What’s the right type of structure or organization for a Brand U or New Economy company? No one knows what’s best. There’s a lot of speculation. Peter Drucker, the eminent management expert, says “every organization … will have to be designed for a specific task, time, and place.[i] In other words, Brand U work and organizations will be projectized along lines that reflect their purpose and function of what needs to be done.
See if the following makes sense? Life and work are more chaotic! Customers want more things faster and better. This ‘work entropy’ results in the unraveling of our cherished principles, practices, understandings, energy, and commitment. Our usual response is to deal with a situation when it reaches a crisis stage and then we panic and jump. We transform processes, downsize people indiscriminately, or change organizational cultures. Fire fighting or crisis management doesn’t work over the long term.
[i] Drucker, Peter, “The Future That Has Already Happened,” Harvard Business Review, September-October, 1997, p. 22.