Does your corporate structure stifle your innovation?
Too many government contractors relied on an outdated structure that kills innovation, creativity and internal communications and can be the biggest impediment to growth.
Companies in our industry have cultures that are quite similar in spite of the fact that each company has its own origin, history, and management team.
Most systems integrators have the same customer base, develop the same technologies, have virtually the same accounting system, have the same business development and capture management processes, and often hire employees from direct competitors.
New employees can leave one company on a Friday and on the following Monday begin to contribute quickly, upon joining their new company, with little or no orientation required to learn their new firm’s working environment. This situation is strong evidence of cultural and management system homogeneity across companies in our industry.
Most significantly these firms have an almost identical organization structure. More often than not corporate headquarters acts as a “holding company” comprised of profit and loss centers—business groups, which in turn are made up of divisions, departments and integration/consulting projects. A hierarchal, ‘command and control’ organization, which has existed for decades in these companies, creates and sustains this common structure.
But this stove-piped organization structure does not work anymore. It cannot adapt to an ever changing market and technology environment. Having an entrenched structure and operational framework is a company’s biggest impediment to new business growth.
Structure is the most damning artifact of a company’s culture.
Having an old-style hierarchal organization structure and measurements constrains innovation, creativity and most importantly internal communication. It creates a straight jacket that makes organization adaptability to changes in the market impossible.
Existing quantitative measurements that are sub-optimized, based upon the goals of a division or line of business, create the illusion of management control when larger company strategic goals, like winning new business, are subsumed by this organization construct.
Companies need internal structures and communication that support network relationships not a hierarchy. The lack of formal and informal, network relationships throughout the enterprise is why business development and operations constantly struggle to work together. Until there are qualitative measurements and rewards that cross organization boundaries and drive cooperation, winning new business will continue to be quite difficult to achieve.
When firms have the same structure, management systems, technologies, business development and capture management processes, how will a company distinguish itself in the market?
It must distinguish itself through recognizing its unique combination of employees. Each company’s unique collection of talent can be their competitive advantage if properly communicated to the market.
How do you present your subject matter experts’ knowledge and credentials to your company’s market base?
How do you demonstrate your company’s thought leadership regardless of its structure?
It is time for our industry to shed an outdated organizational structure and adapt to the realities of our market environment.