Works
- Silo busting: how to execute on the promise of customer focus, Harvard Business Review 85(5), May 2007, 2007
- Renewal through reorganization: the value of inconsistencies between formal and informal organization, Organization Science 20(2), 422 to 440, 2009
- Cisco Systems (2001): Building and Sustaining a Customer-Centric Culture, Harvard Business School case 409-061, 21 pages, January 6, 2009, 2009
- Scaling: organizing and growth in entrepreneurial ventures, Academy of Management Annals 11(2), 640 to 668, 2017
- External interfaces or internal processes? Market positioning and divergent professionalization paths in young ventures, Organization Science 34(1), 1 to 23, 2023
In Organizational Structures
Known for
Organizational design and customer focus
Ideas
Compensatory fit. After a reorganization, a strong informal organization can keep alive a behavior the new formal structure no longer rewards, so a deliberate inconsistency between formal and informal organization can yield ambidexterity. Caveat: One firm's qualitative data with a formal model; breakdown of the conditions can bring decline and further reorganization.
Silo busting. Firms that shift from selling products to selling solutions restructure around customer needs through four sets of activities (coordination across boundaries, cooperation, capability, and connection), breaking down silos of knowledge and expertise. Caveat: Practitioner article.
Two narratives of scaling. Research on growing ventures tells two stories, the endurance of founding features and their dramatic change, and the gaps between them concern design, team composition, and culture. Caveat: A review; no new data.