Inverting the Organizational Pyramid: Building a Structure for Change-How to Create Sustainable Change by Empowering Frontline Employees

By: Vineet Nayar

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Synopsis: Even when employees and management both acknowledge the need for organizational change and a culture of trust exists among them, structural flaws can stymie the most promising new strategic initiatives. Many companies around the world try to conduct new-age business with centuries-old structures-hierarchies and matrixes that actually squelch innovation and profitable change. In this chapter, Vineet Nayar, CEO of HCL Technologies, a leading global IT services company, describes how he turned his company's pyramid structure upside down, making those in management and "enabling functions" (human resources, finance, training, and quality assurance) more accountable to the "value zone"-frontline employees far lower on the pyramid who dealt with customers on a daily basis and directly created customer value. While this concept of "reverse accountability" didn't mean that senior executives would suddenly be getting their timesheets signed by frontline workers, it did mean that the company's value creators would be empowered to deliver on its growth strategy. Only by making adjustments to an organization's structure, Nayar explains, does change become truly sustainable. This chapter was originally published as Chapter 3 of "Employees First, Customers Second: Turning Conventional Management Upside Down."