Life in a Matrix

I came across a couple of posts about the matrix organization at Yahoo. They are pretty critical of the matrix there and mention symptoms including “a horrible gridlock in decision making”, lack of accountability, turnover of good people who felt they had not got the authority they needed and lack of accountability. Read the full [...]

[Read more →]

In this podcast Kevan Hall, CEO of Global Integration, discusses global account management. Global account management has become common in large global organizations and their suppliers but it represents a real step up in complexity from national accounts or other local key accounts management.
Global accounts managers need to be able to cope with complex customers, [...]

 Global account management - Life in a Matrix Podcast Episode 7 [9:40m]: Download

[Read more →]

Many organizations introduce matrix management in order to be faster and more flexible and to share resources across the organization.
But matrix management, by definition, introduces another strand of reporting and coordination across the organization that lies on top of the previous vertical lines of reporting to functions, geographies etc..
A feature of matrix management is that [...]

[Read more →]

Two new announcements yesterday about matrix organization changes at Neste Oil and Astellas pharma – both are interesting to people thinking about introducing a matrix organization as they clearly identify the organizations’ objectives for introducing a matrix structure and some of the organizational  changes that a matrix requires.
It is common in a downturn for organizations [...]

[Read more →]

I was reading an article on matrix management in Agribusiness when I came across the assertion “William G. Scott developed the matrix outline”.
I have tried to find out more about WGS but the only links I can find are brief mentions of him as author of “Chester I. Barnard and the Guardians of the Managerial [...]

[Read more →]

As regular readers will know I am no fan of multitasking.  I think it is a word we created to make us feel good about being disorganised.  You can see previous posts on constant interruptions here.
But here is another reason that multitasking can be bad for your effectiveness.  I have been reading a book called [...]

[Read more →]

Speed Lead is now available in Spanish – it has been translated as “Gerenciar con sentido Comun” – managing with common sense.

Read it quicky!

[Read more →]

I have had discussions with a number of clients recently about whether you can have matrix management or matrix working without a formal matrix organisational structure.
In my mind there is a clear distinction between matrix working and a matrix organisation structure. Matrix working is very common, I might even say inevitable in large complex [...]

[Read more →]

Two of my favourite subjects today, matrix management and football (the proper English kind).
There is a lot of debate in the UK about the role of the manager/coach and the director of football, specifically who should be in charge of specific topics like choosing and transferring new players.
High profile managers, like Benitez at Liverpool, are [...]

[Read more →]