Unlocking Growth Potential: Exploring the Evolution of Organizational Charts and Executive Functions in Thriving Companies

The Evolution of the Organizational Chart & Executive Functions for Companies Experiencing Growth

What are the organizational implications as a company expands?

SUMMARY

There are three key changes to the organizational structure as a business grows:

1. Leadership layering: With the growth in headcount, more managers are required. This is often called layering.
2. Functional specialization & splitting: Single function focus: With the growth in size, what had been a few leaders who played multiple simultaneous roles, gradually becomes more leaders with “single function focus.” This creates a spinning out of those roles no longer able to be performed by a single leader as they select and specialize in the one function that is their zone of excellence or genius.
3. New Function creation: With the expansion of the business, new functions are born that hadn’t been needed in earlier stages of company growth.

Evolutionary changes within core functions in the company org chart

An organization can also be parsed into 3 “meta-functions”-- MAKERS: those who make the product (manufacturing, operations, software development, engineering, services delivery, etc.); SELLERS: those who sell it; and “MEASURERS & MANAGERS”: those who set and measure progress and organizational health (e.g. finance, human resources, COO, President, CEO)

With these two definitional frameworks—the types of functional growth (layering, splitting & creation)—overlaid with the meta-functional buckets (makers, sellers & measurers) we can now better start to describe and codify how each function within a growing organization evolves.

EXPLORE FUNCTIONS & JOIN THE COMMUNITY

FINANCE & THE CFO [CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER]

HUMAN RESOURCES & THE CHRO [CHIEF HR OFFICER]

OPERATIONS & THE COO [CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER]

EXECUTIVE & THE CEO [CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER]