Effective organisation design enhances teamwork and fosters strong connections with managers in fintech startups, boosting collaboration and productivity. In contrast, inadequate organization design can hinder performance and diminish employee morale due to disjointed roles, lack of coordination, and ineffective communication among departments, even with a skilled workforce.
According to a Deloittes Global Report, ‘Realising the impact of Organisation Design, 10 questions for business leaders’ gx-cons-hc-realizing-impact-organization-design.pdf (deloitte.com) .
Done well, organisation design can make a significant improvement in performance, because it amplifies the alignment of the organisation to its business model. It can improve speed to market and customer experience improvement. And it can go a long way toward trimming costs.”
Overview of Organisation design:
This article will explore the significance of organizational structures and how selecting the most suitable design based on the size and stage of your fintech business, in addition to aligning with business objectives, can enhance overall business performance.
Furthermore, I will showcase how organizational design can aid fintech firms in navigating disruptions, empowering teams to be more agile, and enhancing employee performance. Key strategies to be discussed include benchmarking, organisational network analysis, modeling, talent management, and scenario planning.
By delving into these topics, readers will gain insights into how organizational structures can be leveraged to drive success in the dynamic landscape of the fintech industry, fostering innovation, adaptability, and sustainable growth.
Organisational Structures
“Peter Drucker (1974, p519) said “The best organisational structure will not guarantee results and performances. But the wrong structure is a guarantee of nonperformance.’ All it produces is friction and frustration.
The wrong organisation puts the spotlight on the wrong issues, aggravates irrelevant disputes, and makes a mountain out of trivia.
It accents weaknesses and defects instead of strengths. The right organisation structure is thus a prerequisite of performance.”
Organisational structures
Most importantly, when making any changes, CEOS, executives and employees are included in the discussion to avoid any resistance and minimise impact when implementing a new strategy or organisation restructure.
Different types of Organisational Structures:
Assessments are crucial as they allow you to pinpoint deficiencies in skills and assistance within your company.
For fintech startups, employees may initially wear many hats, but as the company grows, roles become more distinct and specialized.
Through organisational restructuring, fintech startups can avoid role duplication and reassess business goals effectively.
Functional, divisional, matrix, and project team structures are also commonly used in various industries, each with its own advantages and disadvantages.
In a project team structure, employees from different departments come together to work on a specific project, allowing for flexibility and expertise from various areas.
Ultimately, the choice of organizational structure depends on the nature of the business, its goals, and the industry it operates in. Each type of structure has its own unique characteristics that can be beneficial in different situations.
Divisional structures: Large, multinational corporations find these systems ideal as they facilitate specialization and division within different regional business sectors. This includes areas such as sales and customer service, enabling efficient management across various categories.
In the matrix structure, employees collaborate across various functions and project teams, each with its own unique structure and organization.
own distinct structure and setup.
In some cases, a project team structure can be more effective than a traditional hierarchical setup. This allows for greater collaboration and flexibility among employees, leading to more innovative solutions and faster project completion.
When considering the organizational structure for your company, it is crucial to align it with your business strategy and objectives. As the company expands, it becomes essential to establish clear roles, responsibilities, and reporting lines to ensure smooth operations and efficient decision-making processes.
By implementing a project team approach and evaluating the size and growth of your company, you can create a structure that promotes teamwork, creativity, and adaptability. This can lead to increased productivity, employee satisfaction, and overall success in achieving your business goals.
In the world of fintech startups, roles often overlap and structures are not clearly defined, presenting both challenges and opportunities for teams to move fast and innovate rapidly.
As a Fintech startup, it is crucial to establish a streamlined structure that promotes autonomy and seamless collaboration among teams, eliminating the need for constant reporting to leaders on a daily basis.
When fintech executives make decisions about their strategic objectives, they take into account the organization’s design and how it relates to its core operational and business functions. Ultimately, changing the organization’s design is aimed at creating managed disruption, with the goal of improving efficiency through time-saving and cost-effective measures.
CEOs, founders, and executives in fintech firms must consider the extent of change they wish to enact, which will hinge on the foundational abilities that underpin the strategy for change implementation.
Business Strategy:
Global Fintech Talent Solutions Ltd offers assistance in determining organizational design purpose and necessary objectives for reorganization plans, focusing on business priorities, competitive advantage, and any existing organizational challenges.
Whether your business is experiencing outdated models due to rapid growth or needs to realign its strategy to remain competitive, or facing issues like new leadership, poor performance, and market changes, Global Fintech Talent Solutions Ltd can help address these challenges effectively.
Looking to boost your business performance and ensure employee satisfaction? Our experts can collaborate with your management team to assess and explore options for creating a design that achieves just that.
