Leading Organization Design

NEW YORK CITY – (January 3, 2010) – Business leaders can impact their organizations in three ways – but often only use two of them.

They focus on strategy and top-level talent, but neglect organization design – the deliberate configuration of business units, processes, support functions, geographic offices, reporting lines and responsibilities.  Yet organization design can be the key to global competitiveness, creating agile structures that balance global and local needs and respond quickly to a dynamic, shifting business landscape.

That’s the viewpoint of the just-published Leading Organization Design: How to Make Organization Design Decisions to Drive the Results You Want (December 2010, Jossey-Bass).  The book, by noted organization design and strategy consultants Amy Kates and Greg Kesler, managing partners at Kates Kesler Organization Consulting, shows leaders how to design responsive business structures capable of shifting resources to exactly where they’re needed.

Among the topics covered in the book are:

• Why strategy and vision are important – but aren’t enough by themselves to create effective performance.
• Why leaders are mistaken to focus only on central control – and what kinds of authority they should give to local regions.
• Why it’s a mistake to over-value smooth, harmonious teamwork – and how creative tension can make a business better.
• How poor organization design stifles talent – and the role that talent should play in the senior leadership team.
• How to use the Matrix to strike a balance between central and regional needs.
• The Five Milestones of organization design.
• The Six Design Drivers, and how they guide the development of successful organizations.

“A business leader can only directly control three levers: strategy, the organization design and the choice of players sitting on the top team. A great strategy will fail, and great talent will be frustrated, if the power and decision networks aren’t clear,” says co-author Amy Kates.

“A well-designed organization creates agility within businesses and across businesses,” says co-author Greg Kesler.  “Organization design opens up new approaches to creating agility, for example by building flexible pools of talent in the back end, with more customer-aligned groups in the front.  It takes courage to make some of these changes, but there are some exciting things happening in this area.”

Leading Organization Design: How to Make Organization Design Decisions to Drive the Results You Want is available for purchase from Jossey-Bass and from leading booksellers.  For more information, go to http://www.josseybass.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-0470589590.html

To arrange a conversation with Amy Kates and/or Gregory Kesler, please contact Frank Lentini at Sommerfield Communications, Inc. at (212) 255-8386 / [email protected].