Within the 5-Star Model for organizational success or what I prefer to call it, sustainable business growth, the second point on this star is structure.
This aspect looks at what some understand to be the organizational chart (org chart), the roles and responsibilities of all employees or departments as well as the governance of the organization.
For many small businesses with fewer than 20 employees, the structure is fairly simple. There is the business owner or chief executive officer and everyone else.
Larger small business with 50-plus employees, the organizational chart may look to specific departments such as human resources, accounting and finance, technology (information services), sales and marketing. For some forward thinking small businesses there may be an innovation or enterprise planning department along with a capacity and risk management departments.
From these departments, there are the people who manage the relationships because people buy from people be those people external or internal customers. Depending upon revenue volume and number of employees, these relationship managers may after the title of:
*Office manager
*Sales manager
*Vice President of Sales and Marketing
*Chief Operations Officer
*Chief Financial Officer
Recently firms like Zappos have embraced holacracy. This type of structure is essentially flat with very few separations and creates a culture where employees can act more like entrepreneurs and be self-directed in their daily behaviors.
With 97.7 percent of all U.S. businesses having fewer than 20 employees, many of these small business firms are probably more holacratic than they realize.
The challenge is the processes and procedures have not been documented and potentially the people with the right talents making the right decisions in the right time frame for the right results have not been hired. The 5-Star Model recognizes the importance of alignment between Strategies, Structure, People, Process and Rewards. Misalignment probably impacts negative business growth as much if not more so that hiring the wrong people.
Next week, the column will examine the roles and responsibilities within this structure aspect of organizational alignment and its impact on business growth.
Leanne Hoagland-Smith is an author, speaker and executive coach. Her weekly column explores issues that impact the bottom line of firms with fewer than 100 employees. She can be reached at 219-508-2859.
