E-LEARNING ACTIVITIES- WEEK 4- STRUCTURE AND STRATEGY

Yves Morieux is the director for The Boston Consulting Group’s Institute for Organization. Yves is also an expert in corporate transformation and leads the firm's development of approaches to help organizations create the structural and behavioral groundwork for competitive change. He has been a Fellow since 2008.

His research topic focuses on new business complexities and their organizational implications. Yves has pioneered new ways of organizational thinking through the development of Smart Simplicity, an approach designed in cooperation with BCG clients in different regions and industries. The basis of Smart Simplicity is creating an environment in which employees can work with one another to develop creative solutions to complex challenges. This concept includes six “smart rules” to better manage the new business complexity while avoiding organizational complicatedness.

Since joining BCG in 1995, Yves’ client work has focused on advising senior executives of prominent corporations and public-sector organizations worldwide on their strategies and organizational transformations. Prior to joining BCG, Yves was a director in private research and consulting practice that specialized in applying state-of-the-art findings in the social sciences to organizations and markets.

Companies clearly need a better way to manage complexity. In our work with clients and in our research, we believe, we’ve found a different and far more effective approach. It does not involve attempting to impose formal guidelines and processes on frontline employees; rather, it entails creating an environment in which employees can work with one another to develop creative solutions to complex challenges. This approach leads to organizations that ably address numerous fluid and contradictory requirements without structural and procedural complicatedness.

To make people cooperate, we need to make them like each other. Improve interpersonal feelings, the more people like each other, the more they will cooperate. It is totally wrong. It is even counterproductive. Look, at home I have two TVs. Why? Precisely not to have to cooperate with my wife. (Laughter) Not to have to impose tradeoffs to my wife. And why I try not to impose tradeoffs to my wife is precisely because I love my wife. If I didn't love my wife, one TV would be enough: You will watch my favorite football game, if you are not happy, how is the book or the door? (Laughter) The more we like each other, the more we avoid the real cooperation that would strain our relationships by imposing tough tradeoffs. And we go for a second TV or we escalate the decision above for arbitration. Definitely, these approaches are obsolete.