Competing by Design

"The last remaining source of truly sustainable competitive advantage lies in what we've come to describe as organizational capabilities."

"Rather than seeking designs that emphasize coordination and control, what organizations need now is speed, innovation, customer focus, and radically improved productivity."

"Organization design emanates from an overall vision for the organization, embodied in a strategic plan with a clear set of strategic objectives."

"To understand how the entire organization works, it's essential to understand each of its important elements."

"A word of caution: Not all problems have internal causes."

"Assuming there's an already articulated vision and strategy in place, what are the first issues that will confront the manager responsible for implementing that strategy?"

"Changing the formal organization is sometimes the most effective way to influence the informal operating environment."

"As the future becomes less clear, there is a greater need to get information more quickly to those who need it."

"Strategic grouping is the most important step in the design process."

"But there's a trade-off; as professional specialization increases, there's considerable risk that individuals will develop a narrower organizational perspective."

"The higher the degree of interdependence, the more complex the formal linkage devices must be to handle work-related uncertainty."

"And yet, hierarchy is a limited linking mechanism."

"Given its complexity and its inherent instability, a matrix structure should be reserved for situations in which no other linking alternative is workable."

"As is the case with grouping, decisions about linking must be made at every level of the organization."

"The design of organizations at the enterprise level?in essence, the overall architectural framework for the organization?used to be a relatively simple exercise. "

"Underlying these new [enterprise architecture] designs is a growing appreciation of two fundamental concepts of organization architecture: focus and leverage."

"In recent years the focus in operational design has shifted from structures to a fascination with process-based design, which offers a sharply increased emphasis on output and users."

"Their work demonstrated that the introduction of new technology produced dramatic results only when the design of the technical system was consistent with the organization's social system."

"One of the most common reasons that redesigns fail is the all too common assumption that the job essentially ends with the announcement of the new design."

"There is a critical need to communicate. Think of this communication as both "a telling and a selling" activity."