UNRAVELING THE MATRIX

Globalization creates new opportunities and markets for business. Today many large and medium corporations operate in multiple countries, have multiple business units, cater to different customer segments, leverage diverse distribution channel and offer multiple products. This implies that corporations need to manage multiple dimensions of growth and challenge simultaneously such as: preserve the integrity of a global brand while tailoring the product and services to local taste; orchestrate between the often conflicting departments that grows up to cope with environment complexity; maximize the financial and operational productivity through standardized process and practices while promoting the specialized skill and competencies of local teams; manage product lifecycle - introduce older products into newer markets - while ensuring the product is aptly priced and popular in the new market. Managing all these dimensions and finding an optimal balance is walking a tightrope and global organizations are slowly discovering that the answer is to build a matrix organization structure. While matrix structure helps improve quality of collaboration across the highly differentiated and specialized organizational units they also create a high degree of complexity, unclear decision paths, and non transparent responsibilities. Matrix organizations often suffers from fear of making mistakes and slow decision making. 


All these exerts tremendous stress on individuals who operate in a matrix structures, particularly in remote centers.Individuals in matrix structure often are forced to manage at the intersections between local and remote team where reporting lines, information access, incentives and decision making are blurred. On one hand it poses a serious challenge to independent thinking through its conundrum of protocols and nuances. On the other hand it creates an unique opportunity for individuals to compete at a global scale and become part of an international workforce. People who have dealt and survived the matrix structure would explain how it has helped them evolve into stronger professionals.Enumerated below are some thoughts on how people operating in remote centers of a global matrix organization can be effective and successful :

 

Being organization savvy

In order to be effective and influential an individual need to develop a deeper understanding of the organization structure and culture. This means making conscious efforts in understanding the organization goals and strategy, the top initiatives, different product and business groups, interaction among the groups, decision making process, capabilities and competencies that exist within the organization, mechanisms by which information can be sought and found.

Another facet of organization understanding is identifying the key stakeholders, sponsors and champions and establishing a relationship with them. The key stakeholders are gatekeepers who can influence the decision making process but typically don't own the decisions. They can exist within the same business group and also in partner groups. Sponsors  are the owners of the business goal and often set the tone for the group. The sponsors are short term focused. Champions take a more long term outlook. They typically operate at an executive level and mindful and sensitive to futuristic ideas. Developing strong relationship with each of these group helps traversing through the complex decision making process. 

Yet another facet is to segregate important forums and meetings from the non important ones. In any organization there are myriad types of forums and meetings and by participating in the right forums and meetings individuals can influence decisions and also build the proper line of sight.  

A simple and effective way to ramp on organization understanding and navigation is by finding a right mentor. A good mentor is someone who has spent enough time in the organization, has risen through the ladder, has a good reputation, and is willing to invest time and effort to guide people. It is advisable to choose a mentor from a peer business group rather than ones own team. Individual should engage with the mentor continuously to review and  chart their course in the organization.

Establishing the right rules of engagement

Organizations which operate in  matrix structure follow different types of engagement models. The engagement models may vary from one business groups to another and is often determined by the maturity of group itself. Some of the widely prevalent engagement models are:

• Extension Model --> This is the most primitive form of engagement in which the core product and thought leadership is owned by the global product and business team and the fringe areas are outsourced to the remote and country teams. This model is the easiest one to increase the footprints of a remote teams but eventually degenerates the value of the team. Ergo this model may be adopted initially while setting up the team but should be renounced as the team matures.
• Component Ownership Model --> This is the second level of ownership and engagement in which the core product is owned by the global product team but the remote team takes ownership of one or more components. While this helps in immersing the remote teams into the product and business, this does not bring out the independence in the thinking process and hence limits the value addition coming out from the remote teams. This model is unavoidable in many cases and the team may have to stay at this level for a long period before graduating to the next level.
• Technical Ownership Model --> In this model the product design and conceptualization is done by the global  product team and the technical development of the product is outsourced to the remote team. This is often the case because the products are low impacting and no one in the global team wants to own these products. Like the extension model this is also an entry level in some product areas. Unless the remote team is able to create new value or impact for this products, investments in such models should be minimized as much as possible.
• Complete Ownership Model --> This is the ideal engagement model where the complete ownership of the product and business is transferred to the remote team. There is enough autonomy to identify new ways of adding value to business  and product. Often a remote team graduates from one of the above models into this one .However in certain scenarios the remote teams are  able to identify a new customer need or problem and come up with an innovative product solve . In such cases remote teams start with this model directly. 

