Practice Network: Q&A With Sharon Kaivani
on Organization Design
Scott L. Martin
Payless ShoeSource
Sharon Kaivani is a senior consultant with The Home Depot and focuses on organization design. Sharon earned her BA in psychology from North Carolina State University and MA in I-O psychology from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. She began her career doing process redesign and reengineering work for First Union (now Wachovia) Bank. She then joined Pricewaterhouse Coopers and specialized in organization change. After about 4 years, IBM acquired the consulting arm of PwC, so Sharon worked for IBMs Business Consulting Services for a couple of years. She joined Home Depots organization effectiveness department last year.
How did you become interested in structure work?
Organization design was often required as part of the change management work I was doing at PwC. And what I found was that organization design work required me to learn very specific work activities as well as broad organization strategies.
It seems that graduate programs do not tend to focus on structure work, or at least not the type that practitioners are actually doing. Do you agree? How did you learn about organization design?
I think that is true. Graduate school provided a conceptual foundation in terms of systems thinking, span of control, and different types of structures such as functional or matrix, but I didnt get the connection to real business challenges and strategies. I learned the ropes from my senior colleagues on consulting assignments.
In general, how do you approach organization design projects?
The first step is to understand the business drivers, such as changes in competition, market conditions, or supplier practices. Next, I understand the strategies and goals of the organization. I then look at all the possible alternatives. Finally, I evaluate each alternative against the business drivers and strategies.
What role does benchmarking play?
Benchmarking is important, but we need to be careful. It is common to look to businesses that have solid financial results and adopt their structures. However, just because a business has strong financials doesnt necessarily guarantee it has an optimal structure. In addition, whats really important is to identify the structure that is aligned with the organizations specific competitive advantages. For instance, a company that wants to customize solutions on a geographical basis may need a decentralized structure, whereas a company that wants to be a low-cost provider may want a centralized structure.
What is the most enjoyable aspect of your work?
I particularly enjoy thinking about our high-level strategies and building an organization that is aligned with our priorities. I also relish the opportunities I get to work closely with our key leaders.
What prompts customers to come to you?
A change in top leadership often initiates design requests. New designs are sometimes required as businesses mature. For example, during early stages a business may organize by customers to better understand their needs. Over time, the business may migrate to a less costly functional structure because the business has developed more established processes.
Who handles the implementation of new designs?
The human resource generalist brokers this with the other centers of excellence, such as staffing, HRIS (human resource information systems) and legal.
How do you evaluate new designs?
We build in 30, 60 and 90 day evaluations. And businesses always have KPIs [key performance indicators], so these should provide ongoing feedback related to the organization design.
Organizations are under increased pressure to focus on the customer. Has this resulted in more customer-oriented structures?
To some extent, but its not that simple. Its obviously important to deliver value to the customer, but the appropriate structure will depend upon the organizations strategy. For instance, a customer-oriented structure may not be ideal for a customer that highly values low costs because customer-based structures tend to be more expensive.
How might students learn more about applied organization design?
Case studies allow you to connect general concepts to real business issues. They might intern with internal or external consultants that focus on organization design work. They can pick the brains of business leaders and ask questions such as why a specific structure was selected, and the pros and cons of alternatives.
How about for those just starting applied work in the area of organization designany common mistakes we tend to make?
I think there is a tendency to view the new structure as an end in itself. Its important to recognize that an organization design is just one tactic to help the organization achieve its business strategy. As a result, we usually need to do a lot of change-management work following the identification and announcement of a new structure.
I thank Sharon for sharing her time and insights. As always, if you have thoughts on the above or other comments, please let me know at
Scott_L_Martin@payless.com or 785-295-6801. Thanks very much!
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