The Horizontal Organization: What the Organization of the Future Looks Like and How It Delivers Value to Customers Book

Today's big corporations are terrified. They know that unless they reform their lumbering sclerotic vertical structures, within a few decades they will go the same way as the dinosaurs. They will be devoured by swifter more hungry enterprises. How corporations can evolve rapidly to escape extinction has become an obsession, the holy grail of much management consultancy. Countless writers and management theorists have tried with varying degrees of success to suggest a theory, a model or a modus operandi for the corporation in the next century. Frank Ostroff¹s new book succeeds where so many others have failed in offering a coherent, detailed view of what the organisation of the future may look like. According to Ostroff, the future for big corporations is bright, if the future is horizontal. Ostroff argues that what will mark out the successful business organisations of the future is the ability to offer value to customers. That value can only be delivered by organisations which are organised around cross functional core processes, that use teams not individuals, that decrease hierarchy by eliminating no value added work, that empower, use IT, promote mutiskilling, integrate with customers and suppliers, and which build an open co-operative corporate culture. These are characteristics of the horizontal organisation. But not only does Ostroff describe the theory, he also describes how it improves corporate performance, where it can be applied and how to develop it, by using concrete detailed examples. With a modesty rare among management gurus he admits his idea is neither entirely original, nor universally applicable. How many other authors would write of their own theory " ... is it a universal panacea? Not at all. In most cases delivery of a value proposition requires a combination of approaches." How many would admit of their own idea that "it rests on the shoulders of other concepts (process reengineering, empowerment, etc." Long on nitty-gritty detail and short on inspirational rhetoric, this is not a tub thumper but a sober read for any senior manager or business man anxious to have a better organisation. --Alex BenadyRead More