Benchmarking
SAP
In 2005, SAP, one of the world’s largest suppliers of business software and services, embarked on a reintegration plan designed to change the organizational structure. Until that point, SAP had utilized a more traditional or divisional organization scheme (McShane & Von Glinow, 2005) with good results but felt that there was room for improvement. Similarly, as evidenced during the simulation, Good Sport was also implementing a similar organizational structure with individual departments and the corresponding hierarchy of upper management. SAP realized that one of the byproducts of the departmental structure was independence and personal responsibility. What SAP wanted was more mutual dependence and a collaborative responsibility. Thus, SAP rolled out a value-chain or functional structure putting one executive in charge of a step or part of the value chain (HBR, June 2007). Consequently, managers were forced to interact much more cooperatively and all shared in the successes and failures together. As a result, SAP immediately noticed drastically improved exchanges between executives and a more open and honest communication model (HBR, June 2007).
As mentioned previously, Good Sport suffered from the same fragmented and “us against you” mentality that is seen when business units and departments function independently. Reorganization within Good Sport based upon the functional or process format would alleviate some of the power struggles that hinder the launch of their new product. Less time would be wasted “getting everyone on board” and more time could be spent perfecting and introducing the product.
Royal Navy
Britain’s navy, the Royal Navy, found itself struggling to identify which of the many leadership styles to teach its officers enrolled in their academy. The Royal Navy has been instructing future leaders and managers long before Harvard and Wharton existed. During the course of time,...
View Full Essay