Regardless of the Organisation's design - speed and efficiency is paramount in lean times

Functional, Divisional, Matrix, Networked, Cluster, Process, Geographic, Customer-back, Life-Form structures all exist in some shape or form in many organisations. Many C-Level executives mandate consultants or HR divisions to develop a new structure. The problem is a new structure is just a new structure. The key for organisations is to come up with a new design that will achieve the following objectives:

• Is the organisation capturing the necessary sources of competitive advantage in each market it participates in?
• Is the corporate core helping the market-facing business units rather than impeding them achieve their objectives and important financial metrics?
• Does the organisation capture the strengths, motivations and weaknesses of its talent?
• Does it facilitate different cultures across different parts of the business i.e. regulated division vs. unregulated?
• Does the organisation provide coordination for unit-to-unit links that are likely to be problematic?
• Does the organisation enhance efficiency, effectiveness?
• Does the organisation equip the organisation to maximise revenue and profits, whilst containing cost bases?
• Does the design of the organisation drive effective governance and control systems?
• Is the organisation designed to adapt to rapid change requirements in strategies enforced by external markets?
• Does the organisation reflect the complexity of markets and industry relationships whilst being sufficiently straightforward for stakeholders to understand and optimal work with and co-exist?

Answering these questions will assist leaders as they search for ways of increasing the speed, flexibility, integration, and innovation of the organisation - without losing control of it. C-level and senior leadership need to not turn first to the organisational structure, despite being an easy thing to do. Rather thinking what structure does the organisation need, leaders need to ask what operating model and organisation design will help achieve speed, efficiency and adaptability to change in a turbulent market.