Reorganise your business: the open model
If you wish to reorganise your business, you should adopt the open model, according to Jim Whitehurst in his book ‘The Open Organization’, described by Forbes as one of the most innovative leadership manuals of recent years. So what is the concept of open organisation based on? Let’s find out together as we analyse the author’s views point by point.
Before exploring the subject further, let’s try to find out why we should trust these theories: Whitehurst is a graduate in IT and Economics, with an impressive CV including companies such as Delta Airlines and Boston Consulting Group and today he manages an open source software company called Red Hat: a company quoted on the stock market with a turnover in the region of 2 billion dollars.
Now that we have clarified that point, we can move on to our exploration of the Open Organisation: a business model based above all on the inclusive decision-making process, which completely replaces the archaic top-down model based on orders handed down from the top and the expectation that staff members lower down in the hierarchy will carry them out.
According to Jim Whitehurst, a business can only succeed once all decisions are taken collectively and shared by all staff members involved in any particular project. When the opposite is the case, performance and results will be much less satisfactory, so it is essential to try to adopt this different approach.
Another important thing when reorganising your business is to keep aims and methods totally separate. To succeed in this, it is essential to first establish what you are doing and why you are doing it. The secret is to identify your own objectives, while considering why your business was set up and what purposes it serves: Walt Disney, for example, always aimed to make millions of people happy.
Whitehurst points out that during meetings and exchanges of ideas, it is important that the participants should feel confident enough to offer criticism when necessary. Those who adopt an approach of false acceptance never help the company, because they do not inform anyone about problems, thereby allowing them to sink the ship: when something needs to be said, it should be said without fear.
These are the main tips for reorganising your business in a simple but efficient way: helpful suggestions to follow each day in order to maximise productivity with the minimum of effort.
Translated by Joanne Beckwith
