Bridging Organization Design and Performance: Five Ways to Activate a Global Operation Model

Chapter 6The Business Handshake

Organizational complexity is rewarded when management attention is paid to the nodes in the matrix that create the most value. Joint planning between a global operating unit and a regional commercial unit (or function) is the forum where the natural tensions between global and local objectives play out to resolution. We call this forum the business-market handshake. We like the image of the handshake because it implies that there is formality (design) as well as trust (leadership behavior) in the interaction. It is what happens at the end of a productive, candid conversation where the objectives are clear and ...