KEEP IT COMPLEX

KEEP IT COMPLEX.   KEEP IT GRACEFUL.  KEEP IT TAILORED TO THE EXACT DIFFERENTIATING NEEDS OF YOUR BUSINESS.

 I am thinking of a company that has struggled to find the right corporate structure.  Swinging from decentralizion to consolidation and back again.   Changing corporate role from minimal corporate staff as expert support to the operation companies to a  large corporate staff as top bosses telling the operating business what has to be done.  All the while whipping the culture to a frenzy of discontent and disorientation.

 The more demanding the times, the more financial pressure on the company, the more scared the organization is (a totally forbidden concept in business)  the more the temptation will be to head toward a simple answer, to a one size fits all solution sitting at the end of a continuum when complexity resides in the middle--- along with reality.

Keep the urgency, keep the high accountability, keep the momentum forward.  But don't make things simple that are not.  Don't move abruptly.  Don't apply an answer from outside (yes, I mean consultants--use them to implement you own answer.)  Keep it complex, keep it graceful and keep it tailored to your business.