The alleged benefits of flattening

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Flattening or delayering as it is also known typically refers to the elimination of layers in a firm s organizational hierarchy and the broadening of managers spans of control.  flow primarily from pushing decisions downward to enhance customer and market responsiveness and to improve accountability and morale. Has flattening delivered on its promise to push decisions downward In this article I present evidence suggesting that while firms have delayered flattened firms can exhibit more control and decision making at the top.


Managers take note. Flattening can lead to exactly the opposite effects from what it promises to do. Paper Information Full Working Paper Text pdf Working Paper Publication Date April HBS Heavy Construction Contractors Email List Working Paper Number Creating an R D Strategy by Gary P. Pisano This note by Gary P. Pisano provides a framework for designing an R D strategy. It starts with the simple notion that a strategy is a system approach to solving a problem. An R D strategy is defined a coherent set of interrelated choices across decision concerning organizational architecture processes people and project portfolios.





To illustrate the framework we use examples of three pharmaceutical companies and examine how their different R D strategies were rooted in different assumptions about the core driver of R D performance. This suggests that the very first question to be answered in strategy development is What s our shared understanding of the root cause of the problem we are trying to solve Key concepts include A good strategy provides consistency coherence and alignment.