While the sweet spot is to be in the 4th model,it is never entirely possible to have all the products and tasks at this level. Remote team often end up having a portfolio of each of these models. 

Building Trust and Credibility

When operating from a remote team building trust and credibility is of paramount importance. This is an uphill task especially from a remote center. Here are some tips to attain this:

• Working within Organization Structure --> While it is preferred to have autonomy and independence this may not always be a good idea from a remote center. There are two primary reasons for this: chances of failure of a product is higher than success; autonomy leads to the global product team being disconnected and unaware of the happenings at a remote center. Both these situations are dangerous spots to be in.Hence it is always wiser to operate within the hierarchy of the global product team when working on an idea.
• Structured communication -->Individuals working in a remote team can build trust and credibility through structured communication in consistent formats such as weekly status reports; weekly business reviews. This is of paramount importance as remote centers lack the advantage of face-to-face meetings. Over communication is always preferable along with a careful selection of target audience. In addition to these few  other mechanisms that can be used are bi-weekly work stream discussions; and quarterly operation reviews which could be conducted using video conference or in person meetings. The objectives of these meetings is to show progress made or improvements in the operation metrics. A powerful mechanism of highlighting the achievements of a product or project is creation of case study or story boarding. Also the best way to communicate new ideas, thoughts is through a power point presentation.
• Importance of Planning --> Often when embarking upon a new product, project or roadmap it is essential to draw a comprehensive plan and share it with the global product and business team. The more meticulous and detailed the plan is the more effective it is in allaying apprehension of people. It helps create the impression that an individual is capable of thinking through all the contingencies. This along with communication of progress on the plan goes a long way in building the trust and credibility of the individual.
• Handling of crisis and failures --> Often product launches or project are fraught with crisis and failures. Impressions are formed based on an  individuals ability to handle such tough situations. Often difficult situations presents an opportunity to also build trust and credibility. One needs to be sensitive about how to communicate the crisis and failures. The recovery plan from crisis and the level of communication can build the credibility of the individual significantly.  Failures celebrated in an elegant manner  often demonstrate the maturity of individuals and teams.
• Selling versus balanced score card --> Often remote team fall into the trap of only selling the highlights of their success. It is very important to note that credibility gets built when success is interspersed with failures and low lights. A balanced score card approach should be adopted in communicating during work stream meetings and business reviews. It is also essential to communicate the challenges being faced along with the impact being created.

Growing the Organization Level

Upping the level is a tough and uphill task for remote center but is achievable when approached in a structured manner. Here is how individual working in a remote centers can grow:

• 70-20-10 Development Model --> This model delineates that an individual learns 70% of the role on the job, 20% by feedback and coaching, 10% through formal training. Understanding this and planning for this is an important step. The first step in this direction is a thorough understanding of the role requirements of the current level and the next level. The second step is identifying the gaps in the role. The third step is formulating a plan to cover the gaps. Since 70% of the learning happens on the job, individuals can focus on harnessing the knowledge repository of the organization. Another important way to learn skills is to partner with other product and business groups to increase their knowledge levels.
• Working with feedback --> Since 20% of the role and performance can be learnt through feedback and inputs from others, feedback forms an important part of equation. Feedback can help serve two purposes: Identify the gaps in performance at current and next levels;aligning with the global product and business team. Utmost care has to be taken in separating actual gaps versus perception of gap. In case there is a perception of a gap then it is very important to understand what behavior is causing these perceptions and figure out a way to address and change these perceptions.
• Impact versus effort --> Often people feel victimized when results are not in commensurate with the efforts. Growing up  the value chain requires that individuals keep their focus on outcomes rather than the effort. Here is a simple approach that can help create impact: start with the desired outcome and work backwards to identify top 2-3 ideas that can help achieve the outcomes; evaluate each idea based on the impact it can cause; validate the ideas with people who use a different lens; understand the constraints and the limitations with which to operate. Achieving the desired impact requires individuals to build a deeper connection with the environment and identifying the problems and opportunities within it. Most insights are gained through meticulous analysis of environment and available data.One may not always have the expertise on all aspects of a business, product and system.So partnering with experts and valuing their inputs can be very effective.