Rondell Data Corporation

Rondell Data Corporation 1

Mr Bill Hunt should do the following

To initiate an Organizational Design process to establish the best organizational structure for the company in line with the objective. The organization should structure itself along product line or adopt hybrid structure.

A cross-functional approach to be taken to accomplish key company task such as new product development.

o Engineering Services should add a project management function to aid the team in coordination, planning and monitoring project progress

o Decision making should be pushed down into cross-functional project management teams who are entrusted with the responsibility for delivering a timely, quality and manufacturable product.

Mr Hunt has to understand the view point of other departments rather becoming design focussed.

Establish Design freeze period Teambuilding should be given a priority at Rondell Data Corporation. Blaming each

other should be stopped by organizational wide efforts at breaking down functional barriers and creating an environment of team participation and decision making.

Decentralization and delegation of decision making. Coordination between departments and a commonly agreed vision of company’s

objective. Executive committee to be more leveraged.

The rationale of going for above is,

o Rondell Data Corporationis a small organisation the business of which based on innovation and manufacturing customer specific products. The company follows functional structure with engineering services seems to be the exception asmuch of its workforce is distributed among the other departments. This may haveserved it well in its initial period when the company has limited number of products to offer. The functional structure doesn’t respond well when organisation has a number of lines of products, believe in flexibility and want to respond quickly to the customer requirement.The company figures in 1st quadrant on Effectiveness value Model

1

Rondell Data Corporation 2

o Horizontal integration is missing, as the company has grown, the different departments have grown at different rates and interactions have changed disproportionately. This distribution of personnel of engineering services in number of other departments leaves it without a clear mission or purpose and further blurs the lines of authority.

o The organisation has different department with different cultures. The organisation seems to lack the cohesive and clearly organized structure required of a successful company. As the company has grown, the different departments have grown at different rates and interactions have changed disproportionately which is evident from the growing disputes among departments and completely omission of ESD as a coordinator between the departments. In long run hybrid structure or product structure will help the company.

o The company has two major lines of product one is Broad casting contributing 35% of sales and other is Data transmission which is comparatively new. Broadcasting product market is given as stable and in a stable market formalized organisation does well where in growing market the organisation needs to be flexible.

o In present context to increase coordination between the departments which the organisation is facing in Product Development, there should be integrator for particular product or project manager for a product e.g. “Project manager 802” in the ESD directly under Forbus. An integrator or project manager would lead a cross functional team coordinate, collate and incorporate the inputs from sales, research, engineering, and production which will not only

2

Human Relations Emphasis

Primary Goal: human resource developmentSubgoals: cohesion, morale, training

Internal Process Emphasis

Primary Goal: stability, equilibrium

Subgoals: information management, communication

Rational Goal Emphasis

Primary Goal: productivity, efficiency, profit Subgoals: planning, goal setting

Open Systems Emphasis

Primary Goal: growth, resource acquisitionSubgoals: flexibility, readiness, external evaluation

Flexibility

Control

Internal External

STRUCTURE

FOCUS

President

Controller Dept

Accounting

Purchasing

Materials Cost

SalesDept

Test Equipment SalesBroadcast EquipmentMarketingAds

Production

FabricatingAssemblyToolmakingMaintenanceTrafficPlanning & Scheduling

R&D

Data Equipment electronic DesignMechanical DesignSpl ComponentsElectronic Design radioSpecial DevicesElectro Chemical Research

Engg Services

PreproductionQuality ControlEngg AdministrationDraftingTechnician poolDocumentation Technical WritingLibrary

Project Manager Product B

Project Manager Product A

Rondell Data Corporation 3

save time and resources like calling engineers to production department but also ensure smooth progress of product development.

o ESD department to be more organised and brought under direct control of Forbus as there is a lack of sense of purpose as the groups are more dispersed.

o R & D department overzealous on innovation supported by Mr Hunt could be attributed to missing deadlines and complex manufacturing issues e.g. 900 production change orders in a year and corresponding 2500 drawing changes. In case of 802 modelalready four changes and one last change in filtering technique all add to the manufacturing delays.Stressing on innovation whether it required by the customer or not is not a good idea, this is also evident from the fact that falling of profit may be due to doing much. Mr Hunt should take a holistic view of the organisation as whole. He seems not to hear Mr Forbus when later wanted to discuss the issues. Being the CEO he should listen to his other senior executives.

o Establish Design freeze period of say 3 to 4 weeks so as to avoid last minute changes.o As per the case length of employment is highly valued and in some cases is the basis for

selection of key individual. Informal relationships are the means used to communicate and accomplish the goals of the organization. Each department is found to have a niche function and the belief is that any other department should not invade this space. The department protects its members regardless of the impact on the overall organization. Also Bill Hunt emphasises on a close family tradition and yet, Rondellis faced with a culture of uncooperativeness among its different departments. The conflict between the

3

Rondell Data Corporation 4

founding values and the values that had developed are visible in the behavior of the staffs. Team working and horizontal linkage to be stressed up on as Mr Hunt himself says if cooperation is achieved output can be increased by 5%.

o The decision making to be decentralized empowering the teams to take the call on day to day issues of product development. This will save time.

o Executive committee is found to waste precious time in passing information which shouldn’t be the case. It should be a forum to discuss, coordinate and decide future course of action based on reports generated during the period.

4

Rondell Data Corporation 5

5

Fig1: The new Organization Structure of Rondell Corp