Now the dynamics of unbundling
don't just impact industries.
Organizations are slowly becoming unbundled, as well.
Think of the traditional organization
as being comprised of people in some kind of
hierarchal structure with a
linear chain of command.
And you can also think of the modern organization
as a bundle of functions, like,
research and development, production,
distribution, operations management,
finance, information technology management, and so on.
Before the start of information technology
we organized into these hierarchies
because we felt it was the most effective way
to manage people at scale.
We followed models like military hierarchies
because they seemed to offer the way
to most reliably ensure
that top down decisions would be followed.
And then we separated into functions because
we thought humans performed better
with specialization.
Back when learning took a long time
it seemed more efficient to group people
with similar functions together
so they could learn from more experienced workers.
But the combination of automation and globalization
is slowly changing the rationale for these approaches.
We can communicate instantaneously across vast distances.
And we can distribute work far more efficiently
so hierarchies are flattening.
And because work can be distributed with less
and less friction,
the lines between traditional functions
are starting to blur, as well.
Because we're able to challenge some of our most
basic assumptions about how the functions and management
of an organization are conducted
we need to reinforce the anchors of the organization.
Those elements are the most valuable
in defining the reasons for the organizations existence.
And which to define what makes for a valuable strategy.
Those anchors include elements like, the purpose
of the organization.
The organizations core competencies.
And the organization's persistent and widespread values.
We'll talk more about each of these in other videos.
Of course, if we took the unbundling of the organization
to its inevitable conclusion
we'd need to question just what an organization
should actually be in the future.
But for now, let's just accept that
organizations are slowly unbundling.
And we need to approach strategy in new ways
to take advantage of the opportunities created
by this brave new world of rapid change.