The Flatter, the Better
January 21, 2010
For all you expansion stage CFOs out there that are interested in improving management methodologies, check out this great article from this past Sunday in the New York Times’ Corner Office: “Structure? The Flatter, the Better.”
http://projects.nytimes.com/corner-office
It’s a really interesting discussion with Cristobal Conde, President and CEO of SunGuard about the benefits of a collaborative management structure versus a top-down model. Not only does this empower all employees to perform at a higher level and to feel much more ownership and engagement, but it also leverages the vast amount of information, knowledge and data that is now often widely-dispersed across an organization.
SunGuard uses a Twitter-like system, Yammer, according to Conde, that helps to create a meritocracy by allowing “people to see what others are doing, share information, collaborate, brag about their successes — that is what flattens the organization.”
While top-down management structures can be effective under the right circumstances, many times they can be used as a crutch by micromanagers or by control-oriented CEOs. From OpenView Venture Partner’s experience, many times we’ve seen that top-down management structures are especially stifling in expansion stage companies.
Flattening the organization can be an intimidating shift in style for a manager, but Conde attests to the improvements in both his own performance and that of his team that have been a result.
Conde also speaks about the benefits of focus rather than trying to accomplish a task list of far too many items, as well as looking for intellectual curiosity and drive as key hiring criteria (sometimes more so than knowledge).
This article was particularly interesting to me, since OpenView Venture Partners follows many of the same management practices, many of which were a shift away from the traditional top-down public company environments that I’ve most recently experienced. Long story short, these practices can be a little uncomfortable at first, just like anything new…but they really do work!