REALITY CHECK: For this part of your project, you need to obtain information about your company’s structure and culture. This information may be hard to obtain unless you can interview managers directly. But you can make many inferences about the company’s structure from the nature of its activities. Search for this kind of information in the company’s annual reports or 10-K reports. You may be forced to make some bold assumptions to complete this part of the project. I appreciate this dilemma with the short amount of time you have to complete the comprehensive case. It is OK to make assumption-just identify them as assumptions and not fact.

Now that you've got a direction for your strategy you need to ensure the company creates “linkage” between strategy and the organizational structure.

I am not looking for an organizational chart stating who the VP is and his organization. I want you to attack it from a corporate organizational structure perspective. Does the company have all its resources and capabilities properly aligned to create efficiency and value? Outline how you are going to organize the company to leverage them to create value.

1. Does your company have a centralized or decentralized approach to decision making?
2. What changes (if any) would you make to the way the company allocates authority and responsibility?
3. Draw an organizational chart showing the primary way in which your company groups its activities (not its people!). Based on this chart, decide what kind of structure (functional, product, or divisional) your company is using.
4. How does your company’s culture support its business model? Can you determine any ways in which its top management team influences its culture?
5. Based on this analysis, would you say your company is coordinating and motivating its people and subunits effectively? Why or why not? What changes (if any) would you make to the way your company’s structure operates? What use could it make of restructuring or reengineering?