The biggest
impediment to
strategy implementation is the
traditional functional mindset
of many senior executives. The traditional functional mindset, prevalent
since the industrial revolution, promotes
attitudes and behaviors that are
counterproductive in the
current business environment.
Functional thinking is based on an
inside-out view in which departmental focus, reporting relations, and the
flow of authority are predominant factors.
This drives a disproportional
preoccupation with company structure and leads to frequent restructuring in
the hope that if the organization chart were properly defined and filled,
the organization's performance would automatically improve.
Functional view
also reinforces the traditional view of
performance measurement in which
the dominant factors are actual-vs.-budget performance by department and a
conservative view of technology.
