Product Description

′Goold and Campbell, leading thinkers on corporate–level strategy, have turned their attention to corporate–level organization design. They bring a rigor to this topic that will help managers wrestling with multiple reporting dimensions, decentralization and cross–unit co–ordination.′ Professor Gary Hamel, London Business School. Author of Competing for the Future and Leading the Revolution.
′Campbell and Goold are renowned for discovering entirely new and useful dimensions to seemingly familiar business issues. This book is another shining example. It allows executives to replace politics and personality as the rationales for an organizational design with clear, effective logic and experience.′ Thomas H. Davenport, Director, Accenture Institute for Strategic Change. Author of Process Innovation and Working Knowledge.
′A "must read" for managers and consultants. Redesigning the organization is the most powerful and fastest means for aligning decisions and behavior with strategic objectives. Goold and Campbell provide the best and most comprehensive framework for developing and testing the validity of an organizational structure I have seen in recent years. Based on years of research and experience they offer clear principles and a process to guide managers in the many design decisions and trade–offs involved in developing a more effective organization.′ Professor Michael Beer, Harvard Business School. Author of The Critical Path to Corporate Renewal.
′Books on organization design tend to fall into one of two categories: those that provide interesting concepts but not help on how to implement them and those that are full of check lists on implementation, based on sterile and over–simplified ideas. Michael Goold and Andrew Campbell have written perhaps the finest example of an exception I have ever seen – a very practical book, with detailed guidelines on implementation, yet based on a rich and sophisticated understanding of the real challenges of organization design. It will be of immense use to all careful readers.′ Professor Sumantra Ghoshal, London Business School. Author of The Individualized Corporation and Managing Across Borders.
′As companies search for all sources of competitive advantage, many are discovering that the ability to organize and execute complex strategies is an important one. Campbell and Goold have again provided us with a good process through which leaders can give organizing its deserved focus.′ Professor Jay Galbraith, author of Designing the Global Corporation.
′Campbell and Goold bring much needed clarity and precision to the language of organizational design and show how this can help managers avoid the misunderstandings and differing interpretations that frequently undermine new organization structures.′ Paul Coombes, Director, Organization Practice Area, McKinsey & Company.
′Organization change is close to the top of many companies′ agendas. Goold and Campbell′s book equips you with ideas and frameworks to take on the journey. The real–world examples help make it both pragmatic and readable.′ Steve Russell, Chief Executive, The Boots Company plc.
′An impressive work. The taxonomy of organizational units and organigram symbols will be especially useful to managers working on structures.′ Philip Sadler, Patron, The Centre for Tomorrow′s Company. Author of The Seamless Organization.
′Incredibly relevant in helping to pull together a complicated structure based around the dimensions of channels, products, customers and geography – immensely clear and valuable.′ David Roberts, Chief Executive, Personal Financial Services, Barclays plc.
′A welcome breakthrough in designing more effective corporate organization structures. The nine design tests of Goold and Campbell are a valuable addition to an otherwise sparse toolkit.′ Jim Haymaker, Vice President, Strategy & Business Development, Cargill Inc.
...

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #47393 in Books
• Published on: 2002-03-22
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 368 pages

Review
"A few minutes spent thinking about one′s own company, using the Goold and Campbell principles, can be very illuminating. At its best, it will lead to real insights about how to reorganise the company. And at the very worst, you can have hours of fun applying the redundant hierarchy test to your colleagues." (Financial Times, 9 May 2002)

"...There are several ways to rebuild the country manager′s role, as Michael Goold, of Britain′s Ashridge Strategic Management Centre, argues in a new book...the main thing is to define the scope of the job clearly..." (Economist, 10 May 2002)

Review
"...There are several ways to rebuild the country manager′s role, as Michael Goold, of Britain′s Ashridge Strategic Management Centre, argues in a new book...the main thing is to define the scope of the job clearly..." (Economist, 10 May 2002)

From the Inside Flap
Have you ever struggled to make decisions in organizations where responsibilities are not sufficiently clear? Have you labored in hierarchical structures where senior managers slow down decisions, but add no value? Have you wondered why the organization design so often makes strategies hard to implement? Designing Effective Organizations offers practical help to managers who face these difficulties.

