Organizations need to adapt to new technologies to survive. The document draws an analogy between organizations and biological systems like cells. It suggests that organizations should analyze their departments like DNA to identify how they work at the atomic level of individual employees. By optimizing employee skills and roles, organizations can create "super-organizations" that are perfectly structured like DNA to adapt to changing environments. The key lessons are to 1) identify each employee's skills and fit them to the best role, and 2) ensure the right mix of employees and managers in each department.
Organizations need to adapt to new technologies to survive. The document draws an analogy between organizations and biological systems like cells. It suggests that organizations should analyze their departments like DNA to identify how they work at the atomic level of individual employees. By optimizing employee skills and roles, organizations can create "super-organizations" that are perfectly structured like DNA to adapt to changing environments. The key lessons are to 1) identify each employee's skills and fit them to the best role, and 2) ensure the right mix of employees and managers in each department.
Organizations need to adapt to new technologies to survive. The document draws an analogy between organizations and biological systems like cells. It suggests that organizations should analyze their departments like DNA to identify how they work at the atomic level of individual employees. By optimizing employee skills and roles, organizations can create "super-organizations" that are perfectly structured like DNA to adapt to changing environments. The key lessons are to 1) identify each employee's skills and fit them to the best role, and 2) ensure the right mix of employees and managers in each department.
organisations need to adapt to keep them- selves abrest of it. This implies that orga- nisations of the future must be structured differently from what they are today in order to survive. D own the ages, man has been characterised by his incessant search for information and knowledge. Since the time the primates began to walk, the sheer force of his intellect set man apart from other species. And, as he began to walk more erect, his ambitions, too, began to soar even higher his ultimate goal became the conquest of nature. From caves to computers, man has come a long way since his first tentative steps towards this goal. Each time the wheels of progress seemed to slow down, new technologies were discovered to keep them spinning at their unflagging rate. Indeed, the pace of technology seems only to rise, growing exponentially. New wonders are being unfolded, even while you are reading this. So What Are these New Technologies? To understand how they work and what they do, one must first take a brief look at the na- ture of matter. A Matter of Organisation All the things we see are made out of atoms, tiny particles which are, for all practical pur- poses, invisible and form the basic blocks of matter. Together di fferent types of atoms constitute all the elements we know. Although their number is little, the vast diversity around us is due to their combining with each other in order to form aggregates of atoms called molecules. Together thousands and millions of these molecules form the objects that we touch and see everyday. The arrangement of the atoms in a mole- cule is strictly ordered and even a slight change i n the pl acement can l ead to a compl ete change in the nature and properties of a mole- cule. If the change is not in accordance with physi cal and chemi cal l aws, the structure becomes unstable and the molecule may be destroyed, thus putting an end to the sub- stance itself. What is even more interesting is that cer- tain types of atoms can be arranged to give rise to extremely complex molecules, which form the very basis of life itself. Such mole- cules are called organic, and what they have i n common i s that one speci al atom, the Carbon atom, must be present. With this little bit of knowledge, we can now understand what exactly the new tech- nologies are and what they do. Ray Amit * 4 The Human Genome Project (HGP) essentially attempts to locate and map each of the over 80,000 atoms present in the human genome (the little DNA strand that is the nucleus of l i f e). Nanotechnol ogy essenti al l y tri es to devel op techni ques of handl i ng and ma- nipulating matter at the atomic level so that we are able to build anything we want from the bottom up . Conventional techniques like lithography (which is used, for example, to etch out patterns in silicon chips for use in computers) use a top-down approach of manufacturing. Although we have refined this technol ogy enough to work at submi cro levels, it is still too crude for working at atomic levels. What Are their Prospects? The technology is so revolutionary that it will not only open new markets, it will change them. The twin breakthroughs of HGP and Nanotechnology will allow us to create, from the very atoms, everything that we can pos- sibly imagine. Name the market and an ap- plication for Nanotechnology can be found to satisfy it. In fact, Nanotechnology can give rise to prospects we can only dream of. The limits are set only by the boundaries of our ima- gination. But Why Put All this in a Paper on Management? New technologies and new markets require organisations to keep up with rapidly chang- ing environments and to change their methods and outlooks accordingly. They require the development of new skills or the refinement of already existing ones. Management is the art of control l i ng and usi ng, among other things, manpower, methods and markets. As such, the onus is on it to deliver the goods. How Can We Relate these Technologies to Management? First, let us look at the basic structure of an organisation. A very conventional one would have groups of peopl e worki ng i n each of several departments that make up the com- pany. Now suppose we replace the people with atoms, the groups with simple molecules, the departments wi th compl ex mol ecul es, l i ke DNA, and the company with a simple form of life, like a cell. We would then have the fol- lowing structure: Simple molecules made up of atoms, form complex molecules like DNA that make up a cell an amazing analogy. The next step is to extend the analogy to tackling the technological changes that con- front organisations. Look at what the technol ogi es do. The Human Genome Project strives to look at the basic unit of life, DNA, and to find out exactly how it is structured. Once this is known, the helix can be replicated through Nanotech- nology to create more of such structures. Each of these clones will be just like the original and just as effective. In fact, by rearranging and experimenting, one can even eliminate the defects inherent in each of those macro- molecules and give rise to a daughter mole- cule that will be perfect in every way. Thus, instead of using the equivalent of managerial lithography by tackling