What are Structures overlaid on the Business?
Some have contacted us about conventional 20th century structures overlaid on the business. Some people define “overlaid” literally and “business” loosely.
R-pM is one business structure that organizes and manages the business and changes with business change
The generally-accepted definition of the enterprise business is “the activity of providing goods and services”. Therefore, organize and manage the business means organize and manage “the activity of providing goods and services”. This is the objective of R-pM. R-pM manages business activity as performance and business goods and services as results.
Enterprises today use many structures to organize and manage. There is an organization structure to show reporting relationships and other structures for strategies and plans. There are likely business processes to manage the business. There may be job or functional descriptions, career paths, salary scales, for human resource management. Certainly, there is an account structure and chart of accounts. Many use performance management structures for management reporting in dashboards, scorecards, etc. Projects are undertaken with project structures and management methods.
A structure that does not organize and manage the business is said to be overlaid on the business
Do these structures organize “the performance activity providing goods and services results”, and do the structures change with a change to performance or a change to results? If a structure is not defined by the business and does not change with the business change, then the structure is said to be “overlaid on the business”. Overlaid structures manage the enterprise, not the business, and use a wide variety of entities, rather than just results and performance solutions, creating information complexity.
The main source of 20th century business problems is the conflict between rigid overlaid structures and the actual business, with each change to business performance or results. The problem is often referred to as “alignment” and the need for “business change”, where overlaid structures must be restructured periodically to align closer to the actual business.
The problem was discussed in a post last month “Why your enterprise organization structure spells doom for your business”.
21st Century Management eliminates 20th century problems
Result-performance Management (R-pM) eliminates the reorganization problem and other costly 20th century problems. Slash costs, simplify business management, and boost competitive advantage through R-pM, the conventional method for 21st century management.
Download your 21st Century Management Manual today
Your 21st Century Management Manual, The R-pM Toolkit, is available today and is under continual development to expand and refine 21st Century Management. Get your R-pM Toolkit, and future updates, at result-performance-management.com.
