This entry comes under the general heading of Integration, I guess, but it's about Integration, Business Management, Organization Management and Culture. All in under 500 words.. Working with a client some time ago, I came across the General Motors organization model. For those of you not familiar with GM's history, one of its founders, Clark Durant, came up the Division concept for managing large organization. Basically he broke up the business into several divisions, some of which persist to this day, and gave them relative autonomy to do business as they saw fit. The larger GM organization oversaw the divisions, but as an organizational model it was revolutionary for its day. The company that I was working with didn't have divisions but departments, and each one operated autonomously. Each department bought its own software and installed it with only the smallest nod to what already existed, or was being implemented elsewhere. Was there an advantage to the autonomous department model that I was missing? Or were they just dysfunctional? Wouldn't it make sense to go to market with all assets and resources pulling the boat in the same direction? After working with them for quite a while I began to understand that the real reason for the autonomous department model was that each department head wanted to be autonomous. Making their own decisions is what they had been trained for. They were not interested in group persuasion and team decisions. The organization president was also content with this approach because it meant fewer group decisions, requiring less leadership from her, and more direct responsibility for department heads. The trade off was huge, however. They ended up with several different systems, none of which work together and their direct reports have to work doubly hard to maintain cohesiveness and meaning in the organization's information. It's exhausting and inefficient. When I got into the business of NetSuite Implementation I didn't think that I would find small businesses as fractious and unorganized as the multinational companies of my former consulting life. In fact, in many ways the large companies have moved beyond the GM 'spoke and wheel' model and are now working hard to become more cohesive and inter-dependent. This was the main driver in the huge number of organizations that adopted a single database and application set to run the worldwide operation. Small business would be wise to learn from their larger brothers. | 
