Optimizing Organization Design - Hardcover

Optimizing Organization Design: Executive Experience

"With the full benefit of hindsight I can only reiterate the statement I made to you following your final presentation, 'This is the best value for money I have ever experienced from any consultant.'"

―Isadore Sharp, Founder and Chairman, Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts, and author, Four Seasons: The Story of a Business Philosophy

"We are now in the eighth year from the time that you initially supported us with an organization design assessment and implementation ... all of the key foundational organization design principles have remained intact within Allstate ... in 2013, we have been selected by AON Hewitt as one of the Best Employers in Canada ... In addition, over the last three years, we have outperformed the industry on all key performance metrics."

―Eric Pickering, Vice President, Human Resources, Allstate Canada Group

"We have recently been awarded the Great Workplace Award by the Gallup organization. The award positions LS as being one of the most engaging companies in the world. In 2013 only 32 companies globally received this special recognition, with LS being the sole retailer in the group ... we believe that our organization design practices have provided an important foundation for the deployment of our employee engagement initiatives and would like to thank Capelle Associates for their support in that regard."

―Gerry Savaria, President & CEO, LS travel retail North America

"The organization assessment you carried out provided excellent insights, and your recommendations set a baseline for improvements that we have made to the organization. In addition, the implementation consulting support provided us with methods, materials, and training, so we did not have to 'reinvent the wheel.' There is no question that you have helped us to achieve the significant improvements in our organization."

―George Weber, President & CEO, Royal Ottawa Health Care Group

Optimizing Organization Design

Optimizing Organization Design offers a comprehensive resource and valued guide for anyone interested in improving organization performance. The book presents an approach to optimizing organization design that is based on over 100 large-scale projects and 23 research studies that have been completed by Capelle Associates over the past 25 years. In addition, the book includes insightful comments from executives on their success in using this approach.

Capelle's research and client experience reveal that optimizing organization design leads to better financial performance, customer satisfaction, and employee engagement. It can provide a competitive advantage and a significant return on investment. It can also become the foundation of both strategy implementation and human resources management.

Capelle shows that organization design comprises the alignment of a number of critical factors, including positions (vertical and functional), accountabilities and authorities (managerial and cross functional), people, deliverables, and tasks. He shows that manager-direct report alignment is the single most important organization design variable. His research also shows that it is suboptimal nearly half the time. This is a horrendous waste of talent and capability, but also provides a significant opportunity for improvement in organization performance.

Optimizing Organization Design clearly explains how to implement organization design improvements. This approach includes people change management, project management, and a cascading, iterative approach that is based on teams and involves education, doing real work, and feedback.

In addition, Optimizing Organization Design includes special sections on the role of the Board of Directors, project management, process management, and compensation. In addition, the author has included four case studies and a useful glossary.