Our survey of interesting organizations has been eye-opening in more ways than one. Although these companies sell to very distinct markets and have adopted a variety of organizational structures, all of them have shown agility in responding both to internal and external pressures. In the following paragraphs, this treatise will discuss in fascinating detail, the lessons we have gleaned from these maverick organizations.

ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE

We have encountered organizational structures ranging from the traditional to the state-of-the-art. Common to all these companies is the fact that they adopted structures which best matched their product or service offerings and the environment in which they operated. Some have pushed technology to the limits and pursued the promised land of “virtual-dom,” while others have opted to maintain traditional structures and focus on novel approaches to customer service and business processes.

The lesson we learned is that companies should not blindly implement new structures for the sake of technology or trendiness alone. They must ensure that the structures they put in place allow them to enhance their value proposition, leverage their core competencies, and tap into the latent talents of their employees by empowering them.

CUSTOMER FOCUS

Today’s organizations are increasingly dealing with a global base of customers with more rigorous demands. Many of them are demanding high-quality customized products and service solutions “yesterday.” As such, the modern organization has no choice but to stay very close to customers and the market, and act on customer feedback immediately. This requires the ability to bend over backwards at times, and to be extremely flexible in responding to the uncertainties of evolving markets.

We learned that companies should strive to stay close to customers by understanding how their customers think, knowing what their customers want, and incorporating this knowledge in the products and services they sell. Sometimes this means being close to the customer physically, as we have seen with companies that have dispersed key managers to different geographical areas. Most often, however, the companies we studied have stayed close to their customers by eliminating bureaucracies and increasing communication and coordination activities.

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

Although some organizations we looked at were distinctly low-tech, many of the companies we encountered implemented organizational changes that were supported and facilitated by information technology and communication systems. For instance, IT allowed organizations to adopt virtual, networked structures or to coordinate widely dispersed outsourcing activities. Similarly, the use of intranet and cellular technologies enabled more efficient dissemination of information and sharing of knowledge across various stakeholders.

We learned that information technology will most likely play a critical “enabling” role in the majority of future organizations. Specifically, the use of IT will not only allow companies to reduce costs and improve productivity, but more importantly, it will allow companies to make informed decisions quickly in response to rapidly changing markets and customer demands. In addition, the ability of companies to recognize market opportunities and innovatively apply new technologies may often lead to the development of entirely new products and services.