Question: Narrow down a strategic direction and identified possible alternative strategies and then narrowed those alternatives down to ONE specific strategy to implement for either Southwest or Subway. Using that specific strategy, identify what type of organizational design would best support that strategy. Provide a high level overview of the organizational design – be sure to fully explain the design and why it was selected to support the strategic direction and, more importantly, the specific strategy to be implemented.
Agree or Disagree:
Subway (Gibson)
A product development strategy was recommended for Subway in order to remain competitive in the fast food industry and keep its promise to serve fresher ingredients. The organizational design that would best help Subway implement this strategy is a matrix structure. A matrix structure is a type of functional hierarchical structure that relies on horizontal collaboration among various departments. These cross-functional relationships can form separate team projects, with the common goal of creating a new product. "This combination may help organizations achieve higher efficiency, readiness, and quick market adaptation. Moreover, they often can respond faster to market or customer demand while decreasing the lead time to produce a new product" (Usmani, 2012)