This book provides a rigorous approach to the complex issue of organizational design. Drawing on a wide range of company examples and wealth of personal experience, the authors have produced an innovative new framework for assessing design options.

Using nine tests, and new and more precise terms to convey organizational roles, Goold and Campbell provide managers with the tools needed to create well designed organizations. They emphasize the value of decentralized network–like organizations, but argue for sufficient structure to make them work well.

Although organizational design decisions will never be easy, managers who use the processes outlined in this book are much more likely to arrive at sound choices and increase the overall competitive success of their companies.

If you have always put organizational design in the ′too difficult′ box, or struggled to find a better way to restructure your organization, this is the book for you.

Customer Reviews

Useful to anyone redesigning their organisational structure
A highly detailed reference work for anyone struggling with ineffective organisational structures. It advocates a demanding approach to structure redesign which will deter some senior managers. However, I'm sure that if you follow their methodology no-one could accuse you of not trying! Repetitive in parts but they get their points across. Probably essential reading if you're undertaking this process in a complex business.

Significant contribution to the Organization Design field.
There is no single solution to designing an effective organization. What you can do is pose a number of key questions to help you design an organization appropriate for a particular context and time frame.

Goold and Campbell, from Ashridge Management Centre, who I came across as a member of the Organization Design Forum. Have put forward a way of thinking about organization design by setting out nine design tests, based on two concepts:

* FIT which is based on the idea that organizations should be fit for purpose;

* DESIGN PRINCIPLES, which have been distilled from previous good work in organization design.

The four drivers of fit and the nine design principles are illustrated as set out in their book, and set out below.

FIT Drivers:

* Product-market strategies.[Market advantage test]

* Corporate strategies.[Parenting test]

* People.[People test]

* Constraints[Feasibilty test]

For example to enlarge on one of the points above - the people fit/test. Does the design adequately refect the motivations, strengths and weaknesses of the available people? The structure should fit the available /potential core talent needed to deliver the strategic aims, eg the kinds of recruit that will be needed for the future and the existing talent in the organization, eg the top management team or the core IT team.

Expanding on the Constraints fit, the authors propose a feasibility test. Does the design take into account the constraints that might make the proposal unworkable? The requirements are to ensure that the external environment has been scanned to identify all possible constraints eg legal and government directives in setting up joint ventures in particular countries, and the robustness of the design against each constraint or possible source of failure eg how will a major breakdown in one part of the organization affect the whole operation. (Of course if you fire a whistle blower/head of risk management, you will not get very far on this dimension, as we have seen in recent disclosures].

THE GOOD DESIGN PRINCIPLES:

* Specialization principle.(Specialist culture test]

* Coordination principle.[Difficult links test]

* Knowledge and competence principle.[Redundant heirarchy test]

* Control and and committment.[Accountabilty test]

* Innovation and adaptation principle. [ Flexibility test]

Expanding on the Design principles. The accountability test. Does the design facilitate the creation of control processes, for each unit that are appropriate to their roles and responsibilities. Economical to implement, and motivating for the managers and employees in the unit, eg are customer-facing units, given enough 'slack' or autonomy to meet their objectives and are they rewarded for doing so?

With the flexibility test. Will the design help the development of new strategies and be flexible enough to adapt to future changes. For example; do innovative units have enough access to talent to meet demands for new products or services, and are they rewarded for learning, passing on their learning and for putting it into practice in the form of innovations?

These nine deign tests are extremely useful because they can be used to assess the strengths and weaknesses of existing organizations, or proposals for a new organization.

In summary, these most practical set of design tests would be a good place to begin to evaluate your own organization, focusing on its existing structure or on any proposed changes.

For other related work have a look at, Designing your organization - pub 2007, for very good quality material on organization design.(see my other reviews)

Some additional material that I reccomend that you look at is:

- Integrated Organization Design - the new Strategy Prioriy for HR Directors. A White paper - 09/01, pub Jan 2009 by CPHR. (The centre for performance led HR, based at Lancaster University - Management School) This can be downloaded free.

The first part of a wider ranging project bringing together Organization Development and Organization Design. Into a "new" capability, called by the authors "Architectural Design".

The paper covers the ground well and will challenge your views. Picks up on Galbraiths work eg the Five Star model.

Stan Felstead - Interchange Resources - UK.