What I have learnt about organisations
by Helen Nash
1. Organisation Classifications, Ownership; public, private or 3rd sector charity? The organisation I work for, is a privately owned, 'not for profit' company.
2. Reach; where different companies reach out to, for example, national, several countries or global. The organisation I work for reaches out globally to 194 countries.
3. Client focus; is the organisation 'business to business' (B2B) or 'business to consumer' (B2C) focused. Both will work very differently to each other. B2B businesses focus on selling or offering products to other businesses. An example of this would be in the financial sector where their products maybe lending money to businesses in the form of a business loan. Whereas B2C is business from organisation directly to the consumer, (or individual buying the product/service). Some examples; fast food, retail, private medical insurance/healthcare providers. The organisation I work for is; B2C our customers are at the heart of everything we do.
4. size; the size of an organisation can be determined by different factors. For example, number of people employed, 'reach' of organisation & culture, (fast paced, dynamic, adaptable, empowered).
5. Evolution; how an organisation responds to change. For example static, fixed in both size and practice, dynamic, growing larger with relatively little change in practice, adaptable, change in size and practice in response to the world around it. The organisation I work for is dynamic and complex. The complexity of our organisation means we offer multiple services in the health care sector with multiple stakeholders and business models.
6. Age; of a business can be classified by its level of maturity. For example, start up companies, immature or mature companies. We shouldn't measure maturity of a company by how long it has been in existence, rather than how loyal, successful, well known for its industry.
7. Production focus; do organisations sell a product or a service. Examples; product, clothing, accessories, mobile phones, (tangible items). Services include, financial, e.g. credit cards, loans, insurance products etc...
8. Delivery Chanel; how products/services are marketed and sold. For example, face to face, on-line or both.
