Reorganize for Resilience

Reorganize for Resilience

by Ranjay Gulati
Released January 2010
Publisher(s): Harvard Business Review Press
ISBN: 9781422156186

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Book description

In an era of raging commoditization and eroding profit margins, survival depends on resilience: staying one step ahead of your customers. Sure, most companies say they're "customer-focused," but they don't deliver solutions to customers' thorniest problems. Why? Because they're stymied by the rigid "silos" they're organized around. In Reorganize for Resilience, Ranjay Gulati reveals how resilient companies prosper both in good times and bad, driving growth and increasing profitability by immersing themselves in the lives of their customers. This book shows how resilient organizations cut through internal barriers that impede action, build bridges between warring divisions, and transform former competitors into collaborators.

Based on more than a decade of research in a variety of industries, and filled with examples from companies including Cisco Systems, La Farge, Starbucks, Best Buy, and Jones Lang LaSalle, Gulati exploresthe five levers of resilience:

· Coordination: Connect, eradicate, or restructure silos to enable swift responses.

· Cooperation: Foster a culture that aligns all employees around the shared goals of customer solutions.

· Clout: Redistribute power to "bridge builders" and customer champions.

· Capability: Develop employees' skills at tackling changing customer needs.

· Connection: Blend partners' offerings with yours to provide unique customer solutions.

Table of contents

  1. Title Page
  2. Copyright Page
  3. Dedication
  4. Table of Contents
  5. Introduction - Resilience in Turbulent Markets
  6. 1 - Building a Resilient Organization
    1. How to Build a Resilient Organization: Systemic Integration at Best Buy
    2. The Implementation Imperative: From Simple to Systemic Organizational Integration
    3. Tools for Resilience: Throwing the Right Organizational Levers
  7. 2 - Lever 1: Coordination
    1. The Coordination Lever
    2. From Coordination to Cooperation
  8. 3 - Lever 2: Cooperation
    1. The Synergy of Cooperation and Coordination
    2. The Cooperation Lever
    3. Cooperation and Culture at Cisco: The Foundations of Resiliency
    4. How to Create a Culture That Fosters Cooperation
    5. Maintaining Momentum: The Co-op Mojo
  9. 4 - Lever 3: Clout
    1. Clout, Silos, and Power Dynamics
    2. Power to the Right People: Redistributing Clout
    3. Maximize Access to Information
    4. Stipulate Ownership of the Customer
    5. Redistribute Formal Authority
    6. Raise Silo Busters’ Visibility and Recognition
    7. Strengthen the Informal Influence of Boundary Spanners
  10. 5 - Lever 4: Capabilities
    1. The Role of Capabilities in Systemic Integration
    2. Creating New Competencies to Meet New Challenges
    3. Understanding and Leveraging the Informal Network to Foster Capabilities
    4. Setting Out Clear Career Pathways
    5. The Need for Foresight
    6. Capabilities and Networking: A Self-Perpetuating Cycle
    7. Change Capabilities as Your Organization Changes
  11. 6 - Lever 5: Connections
    1. Condensing the Core: Do (Most of) What You Do Best, Outsource the Rest
    2. Supplier Partnerships on a Ladder of Integration
    3. Expanding the Periphery: More Hands in More Pots
    4. Expanding and Condensing at Once—A High-Value Dynamic for Creating Resiliency
    5. Connections and the Silo-Shaping Levers
    6. Resiliency in an Expanding Universe
  12. Conclusion - Road to Greater Customer Centricity
  13. Notes
  14. Bibliography
  15. Acknowledgments
  16. Index
  17. About the Author

Product information

  • Title: Reorganize for Resilience
  • Author(s): Ranjay Gulati
  • Release date: January 2010
  • Publisher(s): Harvard Business Review Press
  • ISBN: 9781422156186