Saturday, May 23, 2020

The Monthly Organizational Structure Tuning: Organizational Structure & Strategy Tuning May 2020

11:28 PM Pearl Zhu No comments

Digital organizations are people-centric; they are complex enough to act intelligently and nimble enough to adapt to changes promptly.

Digital makes a significant impact on every aspect of the business from people, process to technology, both horizontally and vertically. Digital becomes the very fabric of high performing business, being outside-in, and customer-centric is the new mantra for forward-looking and high mature digital organizations today.

From an organizational structure perspective, how can you fine-tune the digital dimensions of your organizational development to harness innovation?

Organizational Structure & Strategy Tuning

The Situation, Strategy, and Structure of Digital Organization The business world has shifted from the static industrial age to the exponential digital era, traditional management is often inside out and process-driven, sometimes encouraging silo thinking and stifling innovation. However, the emerging digital business is always on and hyperconnected, expanding into all dimensions of the business ecosystem.

Connecting Relevant Dots of Organizational Strategy, Structure, and Business Performance Traditional management runs in silos; silos introduce lots of delays, waste, queues, and bottlenecks. The linear business system perception needs to be replaced by the adaptive digital system viewpoint. Digital management needs to be holistic and informative for overcoming the challenges brought by “VUCA” new normal.

Leverage Design Thinking to Strategic Alignment and Organizational Structural Tuning Compared to the mechanical nature of the industrial organization, digital organizations are like the living systems that can self-adapt and self-renew in thriving as the high-performance business. Traditional organizations are process-driven, but digital organizations are people-centric; they are complex enough to act intelligently and nimble enough to adapt to changes promptly. Design Thinking needs to be a discipline for enforcing strategic alignment and tuning organizational structure in order to improve organizational maturity from functioning to delight.

The Digital Dimensions of Organizational Structure Digital means change, choice, speed, and customer-centricity. One of the key business competencies is agility, which is the capability to adapt to the changes; and the ability to manage complexity more effectively than competitors provides a competitive advantage. From an organizational structure perspective, how can you fine-tune the digital dimensions of your organizational development?

Is “Structure Following Strategy" still Valid? It is a truism to say that no strategy is valid for all times. On top of this, a globally competitive environment tends to reduce the time span. The strategy needs continuous fine-tuning, periodic updating, and even a new strategy if demanded; Whereas business structures are more stable in organizations, still, the digital technology breaks through the functional silos and cross-functional collaboration becomes new normal. So, in such circumstances, is ‘structure following strategy’ still valid?

The “Future of CIO” Blog has reached 3 million page views with about #6700+ blog posting in 59+ different categories of leadership, management, strategy, digitalization, change/talent, etc. blog posting. The content richness is not for its own sake, but to convey the vision and share the wisdom, to inspire critical thinking and spur healthy debates. Blogging is not about writing, but about thinking and innovating new ideas; it’s not just about WHAT to say, but about WHY to say, and HOW to say it. It reflects the color and shade of your thought patterns, and it indicates the peaks and curves of your thinking waves. Unlike pure entertainment, quality and professional content takes time for digesting, contemplation, and engaging, and therefore, it takes time to attract the "hungry minds" and the "deep souls." It’s the journey to amplify diverse voices and deepen digital footprints, and it's the way to harness your innovative spirit.