ASSIGNMENT 4

The question of what constitutes a successful fresh food company in the 21st Century was one topic at a recent new executive program. The "Produce Industry Executive Development Program", held at the Mt Eliza Business School, ran for one week. It was attended by around 40 executives from different sectors of the produce industry. The executives concluded that the five main characteristics of "outstanding" fresh food companies were: committed staff; consistent innovation; a clear strategy.

Organization structure dictates core managerial competencies. Traditional organizations relied almost exclusively on the technical knowledge and skills of their managers. Most managers at the turn of the century, for example, expected to spend their entire careers in a single technical specialty, such as manufacturing, engineering, or sales. Only a few top executives were exposed to the broader commercial aspects of a firm, where they could obtain an understanding of all business functions and how they interacted to produce company profits. Nor were the managers and employees of various functional areas expected to be self-governing - to exercise responsible self-direction and self-control in pursuit of company goals. Instead, elaborate structures and systems were constructed to monitor and control employee behavior. In short, traditional organizations were heavy users of a limited set of human capabilities, primarily technical knowledge and skills.

After World War I, the emergence of national markets, coupled with growing consumer expectations, led to the invention of the divisional organization structure by pioneering companies such as General Motors and Sears, Roebuck. Unlike the functional structure, the divisional form organized a company into largely independent divisions, each with a full complement of functional [TABULAR DATA FOR TABLE 1 OMITTED] resources and focused on a given product line or geographic area. By capitalizing on product and market opportunities, each division became responsible for its own resource allocation and strategy implementation. Rather than pursuing a narrow, functional career path, some managers in divisionalized firms were able to obtain a breadth of cross-disciplinary experiences and apply their knowledge in general management positions. Divisional heads, especially, were expected to employ technical, self-governance, and commercial competencies, since the organizations they ran resembled complete companies. The divisional form encouraged diversification by creating a wide.