Benchmarking:
At Global Fintech Talent Solutions Ltd, we leverage benchmark research findings on industry best practices, financial standings, and customer feedback to drive meaningful organizational improvements. These insights help us identify areas for growth and development within your company, leading to enhanced performance and competitiveness in the market.
Working closely with your executive team, we will create a comprehensive understanding of your target market. Before delving into benchmark research, it is crucial to define your target customers based on your business goals. This approach ensures that our benchmarking efforts are aligned with your strategic objectives, ultimately leading to more effective decision-making and performance enhancement.
Discovering the key drivers of economic growth is crucial when analyzing a company’s expansion. To evaluate your company’s progress, we will examine various data sources, including service performance, product quality, and customer feedback obtained through focus groups, interviews, surveys, and direct interactions.
Fintech startups and organizations can greatly benefit from benchmark research, as it facilitates the transition from existing operational methods to more efficient ones. By leveraging insights from benchmark data, companies can effectively manage change and avoid becoming outdated in a rapidly evolving market.
The valuable market insights and economic indicators derived from benchmark data can drive companies to make necessary adjustments and avoid falling behind. Furthermore, by analyzing business data, fintech startups and companies can proactively anticipate future performance and make internal changes accordingly, ensuring a promising outlook for their business.
Organisational Network Analysis:
Fintech companies can greatly benefit from Organisational Network Analysis (ONA) as it fosters effective collaboration, drives strategic change, and enables sustainable business transformation. By evaluating the existing organisational structure and identifying key individuals, ONA helps establish cross-functional collaboration and promotes an inclusive culture.
ONA is a data-driven approach that analyzes relationships between people and teams within an organization. Through visualizations, it identifies brokers who bridge gaps between groups, facilitating knowledge sharing and information flow. Additionally, it highlights key influencers who can play a crucial role in driving business transformation.
Often overlooked, individuals like Java professionals can be valuable assets within a company. Their expertise and unique perspectives can contribute to product development and innovation. Neglecting to guide others on best practices not only hinders progress but also affects employee retention. Therefore, leveraging ONA can help identify and empower such individuals, leading to improved collaboration and overall success.
Global Fintech Talent Solutions Ltd implements organisational network analysis for the following:
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- Change Advocates: We will support your company in identifying change-advocates for your fintech organisation, by recognising both the formal and informal managers who can be relied upon to facilitate and accelerate business transformation.
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- Role and Function analysis: Conducting a role and functional analysis can provide an overview of the cost of activities as well as the actual work performed under each job title. Xray of roles within the organisation can provide valuable judgement on future decision making. Are all IT infrastructure resources aligned with your shared IT group?
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- Performance boost: Optimise performance by restructuring employees aligned with similar association.
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- Undiscovered Talent: Improve employee engagement through training, inclusion, coaching and multiskilling.
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- Organisational Silos: We will support you in determining the gaps within silos across information sharing; collaboration, shared goals/vision and marginalized employees/poor culture by:
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- Designing activities in which employees can learn different points of view.
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- Align the vision and mission of your fintech company with specific goals
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- Inspire your employees to share knowledge and encourage cross-team collaboration by assigning projects that require two departments to work together along with implementing collaboration tools.
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- DE&I initiative: Compare the tendency for collaboration to occur between employees with similar origins or underrepresented groups.
Discover the hidden opportunities and motivations for positive transformation within your fintech startup through our data-driven insights. Uncover the gaps that need to be bridged and unlock the potential for sustainable change that will propel your business forward.
By implementing a DE&I initiative, we will harness the power of diverse talent within your organization, ensuring they are placed where they can make the greatest impact. Our approach minimizes role confusion and redundancy, allowing your team to work more efficiently and effectively towards shared goals.
Say goodbye to disharmonious collaboration and overlapping roles. Our strategies address these challenges head-on, fostering a culture of synergy and cooperation. By streamlining responsibilities and clarifying roles, we pave the way for smoother teamwork and increased productivity within your fintech startup.
Modelling:
Utilising an organizational design model can provide fintech startups and companies with the ability to analyze and anticipate a successful future state.
Before selecting a model for your fintech startup, it is crucial to define the identity, objectives, culture, and strategy that will contribute to the success of your organization.
CEOs and founders in the fintech industry should prioritize aligning the culture, values, and vision of their organization to ensure that any redesign efforts are effective in driving organizational transformation.
9 Organisational Design Models
According to AIHR, (‘Academy to Innovate HR’), there are 9 models of organisational design which include, 9 Organizational Design Models You Should Know – AIHR
McKinsey’s 7S Design Model: Galbraith Star Model, Wesboard’s 6 box model and The Burke-Litwin Organisational Change Framework. These are the diagnostic models can help Executive leaders understand where various organisational elements can be misaligned.
