The importance of a fit to purpose organisation

The Importance of job titles

Having just left an organisation that seemed to thrive on the existence of fancy jobtitles, I reflected long on some of the past years’ observations.

I was continuously told by my conversation partners about their titles as this seemed to be the only achievement necessary and worthwhile in this world.

This got me thinking about how many times people around me use their titles and to what purpose.

I saw students claiming to be CFO and CEO of their individual group projects or startups. Remembering my various reports and the frequency of them calling upon their titles if at all, I also questioned some of my previous colleagues of how I, myself, went about using my jobtitle.

After all, I never had to tell my daughters I was their father….

It seemed to me that there was a correlation between bad management and the frequency of using titles.

I am in an unique position, being a consultant, to assist organisations with reflexions on their future; on how they do business, on what they do and what they should not do. Part of this discovery is invariably looking at how the organisation is structured and if the structure served the purpose.

I will bring 2 case studies that come to mind in this respect :

1-???? A pharmaceutical company had a rather flat structure and the sales reps, in contact with the doctors that prescribed the drugs, reported directly to the regional manager. Flat organisation, short decision times.

A new IT system was put in place and a whole new layer of reporting was also introduced, whereby every sales rep from now on reported to a system analyst, a new position, who compiled the numbers and fed them to the regional manager.

Two things happened almost at once : the system analysts did everything in their power to create a opaque and complicated reporting system, ensuring that their jobs would be safe and all sales reps started to feel that they spent more time reporting ?than actually spending time with their customers. Frustration grew, revenus stagnated and valuable sales reps started to quit the company to seek more satisfying employment.

This company was very hierarchical, people at the top loved these complicated organisational charts and the titles that went with them. The culture of this company was not to question themselves and the result today is that they are still barely in the market, due to 2 successful drugs. They haven’t really grown, have not brought any new products to the market in the last 10 years and they lost valuable contacts in the market after sales reps departed.

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2. A manufacturing company, second in market share in the EMEA, experienced some difficulties in an economic downturn cycle. The owner being a rather excentric artloving individual, he was known for attracting toptalent. During that time, he got his top management together for discussions on how to make the business more profitable again.

To a man, all came up with suggestions to cut the labour force, especially his level -1 and impressed upon the owner the need to keep all the C levels, the CFO’s, CEO’s and all other C’s the company had. After some reflection, the owner fired the whole exec team saying how disappointed ?he was that they had come up only with solutions that would keep them out of the wind, ruining other people’s lives and not questioning themselves.

Many years later, this company works with agile purpose-built management teams from within the organisation, with little to no formal titles. Not only are they still in business, but they have gained market share and are currently recognised for being the most creative in their field. Having saved a hefty sum in firing the top salaries, the company is healthy and set to withstand the next storms

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It is a sad thing that some look at titles as the achievements of their career, yet they should just be confirmations of knowledge or experience

When the organisational structure becomes more important than the business purpose, things cannot go well.

Think about Kodak who, despite having invented digital photography, concentrated on the existing structure and the rigidity of it led to their degraded position in the market today.

When I advise clients, I question the relevance of their organisation and question to see if it is fit for purpose. Does it help achieve the objectives? Does it create internal competition? And how simple is it?