Eastman Kodak charged that the Fuji Corporation of Japan was illegally dumping film in U.S. markets. It asked the U.S. government to investigate and impose sanctions on Fuji for its unfair practices. But the world film market is dominated by Kodak and Fuji. If the government agrees to sanction Fuji, Kodak will obtain significant market power in the U.S. film market. Is it ethical for Kodak to attempt to use the government to undermine its competitor?
Organizational Change Checklist When analyzing business problems and challenges, managers often find it useful to ask themselves the following set of questions:
• Does our existing business strategy fit the business environment-technology, market conditions, and regulation-and the capabilities of our firm?
• What are the key features of our current architecture? And does our architecture fit our business environment and strategy?
• Are the three legs of the organizational architecture stool mutually consistent? Given the decision-right system, do the control and reward systems fit and vice versa?
• If the answers to any of the previous questions suggest a problem, what changes in strategy and architecture should the firm consider?
• What problems will our firm face in implementing these changes? What can be done to increase the probability of success?
In Closing It is critical to recognize that these policy choices represent fundamentally difficult organizational decisions. Across firms, public data on these internal organizational policies are limited, in part because management considers this information proprietary and in part because this information is not easy to summa- rize and aggregate. Finally, the interrelations among the various dimensions of the problem imply that these policy choices are inherently complex. When making such decisions, information costs are high and errors are potentially substantial. Thus, it is useful to recall Yogi Berra's observation: "You got to be careful if you don't know where you're going, because you might not get there." We believe that the organi- zational architecture framework we develop in this book can help by giving you a more detailed understanding of "where you're going"-it better focuses your attention and thus helps you frame better questions. Nonetheless, answers still are quite difficult. Yet by asking better, more focused questions and structuring more complete, coherent analysis, this framework helps ensure that you will in fact "get there."