things at the department level, analyse the departments themselves to see exactly how they work and then restructure them, starting from their bas- ic unit, the person, to eliminate all its defects and give rise to a new super-organisation. The Atomic Model and the Super-organisation Conventional ways of looking at organisations see them as being living, growing beings capa- ble of adapting themselves to their environ- ment and, indeed, adopting a proactive ap- proach to change. The smallest units of an or- ganisation that are capable of providing this are its departments. To guarantee the contin- ued smooth functioning of the organisation, one must ensure that they are faultless and as perfect as we can make them. For the purpose of explanation, the model proposed is along the lines of the atomic model discussed. The DNA of an organism determines its look, its growth, its thinking and its behaviour. The smallest mistake in the genetic coding can result in catastrophic results. Modern organisa- tions, too, balance on a fine line, the slightest slip bringing about their downfall. DNA is composed of several simple mole- cules made up of varied types of atoms held together by carbon atoms. Independentl y, Ray Amit 5 each atom is totally different from the others. In fact, atoms of the same ki nd can come together to form self-contained, independent forms of matter as, say i n the case of two oxygen atoms combining to form the gas, oxy- gen. However, they do not form the basis of life. For that, one needs the essential carbon atom. The carbon atom, again, when bound with others of its kind, can only give rise to the i nert mol ecul es, coal or charcoal and diamond. But they, again, are inanimate. The only way to guarantee that the department l i ves, i s by ensuri ng that i ts mol ecul es are made up of carbon atoms bound together with other atoms in the right manner and in the right proportions to ensure stability. In the real world, people are different from one another. Individually, they all look, think and act differently. Each possesses special skills that set him apart from the majority. The trick is to find their right place in the department, the role in which their special characteristics make the difference between a job done and one that is well done. This will involve know- i ng the exact nature of the jobs and i den- tifying the special skills they require. These positions may then be filled with people who satisfy the respective requirements exactly. It may require extensive rearrangement but it will ensure that the requirements of each job are being met by those who are best suited for i t. As an added bonus, the empl oyees themselves are bound to perform their best since the jobs they are assigned to are, so to speak, tailor-made for them. Lesson One: Identify the Atoms in the Molecule and Find Out Where they Fit Best The organic nature of the departments is due to the managers who form the carbon atoms, which hold the structure together in a stable structure form. Management must be orga- nised in such a way that the right mix of people reports to its individual manager. Again, man- agers must be spread throughout the body of the departmental DNA in order to connect related groups of people. This will allow an effective communication and a strong struc- ture. It does not need to be elaborated that a concentration of managers will be like the diamond, glittering, but inanimate. Again, groups of employees without any leaders will, like the oxygen atoms, be useful in certain circumstances but not in the context of an organisation. Only when employees and man- agement come together in the fabric of the department the whole construction becomes the life-giving basis of the organisation. Lesson Two: Get the Right Mix of Management and Employees In each macromol ecul e, speci al groups of atoms exist which perform a particular func- tion. We have already talked about these sim- pl e mol ecul es. Si nce they each perf orm a specialised function, they behave as individual atoms. Often, the atoms in the group may be rearranged to give rise to molecules which perform a function that is different from the original. Thus, in the context of the organi- sation, we may choose to form workgroups which comprise differently skilled people, all of whom work together to fulfil a particular function. While the former already exists in practice, the rotation of personnel in order to change the role of the group can extend the concept. This is the only instance where the model allows for inexact matches between people and their tasks and, in fact, where it calls for the use of generalists who can be rotated between different jobs. The groups will be most effective when each of the group members is highly experienced and capable. One of its major advantages is the fact that it cuts the costs of repeated personal training for different workgroups. Lesson Three: Form Flexible Workgroups Which Can Be Moulded to Different Tasks Could you run all that by me again? All that talk of atoms, molecules and DNA must have been a trifle confusing. What this paper tri es to convey i s, i n essence, that although conventional wisdom recognises an organisation to be a living, breathing entity, conventional techniques only look at it from a macroperspecti ve, tryi ng to anal yse and structure it accordingly. The approach adopted here is to look at it from the bottom up , looking at employees individual skills and capabilities to ensure the efficient functioning of the firm even in this age of technological upheaval. To summarise, we can list the following points: A Matter of Organisation 6 People are the atoms which make up the organisation; departments form the DNA that gives life to it. Each individual department must be ana- lysed to identify the special skills required for each job so that the posts can be filled by people who possess those particular skills. Managers should be dispersed throughout the department structure so that they have the right proportion of different employees reporting to them. Each department must have efficient com- munication among its managers to ensure a stable structure. Workgroups may be formed wi th gen- eralists who are able to perform several different tasks so that the overall function of the group may be changed by mere change in the roles of the members. * Ray Amit is a student at the Indian Institute of Ma- nagement in Calcutta (IND). Conclusion The way to the future is through technological progress. As humankind probes deeper into the mysteries of nature, civilisation advances steadily on the path of knowledge. We do not know where it may lead but we soldier on, secure in the knowledge that whatever the fun may have i n store f or us, the road to our destination is paved with gold. New techno- logies, new markets are all there, waiting to be discovered. However, discovering them is not enough. Like uncut diamonds, they need to be dusted off, cut and shaped by human skill until they sparkle and shine for all they are worth. Ray Amit