Rebirth 79: I opened a bank in the United States

Chapter 689 Bureaucratization of Enterprises

"Simply put, for a small start-up company, there are fewer people and fewer projects. The linear management is the most efficient. It is based on a core product or a core customer follow-up project, and all other departments cooperate with the project. .”

"At this stage, there are few departments and not many people. The manager is often a participant in the project. He clearly knows what departments need to cooperate and deploys these resources in time. Simply open the door, even the door is closed. You don’t need to drive, just shout at the opposite office to complete resource allocation.”

"At this stage, people often think that product development and the like can be relied on later. The core is to save and concentrate on the existing projects at hand. Let's not care whether this view is correct or not. then go on"

"When a start-up company passes through this stage, the linear structure often becomes a matrix structure. The essence has not changed, but a few new project lines have been opened, which are the same as the original project."

"Each matrix is ​​a product or core project. The product manager or project manager can coordinate personnel from other departments to support each project and each matrix. As a manager who takes care of the overall situation, if the project line opened If there are too many, then he can take care of it alone. Control the progress, allocate resources, handle differences between various projects, etc. "

"For example, for example, now a project is to publicize a difficult customer A, and the person in charge is a. This a, I refer to a team, which is the core functional team. In order to publicize this A, the company coordinated and produced People from various departments such as logistics, R&D, and finance went to help, and together with a, they built a temporary working group b for A. After completing the project, b will be disbanded, and a will reinvest in the next project."

"After several years of development, the company has become bigger and bigger. At this time, because a has been engaged in public relations work for a long time, and because the company has added too many business matrices, it has to face a new adjustment of the management structure. At this time...do you think What will happen?"

When Goshal said this, he suddenly changed the topic and threw the topic to Carter.

"It should be to perform their own duties and do their own specialized work. For example, the various departments in this matrix structure do not actually have core business functions, and they are often handled on demand. Now there are too many, then... Classify !For example, since a often does public relations work, then this team can specialize in public relations work in the future, and others who are good at marketing and sales will specialize in sales and carry out a detailed division of labor.”

"That's right, at this time, the common departments divided by functions, the one you mentioned appeared. Team A became the company's media and public relations department, team B became the marketing department, and so on. In a few years, has the company grown bigger?"

"Further subdivided?"

Carter blinked, thoughtfully.

"That's right, going one step further, Team A, that is, the media and public relations department, has business groups such as A1, A2, and A3. Some of these business groups are good at handling media relations, and some are good at handling government relations. At this time, we can further subdivide them. All the handling of government relations is handed over to a1, assuming it is the government public relations team; a2 is the media public relations team and so on."

"Such a subdivision will make the rights and responsibilities clearer. It is convenient in management, and this convenience is reflected in information and control. Just imagine, if a large-scale company still maintains the previous matrix structure, Not to mention that people who come to seek cooperation may not know who they should talk to. Even within the company, a careless manager may misremember which group his task was assigned to, not to mention the follow-up feedback collection. and further improvements and adjustments.”

"For enterprise management, it is almost inevitable to gradually subdivide powers and responsibilities. And this has given birth to bureaucratization. According to Weber's theory, bureaucratization is characterized by a reasonable division of labor; a clearly hierarchical power system, etc., For example, the government public relations team is led by the media public relations department, and the media public relations department is led by a higher-level unit, so that it is connected layer by layer.”

"And too subdivided professional fields can easily make people feel territorial. In other words, any matter related to public relations must be the business of my media public relations department. Others want to intervene, or want to coordinate public relations resources. , must pass my nod."

"In addition to another major feature of bureaucracy, the institutionalized operating mechanism, depending on the amount of coordination resources, may often be accompanied by a process of reporting from level to level and approval from level to level. It is a heavy blow to work efficiency. , and bureaucratization can easily bring about other accompanying problems. For example, department managers are worried about risks and harming personal interests, so they refuse to cooperate, and even regard departments and their functions as their own 'turf'. For personal or Departmental interests, at the expense of the overall interests of the company and so on."

While talking, several people also went outside the restaurant.

After a simple seat, Gauthal continued:
"Back to IBM, bureaucracy has always been a topic that IBM cannot avoid. IBM's bureaucracy began in the old Watson era, and we need to know that when the old Watson took over IBM, IBM was still a completely unknown company at that time. A small company. The same is true for IBM back then, with a simple linear architecture and everything centered on customers.”

"In the later development, bureaucracy brought IBM more convenient information transmission and control. Along with IBM's strategy, it played a role of enveloping marketing. For example, when negotiating with a customer, due to various The authority of each department is different, and often a customer has to deal with many IBM people. Someone in R&D will meet the needs, someone in finance will link up with the budget, someone in production will link up with the delivery, and someone in the after-sales will link up with technical guidance, etc. "

"Let the customer's side always be full of IBM people, and then with the old Watson to improve the status of the sales staff, so that these people do not exclude doing marketing work. To achieve the purpose of quality through quantity, let customers be repeatedly accepted When the name 'IBM' surrounds and brainwashes, choose IBM."

"It can be said that bureaucracy has played a big role in IBM's success!"

"But IBM's bureaucracy also makes them look like a giant ship that is hard to turn around now!"

After hearing so much, it's not that Carter doesn't understand the benefits of bureaucracy.

But again, Carter is more aware of the downsides of corporate bureaucracy.
Personal PC, this is probably the pain that "Big Blue" will never forget in the future.Even if you are a beneficiary, you have to admit that if it weren't for the minicomputer project with unknown future and risks, it would be difficult for IBM to get the unanimous consent of so many departments and fully cooperate
So what's wrong with Microsoft? !

For example, IBM's personal PC, which has sold more than 20 units this year, its executive department even had to go to Florida, far away from IBM's stronghold, to start anew.
If you want to develop or not develop, you need to support or not.
Such a situation can achieve the terrifying achievement of annual sales of more than 20 units.If IBM's current president, Opel, can suppress this "bureaucracy" that can completely resist the power of the president, without compromising, he can mobilize IBM's main resources to promote personal PC projects
Even, Microsoft is not the only company that has spawned a super enterprise because of IBM's bureaucracy.Also in Silicon Valley, there is another company that is also famous in the future, benefiting from IBM's old-fashioned and procrastinated bureaucracy, and found business opportunities in it.
That called the company called: Oracle!

(End of this chapter)