The Key to Organizing Your Business and
Making it Work:
Structure vs. Function
An external look at a busines---just observing it from an
outsider's viewpoint---will yield interesting information about
how the business is organized. And from that you can gain
insight into how it functions and ultimately, if it is doing
well.
Do things flow well for it?
Are there confusions, backlogs,
bottlenecks?
Is communication fast and accurate?
Such things can be traced back to a company's
basic organization structure, which is typically found on their
organization chart. That is, if the company has one and it is
known and actually used as a tool.
Many small businesses do not have or use one or
do not make it widely known to employees to use as an integral
part of company operations. Employers or managers either do not
see it as important or do not want to confront the task of
developing and maintaining one.
Big mistake.
Why?
Many reasons. First, organization is the
backbone to a company or any group for that matter--- it is the
essential framework on which a foundation is
built. It is a blueprint to a company's design. It dictates
it's functionality. Imagine a builder trying to construct a
twelve-story office building without having consulted an
architect.
Second, an organization chart maps out
hierarchy. "So what!", you say? Okay, try going to work when
there's no one in charge, when there's nobody around to make
decisions or give orders, and no one knows where to put things
let alone what to do next to keep the business going.
That's only fun for so long.
Third, an organization chart delineates flows
within the company. Flows give a company direction along which
things move---from assembly lines to communication, to ALL
functions. Flows are vital signs of a business that needs
periodically checked. Don't think so?
Blood has a flow, doesn't it? What happens when
it is restricted, cut off, sluggish, or requires excessive
pressure to circulate? Yeah, you get problems elsewhere in the
system. Sometimes, problems big enough to shut a system
down.
Ask anyone who has ever worked on any kind of
assembly or distribution line when it gets shut down for a
while.
Get the picture?
So, how do we use this information? Read on and
find out.
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