The Star Model™ is a structured approach to shaping employee behavior by utilizing a set of management-controlled design policies.
Another model to consider is the Transformational Model, which serves as both a diagnostic tool and a change management strategy.
Managing the eight variables of Environment, strategy, core processes, structure, systems, culture, leadership, and results is crucial for balancing human factors and enhancing organizational performance.
Experimental Models include McKinsey Helix Model, Holonic Enterprise Model and TheThe Global Inter-Enterprise Collaborative Level.
McKinsey Helix Model named Helix because of the two distinct, parallel lines of accountability that are equal and intertwined but different.
The ideal model for fintech startups is a flexible organizational structure that offers a reliable framework for innovators and lean startups to shake up markets effectively.
This approach speeds up organizational change and empowers companies to become disruptors in their industries by embracing innovative practices.
Refer to the report “Unlocking the Flexible Organization: Organization Design for an Uncertain Future” (2016) for more insights on implementing a flexible organizational model.
ch-hc-unlocking-flexibleorganization_without_Contacts.pdf (deloitte.com)
Deloitte introduces a groundbreaking approach for companies, regardless of their nature, to embrace agility and speed in the market. They propose a future organization structure that revolves around self-managed teams, working towards a common goal. Deloitte’s innovative method unleashes the potential of empowered teams while maintaining the integrity of the overall organization.
The flexible organisation model is effective in fostering creativity, teamwork, and innovative thinking by creating a culture of empowerment and commitment to the team’ mission. Thereby creating an agile, adaptive organisation that thrives on change.
Scenario Planning
Through Scenario planning, Global Fintech Talent Solutions Ltd help CEOs. Co-Founders, Executives, and key decision-makers of fintech companies to visualise and develop strategies for multiple possible futures. This in turn, empowers fintech organisations to become agile, forward thinking and adapting rapidly to new situations in a fast-changing environment. We also engage in scenario exploration, scenario development, scenario implementation and project assessment.
Through workshops, we provide scenario project worksheets to help structure and manage scenario projects as well as avoid risks and encourage discussion on how to overcome any unexpected difficulty. There are also other approaches in creating purposeful scenarios as adopted by ‘Schaars and Ziamou’ which include Good vs bad scenarios; Optimistic vs best, Independently themed scenarios, arrayed scenarios and good vs bad scenarios.
Talent Management and Development
For a fintech startup and company to be successful, it needs to implement effective talent management strategies. These include succession planning; talent pipelines, performance and talent management and induction to ensure that the right talent is aligned with business objectives in order to drive growth within the company.
Global Fintech Talent Solutions Ltd design an effective talent management strategy that can benefit the company with the following benefits: improved talent retention; increase employee engagement, retention thereby reducing turnover, culture of training and continuous learning, improved client satisfaction and an improved flexible workplace.
Our talent management strategy will involve communicating with the executive team, CEOs and stakeholders to gain an understanding of the organisation’s overall business strategy, understand their needs and objectives. We can create an integrated talent management strategy which is aligned with your business aims along with applying talent data analytics to form decisions around effective strategies to help improve business performance. This would include Benchmarking research to gain market insight on your competitors.
Organisation Design, when implemented within your fintech organisation will improve collaboration, aligned networking with managers, increase productivity and drive innovation.
Global Fintech Talent Solutions Ltd Global Fintech Talent Solutions Ltd (global-fintech-talent-solutions.com) supports fintech companies with the following organisation design strategies which include business strategy design; benchmarking, modelling, organisational network analysis, scenario planning, talent management and development.
We can also utilise data insights from organisational network analysis to address disharmonious collaboration and convergent roles, along with providing provide radical transparency and empowered teams
If you are keen to learn more about how Global Fintech Talent Solutions Ltd can assist your fintech company with implementing effective Organisational Design and talent management strategies, please contact marieb@global-fintech-talent-solutions.com
By Marie Bosnjak-Director of Global Fintech Talent Solutions Ltd Global Fintech Talent Solutions Ltd (global-fintech-talent-solutions.com)
Sources:
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- Kartik Mandaville, Jun 14, 2021, ‘Organisation Design 101 for startups’: Organization Design 101 For Startups (forbes.com)
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- Peter Drucker, (1974, p574) ‘Management: tasks, responsibilities, practices’ (Harper Business)
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- David Brown, Deloitte’s report (2016) ‘Realising the impact of Organisation Design-Ten questions for Business Leaders.’
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- John W, McCoy,( AIHR) ‘9 Organisational models you should know: 9 Organizational Design Models You Should Know – AIHR
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- Deloitte’s Perspective, ‘Organisational Network Analysis’ Organizational network analysis | Deloitte US
