Better To Grow By Strengthening Or Adding Functional Teams?

A small company is planning growth

A small company is planning growth. Sales have grown rapidly, and they need to expand staff to keep up with demand. There are two options: expanding current functional teams in sales and service or adding an additional back office operations function. The company plans to have total headcount of 20 within 12 months. Which of these options makes the most sense: building the sales and client service teams or adding an additional operations function?

Advice from a group of CEOs:

Since the company is planning to grow from 10 to 20 people, create an organizational chart for what the company will look like with 20 people. From this back into what it looks like with 15, and then 10 people. Look at how the positions work, and what talents you want to see in each position. Assess how well your current staff fills both current and anticipated talent needs. Within this exercise, evaluate your organizational and structural options. Involve key personnel in this exercise.

The company's key market differentiation is and will continue to be exceptional client service. For this the existing leads are well-suited. One option is to bring in support staff to add operational bench strength within the existing sales and service functions. Another is to build an operations team to support both sales and client services. Here are some of the questions to ask:

*Are the back office needs of the sales and service teams similar or different?

*If there is enough overlap, can one person, and eventually a team, supply the operational nuts and bolts for both your client services and sales functions?

*If there is little overlap, what specific needs are currently unfulfilled by each team? What time and effort would it take to fulfill these needs? Is there enough work to justify adding more than one person so that each team manages their own operations?

One option is a matrix organizational structure which can work well in a firm of 10 to 20 people. Key success factors include:

*Establishing a company culture to compliment your strategy and objectives.

*Selecting and developing the people who will represent this culture and who have the skills to implement your strategy.

*Establishing clear expectations of accountability and expectations to govern the model.

*Not everyone succeeds with matrix structures. Look at your current talent and the responsibilities that you need to fill your ideal organizational chart. Ask whether these people will function well in a matrix organization.

When it comes to empowering employees, there are some important questions. Do your current manager candidates want to have people responsibility? Based on their background and skills, is there reason to expect that they will be good people managers?

If the answer to either of these is no, then the issue is not empowerment but whether your manager candidates are good fits for the seats in which you would put them. It is important to differentiate between managers and doers or implementers. If your manager candidates do appear to have a good chance for success, the key factors to facilitate empowerment will be clarity of plans, expectations and accountability.

by: Sandy McMahon

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