How to Lead a Values-Based Professional Services Firm

5The Purposefully Structured Business

Every company has two organizational structures: The formal one is written on the charts; the other is the everyday relationship of the men and women in the organization.

—Harold Geneen, president and CEO, ITT, 1958–1977

Most business leaders understand that the corporate organizational structure enables the efficient and productive functioning of a company. However, most professional services firms fail to give the design of their organization sufficient focus. The evolution of departments, internal hierarchies, groups, and divisions within the company should be explicit, particularly if your intent is to manage your firm with purpose.

The ideal structure of your organization should reflect and support your values and purpose, even though the size and specifics of your business will change over time. For example, if your company values innovation but organizes in a way that emphasizes repetitive work, the firm will be challenged to take on projects that require innovation. If you want to win innovative projects, the organization structure of the company must support innovation. Similarly, if open communication is a value, but your structure creates barriers to communication, the firm is not purposefully organized. When designing an organizational structure, one size does not fit all.

Regardless of the values the firm holds dear, the organization structure should be designed to ensure consistent communication of those values both inside ...