning organization  They carefully review both successes and failures, looking for lessons and deeper understanding  Learning organizations benchmark—they identify and implement the best business practices of other organizations, stealing ideas shamelessly  They share ideas throughout the organization via reports, information systems, informal discussions, site visits, education, and training

17. 9-17 The High-Involvement Organization  Participative management is becoming increasingly popular as a way to create a competitive advantage  High-Involvement Organizations are a type of organization in which top management ensures that there is consensus about the direction in which the business is heading

18. 9-18 The High-Involvement Organization  Task forces, study groups, and other techniques are used to foster participation in decisions that affect the entire organization  Continual feedback to participants regarding how they are doing compared to the competition and how effectively they are meeting the strategic agenda is also fundamental to this type of organization

19. 9-19 Organizational Size and Agility  One of the most important characteristics of an organization—and one of the most important factors influencing its ability to respond effectively to its environment—is its size  Large organizations  Are typically more bureaucratic  Jobs become more specialized  Are more complex, which increases the need for control

20. 9-20 The Case for Big  Alfred Chandler noted that big companies were the engine of economic growth throughout the 20 th century  Size creates  Scale economies – lower costs per unit of production  Economies of scope – materials and processes employed in one product can be used to make other related products

21. 9-21 The Case for Small  Smaller companies can  Move fast  Provide quality goods and services to targeted market niches  Inspire greater involvement from their people  Nimble, small firms frequently outmaneuver big bureaucracies; they introduce new and better products, and they steal market share

22. 9-22 Being Big and Small  The challenge is to e both big and small and capitalize on the advantages of each  Small is beautiful for unleashing energy and speed  Size offers market power when buying and selling  To regain the responsiveness of a small company some larger firms have had to downsize/rightsize

23. 9-23 Customers and the Responsive Organization  The point of structuring a responsive, agile organization lies in enabling it to meet and exceed the expectations of its customers  Perhaps no other aspect of the environment has had a more profound impact on organizing than a focus on customers  All business units must take into account three key players  The company  The competition  The customer

24. 9-24 Customers and the Responsive Organization

25. 9-25 Customer Relationship Management  Customer relationship management (CRM) is a multifaceted process, typically mediated by a set of information technologies, that focuses on creating two-way exchanges with customers so that firms have an intimate knowledge of their needs, wants, and buying patterns  CRM helps companies understand and anticipate the needs of current and potential customers

26. 9-26 Customer Relationship Management  Customers want quality goods and service, low cost, innovative products, and speed; they are learning that somewhere an organization exists that will provide it all  World class companies have learned that to provide customers with what they want they will need to continuously improve their process because the competition will catch up

27. 9-27 Value Chain  The word customer now refers to the next process, or wherever the work goes next  The value chain is a deeper way to understand how organizations can add customer value to their products and services  A value chain is the sequence of activities that flow from raw materials to the delivery of a product or service, with additional value created at each step  When the total value created—that is, what customers are willing to pay —exceeds the cost of providing the product or service, the result is the organization’s profit margin

28. 9-28 Value Chain

29. 9-29 Total Quality Management  Total Quality Management (TQM) is an integrative approach to management that supports the attainment of customer satisfaction through a wide variety of tools and techniques that result in high-quality goods and services  TQM has been impacted greatly by  The work of W. Edwards Deming  Six Sigma

30. 9-30 ISO 9000  ISO 9000 is a series of quality standards developed by a committee working under the International Organization for Standardization to improve total quality in all businesses for the benefit of producers and consumers

31. 9-31 Reengineering  Extending from TQM and a focus on organizing around customer needs, organizations also have embraced the notion of reengineering  Key organizational systems and processes are examined in light of the answer to the following question:  If you were the customer, how would you like us to operate?

