BCG’s approach to organization design starts with a single premise: changing a company’s performance requires changing the organizational context in which its employees perform.
What happens in a company is not simply a matter of organization structure and design, processes, and systems but also one of behavior—that is, how people act, interact, and make decisions. To address this underlying driver of performance, BCG applies a set of levers that transform individual behaviors, encourage new ways of working, and create a purpose-driven organizational culture.
By using this organization design approach, BCG recently ranked as best among market leaders on organization strategy consulting, earning top scores for depth of capabilities, breadth of capabilities, and client impact, according to ALM Intelligence.
BCG’s approach to transforming an organization’s structure and design, which we call Smart Design for Performance, has demonstrated great success in boosting company performance, mastering complexity, and enhancing employee engagement. The organization design approach involves three main steps:
Define the purpose of the reorganization. Clearly identify the company’s performance shortfall—that is, the gap between its current and target performance. Determine the precise aims of the reorganization effort—with regard to competitive advantage, strategic priorities, and the organization’s pain points.
Define the target behaviors and design the organization accordingly. Determine the behaviors that will support the purpose of the reorganization. Design the organization to promote those behaviors, using a broad range of leading organization design elements, including organization structure, roles and responsibilities, individual talent, and organization enablers.
Make it happen. Establish the right context throughout the organization and enhance the capabilities of leaders and top talent through distributed design, rigorous program management with multilayered communication, and capability building.
The Smart Design for Performance approach, paired with our robust set of tools, puts companies on a path to becoming a flexible, high-performing, and modern organization.
BCG’s research reveals six key success factors and the steps companies need to take to drive innovation, gain competitive advantage, and build for the future.
Only about half of companies that undergo organization design during a post-merger integration say it was successful. Leaders can flip those odds by focusing on five imperatives.
Pay, promotion, and benefits have been the traditional carrots for hiring, exciting, and retaining employees. But feeling safe, challenged, and valued at work can be even more important than a paycheck, says Gabi Novacek, a BCG Henderson Institute fellow researching diversity, equity, and inclusion on the latest episode of The So What from BCG.
Companies are making bold commitments to improve ESG performance. But to successfully deliver on their goals, they must steer clear of these common challenges.
Global business services units fared well during the pandemic. Now they must build their digital muscle to keep pace with a changing world.
These are a few of BCG’s experts from around the globe who lead our organization design consulting teams:
