Business success is strongly dependent on the correlation between your business strategy and your organizational structure. The design of your overall business will indicate how your business will ultimately perform.
What is a business strategy and why is it so important?
By starting with a business plan; a focus on hitting specific business goals and simultaneously maintaining strong relationships internally and externally with your customers, you’re on the right track. A business strategy defines how a business will reach their ultimate goals by using all their resources. An organization’s structure is important to consider when putting your business strategy together. The goal is to reduce any type of confusion or any overlapping of assigned tasks. This is the appropriate time to creating a strong foundation for the long-term employee productivity. In order to truly enhance your business, you must have your business strategy and organizational structure go hand in hand.
Some factors included in this structure to put into place include:
(1) Perfecting the Company Organization Structure: Define business units or departments. Each business unit should have similar goals and responsibilities that can be overseen and directed by one or several managers. Determine which type of organizational structure best fits your business needs. There are several different types of organizational structures to choose from, make sure that whichever you choose can successfully function with its reporting structure, expand if necessary and successfully meet its goals. Define executive and management teams and establish performance metrics and compensation. When the organizational structure is determined, job descriptions can be clearly defined.
(2) Choosing the Best Organizational Chart for You: When drawing an organization chart indicating hierarchy, clear reporting paths must be highlighted so that the viewer/ employee gets a clear understanding of the reporting structure that should be followed. One method to use would be using a color coding or visual queues to indicate the reporting path. Various organizational charts include: hierarchical structure, matrix structure, horizontal/ flat structure, network structure, division structure, line organization structure, and team-based organizational structure.
(3) Ways to enhance your organizational structure: This includes several different popular components. Committing to ownership is crucial when it comes to the organization structure and if ownership is not shared, then the structure will not be put into place. Expanding your boundaries as your company grows should indicate that your structure should grow as well. Thinking lateral is expressing that employees need to be involved in processes as well, including work tasks. Avoid a top-down organization structure, so that lower levels can share their ideas as well. Giving and gaining trust while building community shares that company goals will be achieved by developing strong relationships. Without building a strong community and having a solid foundation of trust, the company ultimately has nothing.
When it comes to defining strategies, high-performing leadership teams spend over 20% more-time planning and preparing with their entire company. This includes the higher performing leadership team dedicating much more time to checking progress often on their goals, checking progress on the metrics and adjusting their game plans appropriately. Lastly, higher performing leadership teams focus significantly more than lower performing leadership teams on the overall business strategy that is being adjusted and implemented. Important tips to keep in mind when creating your business strategies would be to make sure your business structure supports your ultimate goals, provide clear guidelines and make note of what is a priority, create strong relationships with your team internally and your customers externally. The moment that your business plan, structure and organizational structure is positioned properly, be prepared to watch your business blossom.
