Gudjon’s Blog

Industria is an agile organization and is leveraging as much of the tactics from the so called Agile methodology as the team feels makes sense at any given time.

Most often when I draw up the Industria organizational chart on whiteboards, I use a chart that can look obscure for some old school managers. It is a chart that illustrates my CEO box at the bottom of the chart, along with other Chiefs.

The role of the C-level members is primarily to make sure the overall engine works.

This version of mine represents a 5 level approach to the organizational layers. Each level can stand for its own budget unit within the organization.

Level 1: The Customer

At the top of my organizational chart is the customer, as it is from here that revenues are driven. In some cases the customer can be an internal budgeted project.

Level 2: Sales

The first internal management box is the sales unit, driven by revenue generation and personal sales bonuses.

Level 3: Product Management and Professional Services

There is a lot of communication between level 2, 3 and 4. This is where customer expectations need to meet product features, deliveries and so forth.

Level 4: Engineering (implementation)

The goal is to make sure engineers focus on what they do the best, which is engineering. This means the only customers of engineering are the so called product owners from either product management or the professional services organization. Engineering follows the Scrum framework of Agile software development.

Level 5: The C-Level Cloud

The C-Level members of the organization are there to make sure the engine is operating at its full capacity, on all cylinders, with enough fuel and whatever is needed to gain the most efficiency. The team also facilitates and motivates all stakeholders from level 1-4.

We are constantly reconfiguring our organizational infrastructure with the primary goal of gaining more organizational agility. Full transparency of knowledge needs to be secured and it’s important that all members have full buy-in and understanding on each responsibility and what is to be expected from the ordinary workday.

As documented within our own internal wiki, the main responsibilities of the CEO are to help foster the company’s long-term vision (strategic) and to help implement the strategic goals and objectives of the organization. Furthermore, the CEO is to give direction and leadership toward the achievement of the organizational philosophy, mission, strategy, and annual goals and objective. Other responsibilities are on corporate development, facilitation and assistance.