Are Organizational Structures the Key to Brand Success?

There is strong theoretical support for the idea that flatter structures, organized around work processes rather than functions, may be better positioned to understand customer needs and deliver appropriate brand propositions. There is, though, little empirical evidence identifying which structures best enable companies to do this. This article takes a look at Philippa Hankinson’s study comparing the organizational structures of companies taken from the World’s Top 100 brands (as defined by Interbrand) with those of companies whose brands, though well known, failed to meet the Top 100 criteria. The results cast some doubt on the received wisdom that rigid, hierarchical, top-down structures are less successful than flatter, more horizontally-integrated ones.

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