How to Design a Flat Organization : The World : Idea Hub :: American Express O... - The Diigo Meta page

• 13 Oct 09
  

  Vahid Masrour

  organizational design

• 22 Aug 09
  

  Tom Krieglstein

  A casestudy in FAVI who got rid of it's org chart and went customer focused with small teams around products.

  organization orgchart management business businessstructure

  • Conventional wisdom
  • we need organizations to be highly ordered, with a strong and well-defined structure. But what if that’s wrong?
  • 9 more annotations...
  • • I told them tomorrow when you come to work, you do not work for me or for a boss. You work for your customer. I don’t pay you. They do. Every customer has its own factory now. You do what is needed for the customer.” And with that single stroke, he eliminated the central control: personnel, product development, purchasing…all gone.
    • The company formed twenty teams based on knowledge of customers like Fiat, Volvo, Volkswagen, etc. Each team was responsible not only for the customer, but for its own human resources, purchasing, and product development. There are two job designations in the team: leader and compagnon—or companion—which is an operator able to perform several different jobs.
    • FAVI was that it moved from being one big plant to being a couple of dozen entrepreneurial miniplants housed under one roof.
    • Zobrist did what the best designers do: add by subtracting.
    • Accountability is to the customer and to the team, not a boss, so FAVI people are free to experiment, innovate, and solve problems for customers.
    • Control rests with the front lines, where it adds the most value.
    • Still, customers visiting FAVI are often astounded at what they perceive to be a total lack of control.
    • They are a customer for over ten years, so I say, ‘In that time, have we ever been late?’ They say, ‘No.’ I say, ‘Have we ever been early?’ They say again, ‘No.’ And so I ask them why they want me to measure things that do not exist.” Good point.
    • how can we achieve the maximum effect with the minimum means?
• 10 Aug 09
  

  Jason Cummings
• 09 Aug 09
  

  Bertrand Duperrin

  Take the case of French company FAVI, an autoparts supplier manufacturing copper alloy components. CEO Jean-Francois Zobrist eliminated the personnel department immediately upon taking the helm of the company in 1983. But that wasn’t all he got rid of. Says Zobrist: “I came in the day after I became CEO, and gathered the people. I told them tomorrow when you come to work, you do not work for me or for a boss. You work for your customer. I don’t pay you. They do. Every customer has its own factory now. You do what is needed for the customer.” And with that single stroke, he eliminated the central control: personnel, product development, purchasing…all gone.

  FAVI flatorganization organization humanresources pull management quality

• 07 Aug 09
  

  Little Wonder

  organization case-study flat structure

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