32. 9-32 Technology and Organizational Agility  Broadly speaking technology can be viewed as the methods, processes, systems, and skills used to transform resources (inputs) into products (outputs)

33. 9-33 Types of Technology Configurations  There are three basic technologies characterize how work is done  Small batch technologies will produce goods and services in low volumes  Large batch technologies produce goods and services in high volume  Continuous process technologies are processes that are highly automated and have continuous production flow

34. 9-34 Organizing for Flexible Manufacturing  Mass customization is production of varied, individually customized products at the low cost of standardized, mass-produced products  To accomplish mass customization companies organize around a dynamic network of relatively independent operating units  Each process or task is called a module

35. 9-35 Organizing for Flexible Manufacturing

36. 9-36 Organizing for Flexible Manufacturing  Computer-integrated manufacturing (CIM) encompasses a host of computerized production efforts linked together to optimize the production process  Flexible factories are manufacturing plants that have short production runs, are organized around products, and use decentralized scheduling  Lean Manufacturing means an operation that is both efficient and effective; it strives to achieve the highest possible productivity and total quality, cost-effectively, by eliminating unnecessary steps in the production process and continually striving for improvement

37. 9-37 Organizing for speed: Time-Based Competition  Time is emerging as the key competitive advantage that can separate market leaders from followers  Time-based competition refers to strategies aimed at reducing the total time needed to deliver the product or service  Logistics is the movement of the right goods in the right amount to the right place at the right time  Just in Time is a system that calls for subassemblies and components to be manufactured in very small lots and delivered to the next stage of the production process just as they are needed  Simultaneous engineering is a design approach in which all relevant functions cooperate jointly and continually in a maximum effort aimed at producing high-quality products that meet customers’ needs

38. 9-38 Final thoughts Successful organizations—and that includes the successful managers within them—do not sit still. They do not follow rigid models but maintain structures, systems, organizational designs, and relationships that are adaptive— always sensitive to changes in their environment and able to respond quickly, efficiently, and effectively to them. Their managers focus constantly on exceeding customer expectations and on continuous quality improvement, designing their systems and structures to help them do just that.

39. 9-39 Looking Ahead  Chapter 10: Human Resource Management  How companies use human resources management to gain competitive advantage.  Why companies recruit both internally and externally for new hires.  The various methods available for selecting new employees.  Why companies spend so much on training and development.  How to determine who should appraise an employee’s performance.  How to analyze the fundamental aspects of a reward system.  How unions influence human resources management.  How the legal system influences human resources management.

40. 9-40 Organic Structure  Jobholders have broader responsibilities that change as the need arises  Communication occurs through advice and information rather than through orders and instructions  Decision making and influence are more decentralized and informal  Expertise is highly valued  Jobholders rely more heavily on judgment than on rules  Obedience to authority is less important than commitment to the organization’s goals  Employees depend more on one another and relate more informally and personally Return

41. 9-41 Downsizing and Rightsizing  Downsizing is the planned elimination of positions  Rightsizing is a successful effort to achieve an appropriate size at which the company performs most effectively  How to ease the pain of downsizing  Avoid excessive hiring  Choose positions to be eliminated by engaging in careful analysis and strategic thinking  Train people to cope with the new situation  Identify and protect talented people  Give special attention and help to those who have lost their jobs  Communicate constantly with people about the process  Emphasize a positive future and people’s new roles in attaining it Return

42. 9-42 Deming’s 14 Points  Create constancy of purpose—strive for long-term improvement rather than short-term profit  Adopt the new philosophy—don’t tolerate delays and mistakes  Cease dependence on mass inspection—build quality into the process on the front end  End the practice of awarding business on price tag alone—build long-term relationships  Improve constantly and forever the system of production and service—at each stage

43. 9-43 Deming’s 14 Points  Institute training and retraining—continual updating of methods and thinking  Institute leadership—provide the resources needed for effectiveness  Drive out fear—people must believe it is safe to report problems or ask for help  Break down barriers among departments—promote teamwork  Eliminate slogans, exhortations, and arbitrary targets—supply methods, not buzzwords

44. 9-44 Deming’s 14 Points  Eliminate numerical quotas—they are contrary to the idea of continuous improvement  Remove barriers to pride in workmanship—allow autonomy and spontaneity  Institute a vigorous program of education and retraining—people are assets, not commodities  Take action to accomplish the transformation— provide a structure that enables quality Return

45. 9-45 Six Sigma  An approach to total quality management that utilizes statistical tools to analyze the causes of product defects  At Six Sigma a product or process is defect- free 99.99966 percent of the time  This is equivalent to less than 3.4 defects or mistakes per million Return