Case study
Donnelley and Co.
Feedback from
Eng. D. (MEEM) students
Semester A 2000-2001
KV Patri, MEEM, City U of HK
1
Organisational
&
Cultural Issues
in Technology and Product
Innovation Management
by
T.P. Lo
Questions On Donnelley’s
Organisation & Culture
• What phases of management Donnelley has gone
through in the print industry ?
• What was Donnelley’s organisation and culture
type ?
• What were the roles played by the individuals ?
• Has Donnelley strategically developed the
organisation and culture to enable technology
innovation ?
Donnelley’s Organisation (pre-1993)
President
Retail
Catalogue
Telecoms
Global
Software
Books
Financial
Technology
Center
Corporate
Staff
Field
of
Dreams
Decentralized
National Patterns of
Corporate Climate
USA Donnelley
Canada
Sweden
UK
Informal
Formal
Denmark
Spain
Japan
Centralized
Netherlands
Germany
[Trompennars, F., Riding the Waves of Culture,
The Economist Books, London, 1993.]
Donnelley Organisation (1995)
Chairman
(John Walter)
Commercial
Print
Sector
Information
Services
Sector
(Rory Cowan)
Network
Services
Sector
Corporate
Staff
Global Software
Information Services
(Bart Faber)
Catalogue
Books
Technology
& IS
(Jim Turner)
Telecoms
Financial
Retail
Information Services Group
Information
Services
(Bart Faber)
Sales
(Janet Clarke)
Digital Division
(Janet Clarke)
VP &
General Manager
(Barb Schetter)
Eastern
Government
Health
Care
Marketing &
Business Dev
(Daniel Hamburger)
Marketing
(Mary
Lee
Schneider)
Sales
(Scott Russell)
Product Managers
Operations
(Lew
Waltman)
6 Representatives
Financial
(Jeff Majestic)
The Paradigm Shift in Donnelley
• Good profit from long run printing
• Cowan, Faber and Clarke were responsible
for conceiving new paradigms
• Anticipation of rejection
500 Sales in Donnelley
• 80 – 95 % sales filling home plants
• Personal culture (most upper management
originated in sales)
• The Peter Principle
“In any large organization, the most competent individuals at a
given level will inevitably get promoted to jobs higher and
different (often more complex but less technical) responsibilities,
until ultimately they reach a level where they are both
nonproductive to the organization and miserable in their job
satisfaction
[Lawrence Peter in his book The Peter Principle, 1969]
Management Functions in Donnelley
Strategic Management: Paradigm and Goal setting
• Planning: What?, When?, How?
• Delegating: Who? (Organization)
• Coordinating and Control
• Leadership (Motivation)
Managerial behaviour in Donnelley in
promoting innovation/creativity
Managerial behaviour of Faber and others
• Willing to absorb the risks taken by subordinates
• Comfortable with half developed ideas
• Willing to stretch organizational policy
• Prepared to make quick decisions
• Good listener
• Do not dwell on mistakes
• Focus and gear the pressure to goals
• Foster interpersonal contact
• Give continuous feedback
• Recognize the need for outside stimuli
• Recognize creativity - publicly
• Put up with some innocent foibles
• Maintain a balance between need for freedom and the necessity of structure
Technimanagement
• Control
– Goal
– Measurement
– Correction
What I would do if I were the CEO of Donnelley?
• Set business strategy to promote technology and product
innovation whilst maintaining revenue from steady
market share for the traditional printing
• Plan strategy to develop organisation culture and roles
for innovation champions
• Develop programs/ methods/ plans of action:
– The requirements for achieving set goals
– Who will do which part
– How the different parts tie together
• Innovation
– Product, Process, Service, Technology, Managerial, Marketing, Organisational
• Create Team culture with knowledge sharing and
continuous improvement
Barriers to Innovation & Ideas to Improve Innovation
Management at Donnelley
Barriers
Ideas to improve innovation Management
Lack of organisation slack
Create Fellow Programme; Individual Contributor
Programme [Improvement on IBM/TI models]]
Inadequate emphasis on
“thinking” compared to
doing
Tangible and non-tangible rewards for innovative ideas
and proposals
[Logical reasoning on motivation]
Bureaucracy
Create New Business Venture Division [Improvement on
3M model] ; Remove layers
Too centralised
organisational structure
Decentralise non-core support services;
Poor lateral
communication
Quarterly gatherings; Establish/facilitate project teams and
study units (holons) for process/product categories
Imported talent syndrome
Job rotation to create more talents; cultivate ‘knowledge
sharing”
Bean-counting
Create smaller slash funds for project proposal /pilot
If I were the CEO of Donnelley, I would have promoted inno
WHY?
Because Donnelley would die when
paper printing market shrunk
WHY?
Because competitors would improve
their productivity through IT
WHY?
Because globalisation will expose
Donnelley to international
competition
WHY-SO REASONING [Petty 1997]
So,
re-organise Donnelley
So,
keep abreast with IT technology
So,
move labour intensive work to low
cost areas and create centre of
excellence for information
services
Innovation
•
•
•
•
•
•
Product
Process
Services
Technology
Managerial
Marketing
Creating
an organisation
and culture
to induce innovatio
Encourage all to make good use of the right side
Sees things as a whole
Sees things in parts
Holistic
Sequential
Rig
Left
ht
Logic
Rhythm
Reasoning
Music
Language
Imaginatio
n
Numeracy
[Majaro 88]
Analysis
Images,
Color
Linearity
Shape
Idea Generation
From
enthusiasts
and
discussion
groups
Creative
Briefing
From
existing
products
Idea
Making
From
other
sources
From
unexploited
patents
From
individuals
From
brainstorming First ideas
list