Organizational Design 

Our organizational design methodology emphasizes strategic alignment, engagement of key stakeholders and data-based decision making. We work quickly with our clients to clarify the key criteria the future organization must meet, generate design options and their respective trade-offs, and select the optimal design for the future. We work with our clients to define a detailed transition roadmap and a process to monitor progress of implementation.

Whether it is motivated by a significant shift in the external competitive environment or changes inside the organization (a new product or a merger/acquisition), redesigning an organization requires a thoughtful and systemic approach that takes into consideration the formal and informal ways in which members interact to get their work gets done.

That is why our organizational design methodology emphasizes three key principles:

• Strategic alignment: an organization is designed to achieve certain objectives therefore each of its components (units, teams, roles, processes) must align to these objectives.
• Engagement of key stakeholders: those stakeholders who will operate in the new organization must be part of the design process – providing options and weighing in on key decisions.
• Data-based decision making: our process makes it clear for the participants what the trade-offs are between different designs and it leverages data to help the design team make informed decisions.

Accordingly, we work with our clients to clarify the key criteria the future organization must meet, generate design options and their respective trade-offs, and select the optimal design for the future. We work with our clients to define a detailed transition roadmap and a process to monitor progress of implementation.

Example: A European pharmaceutical company was looking to consolidate its 4 regional Regulatory Affairs (RA) teams into one global unit, to interface with global R&D and Manufacturing units. We worked with the newly appointed RA Global Leader to assemble a design team composed of members from the different regional teams. We interviewed 40 key stakeholders to understand the main business and organizational issues related to the globalization of the RA function and used the data we collected through these interviews to inform the work of the design team. Over the course of 3 design meetings over 2 months, the team proposed a new design to the leadership team, which was accepted. We worked with the design team on a 6 months transition plan, with clear actions and metrics for the newly appointed members of the global RA management team.