NOTE: The following case study about organization structure is a composite of multiple individuals. Any resemblance to an actual person or organization is coincidental.
XYZ Electronics is a small startup company that specializes in manufacturing components for chipsets. The company began as a contractor for a larger company that assembled OEM consumer products. Several years later they developed their own customer base through trade shows and began selling their products throughout the USA using distributors. The company had a single line of products and no sales force. The sluggish economy of recent years had reduced their customer base dramatically. Faced with declining sales, an unstable economy, and low employee morale, the management team was looking to change course. Specifically, they wanted to get rid of some legacy products and develop enterprise products.
I conducted structured interviews with each change initiative committee member and then transcribed, summarized, and let each interviewee review and approve their summary. After meeting with the committee members, the best course of action appeared to be management of planned change. I presented my findings and we agreed to develop a program that integrated change management, goal setting, and decision making. We also identified areas of concern and possible resistance to the change efforts using a survey feedback process.
Decisions and their attached goals included:
- Develop a new marketing plan
- Recruit and develop a sales force for North America
- Change negative expectations about their entry into different market sectors
At the conclusion of our organization change project the company had successfully entered the enterprise market, and introduced a new product line. They stopped supporting their legacy products and while that product line sales revenue suffered greatly, the enterprise products had more than doubled their overall sales revenue. Finally, rather than closing the doors to the company, their reduction in force was less than twenty percent and company morale was high again.