A Biased View of The Evolution of Corporate Structures

If you’ve been with the same company long enough, you gets to experience various organizational structures. Some work great, but others struggle to gain critical mass and are destined to be moved to the bottom of the file cabinet. One of the biggest challenges comes when the C-level managers decide to perform reorgs every 18-24 months. It usually happens when new leadership comes in and decides to start rearranging the “furniture” right away so that they have their fingerprints on the organization so that they can justify their existence. As a result, company resources and relationships get shifted around causing confusion and friction and in the end, it may impact service to the customers.  It’s all about customers, not shareholders as customers generate revenue, shareholders do not.
Depending on who has control of the resources and influence of an organization, the process changes in power, influence, and results move painfully through growth, contraction, and recovery cycles. Effective leaders who are really plugged into the organization and customers can navigate these cycles effectively by utilizing the various departments, resources, and key individuals at the ideal times to maintain consistent growth.
What can one expect when various departments are empowered to create value or exploit resources? Here is one perception of corporate evolution.
Where does your current employer fit in this model?

When a company is run exclusively by the following departments:

R&D: Expect orphaned products that are interesting, and no markets served. These talented people cannot understand why the market does not see the value of their inventions at the high price they expect. Staying too long in this cycle creates a market-follower culture.

Marketing: Expect brand evolution, content/messaging, and new customers. Thrive with an active product pipeline for effective product lifecycle management.

Sales: Expect growth and repeat loyal customers. Relationship selling matters.

Sales & Marketing Combined: Expect growth, creativity, brand innovation, and high customer loyalty. A real sweet spot with a steady stream of new products that fit the product lifecycle management model.

Customer Service: Expect a delightful purchasing experience for the customer and the ability to please. Investing in sales & product training and questioning skills for this department can nip problems in the bud and increase profits with very minimal effort.

Finance/Operations: Expect better margins, fewer resources, and consistent workflows. More machine-like than man. (Insert reference to Terminator Skynet here).

Legal: Expect reduced risk, consistent sales prevention (lost customer base), and stymied business processes. Prelude to an acquisition or divestment.

Share a comment or a correction to fill in a gap or blind spot.  If not, check out this blog, instead.

Another well-written piece packed with foresight that has a different tangent and is worth the time reading.

https://memoirsofamadmansite.blog/2016/11/23/confidence-ego-hubris-megalomania/

“The purpose of business is to create and keep a customer.”
Peter F. Drucker

Author: Francis

Started out in science and somehow ended up in sales & marketing. Grew into a results oriented sales professional with extensive experience selling and positioning scientific solutions in the pharma/biotech, life sciences and medical diagnostics markets. In 1998 I created an excel sheet to track spending and cash flow to learn personal finance on my own. They don't teach this in school and by the time one figures it out, most of let all these resources slip through our fingers. It's time to pay it forward to this next gen so that they can shave 15-20 years off for working for "the man" with insights, a library of tools, and motivation from me and plenty of other FI bloggers that I follow.