Michael Gerber's Business Development Program, Step 3: Your Organizational Strategy

How is your company going to be organized? Michael Gerber asks. It makes no sense to say you need an organization because you are small. You have an organization no matter what size you are. And what does your company look like when it grows up. Visualize this. And how do you get from where you are now to where your company will be when it's done is your organizational strategy.

Everyone has an organizational strategy too. Either it's not written down carefully thought out, and well executed, or it's in your head poorly thought out, and poorly executed.

On page 175, there's a neat organizational chart, drawn during the old economy when companies were organized hierarchically. They never worked that way, but they were visualized that way.

In the new economy, driven by globalization and its correlates, we need to be horizontal in our thinking rather than vertical. We need to think cooperation and collaboration rather than command and control.

So write out the organization that you visualize. If you can't come up with the final one right now that's okay. Do the best you can. It will come to you. After all everything is a work in progress.

What do you think of this? The goal is to produce more skilled entrepreneurs. Does this help? Tell me. Post a comment. I'd like to know. And follow me on Twitter.com

Entrepreneurship informs all of my professional activities. Entrepreneurial ideas are their life's blood. For my ideas on entrepreneurial real estate go to www.yourstopforrealestate.com/blog and for my ideas on writing and publishing, go to www.kearneymusicschoolmurders.blogspot.com.

Military and Biological Metaphors

In the olden days, the military metaphor was the only metaphor for business. Success was achieved from the top with orders directed for employees to follow, much like a military unit going into battle.

More recently, the military metaphor has had to make room for the biological metaphor which compares business organization to an organism growing organically with minimum control from the top.

Alistair Mutch, a professor in the Department of Information Management and Systems, Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham, UK, in an article abstracted on the internet, "Organization Theory and Military Metaphor: Time for a Reappraisal?"Organization, Vol. 13, No. 6, 751-769 (2006) asks if this military metaphor should be questionned. He says,

A ‘conventional’ use of military metaphor would use it to convey attributes such as hierarchical organization, vertical communication and limited autonomy. This is often used in contrast to a looser form of organization based on the metaphor of the network. However, this article argues that military practice is more complex, with examples of considerable autonomy within the constraints of central direction. It is suggested that not only might this be a more useful metaphor for many contemporary organizations, but also that simplistic uses of military metaphor divert our attention away from the functions that management hierarchies play. The discussion is embedded within a critical realist account of metaphor, arguing for both its value and the need for its further development.

So if Dr. Mutch is correct, most organizations are a mixture of hierarchy and more horizontal structures. The point for you is to recognize how much close control from the top your enterprise should need. Hierarchy is more efficient, but too much control can hurt your chances of success. L.L. Bean, for example, carefully controlled all decisions throughout his life. It produced a good company but hurt growth down the line because everything had to be decided by him. LL Bean, the company, is of course alive and well today and is very regarded as a source of high quality outdoor close and gear. But it could only grow when management passed on to more modern ideas.

What do you think of this? Are you a command and control guy or a connect and collaborationalist? I'd like to know. Post a comment.

Entrepreneurship informs all my professional activities. For entrepreneurial real estate, go to www.yourstopforrealestate.com/blog. For entrepreneurial writing, to www.kearneymusicschoolmurders.blogspot.com.