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Business Enablers |
Coherence
The Glue that Binds the Various Pieces of
the Firm Together, Enabling Then to Act as One |
Source: "The Centerless Corporation", Bruce A.Pasternack and
Albert. J. Viscio, 1998. Executive summary by
Vadim
Kotelnikov
"Coherence is what makes a
corporation greater than the sum of it parts"
- Bruce A.Pasternack and
Albert. J. Viscio
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Coherence as a Key
Business
Enabler |
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Energizes your company and generates fresh vitality
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Helps build on on more flexible configurations of management
processes, systems, and people
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Facilitates the initiative and drive that are required of leading
companies
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Deemphasizes a rigid organizational structure; enables your
organization to become
quick, nimble, and responsive
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Coherence as a Key for the
Organizational Integration |
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Fosters better teamwork and communication
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Facilitates knowledge-sharing, which in turn will enhance your
corporation's overall capabilities
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Creates means and willingness to cross organizational boundaries, to
work as a team while being physically distant
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Coherence as a Compass for
Decision-Making |
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Decisions can be more decentralized and of better quality when
everyone understands where company is headed.
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Decisions are better when everyone has access to the right knowledge.
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Decisions improve when the right people are working on the problem.
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Keys to Coherence |
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To establish and communicate the purpose
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To design people and processes to fit
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Key Organizing Principles
which
help define some of the interrelationships among the parts |
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Leaner organization:
reduced levels of hierarchies, minimized number of bureaucratic
regulations, and focused to realize synergies
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Objective orientation: clearly
defined objective orientation of each individual and organizational
unit
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Flexibility: flexible, adaptable
organizational structures with simple decision processes and
responsibilities
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Efficiency: economic, efficient
structures, systems, and processes avoiding redundancies
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Linkages To Be Established
to
improve corporate-wide identification and foster greater motivation |
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Leadership linkages: to coordinate
effective decision-making across the business unit,
leaders should formulate and ensure
that all staff understand the common mission and values of the firm
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Performance measures and incentives:
they should be consistent with the company's overarching objectives
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Teamwork: consists of things like
task forces, workshops, committees, and councils
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Communication: a comprehensive
corporate communication program and direct interaction with employees
should be established to disperse information in a timely manner and,
thus, support decision-making throughout the firm
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Why Coherence?
Anyone who wants to achieve solutions to the problems of
tomorrow must acquire this vital trait - coherence. You cannot realize the
benefits of the new business model
without this glue that holds together its elements. Coherence is what makes
a corporation greater than the sum of it parts. The goal is to encourage
access to and sharing of capabilities
across your company. By achieving coherence,
every individual and each part of the company will be better able to drive
purposefully toward a common goal that is clear, communicated, and
understood by everyone. "The organizational units themselves may always be
in flux, but with effective linkages all the relevant pieces are tied
together in a grand unit of common purpose and direction."
The qualities of
speed and
responsiveness and the ability to tap into the full potential of an
organization are not gifted - you should build them. There is only one way
to achieve these necessary qualities and abilities - to develop coherence
among the many disparate and far-flung pieces of your company. One of the
major objectives is to make your business model more dynamic and less
mechanical than the
traditional corporation.
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Bibliography:
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"The Centerless Corporation", Bruce A.Pasternack and
Albert. J. Viscio, 1998
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"Managing Complexity", Robin Wood, 2001
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"The Next Common Sense", Lissack, M. and Ross, J., 1999
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