Bridgestone Corporation’s Organizational Redesign

Analysis of the current organizational structure

An organizational structure defines the mechanisms in which operations in an organization are put together under one management (Tsoukas, 2018, p. 323). Bridgestone’s structure is divisional, with the head offices located in Japan, where the CEO lives. All the countries where the company has found a place of doing business have functional offices with officers who report to regional offices commonly found on all continents. The continent offices also have content distribution centers or manufacturing plants from where strategic decisions for the continent are made. In making decisions, the company involves all the stakeholders from the countries where the operations take place.

The European continent company offices are located in Europe. Within Europe, there are six commercial regions for Bridgestone headed by a management team with representations from every region (Rajesh, Swamy, & Chirayath, 2018, P. 7). In the organizational structure, each region may restructure its organization based on the business demands keeping into consideration the divisional structure. While the organizational structure differs in one way or another based from one continent to the other, they always adopt the divisional system of administration.

The divisional organizational structure is the best when the organization focuses on a single product (Tsoukas, 2018, p. 353). The structure will be the best so long as Bridgestone focuses on the supply of tires only or just a few lines of products. The system of structuring the organization also promotes a more centralized leadership than any other (Rajesh et al., 2018, p. 7). However, organizational restructuring is associated with efficient tax implications, breakdowns of communication between the management of the divisions, poor coordination of the divisions, and wasteful competition among the divisions (La Bella, Fronzetti Colladon, Battistoni, Castellan, & Francucci, 2018, P. 1). While the system of restructuring in an organization is encouraged, it may not promote organizational growth.

Current Organizational Structure

The current Bridgestone organization is structured based on the regional division (La Bella et al., 2018, p. 1). At the top of the organization is the board of directors, the organization’s top decision-makers. The board members are appointed by the shareholders, with some set by the organization’s creditors to safeguard the affairs of the company lenders. The employees also represent a director appointed to present the interests of the employees in the top decision-making (Chatha, 2019, p. 55). Each director must have the director’s shares. The board is headed by the chairman of the committee, whom the members appointed. In absentia of the chairman, a deputy chairman takes over the supervision of board meetings.

Just below the board of directors is the company CEO, who also sits on the board of directors. The CEO supervises all the company’s affairs and oversees all the administrative duties at the top level (Chatha, 2019, p. 55). Bridgestone has established places of doing business on four continents. The business affairs in each continent are supervised by Deputy CEOs who are appointed by the board. Decisions at the continent level are arrived at after deliberations of management teams represented by members assigned from each region (Sulistyowatia et al., 2019). The four continental areas include Europe, America, Oceania, Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. The Europe region is well represented with nine countries markets, each market headed by a national Managing director who reports to the deputy CEO in charge of Europe. European countries where the company has established a place of doing business include Belgium, France, Hungary, Italy, Poland, Portugal, Spain, and Turkey. Bridgestone operates in American continent countries, including Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Costa Rica, Mexico, the United States, Venezuela, and Colombia. Managing directors from these countries report to the deputy CEO in charge of America. Asian countries with Bridgestone markets include Australia, China, Indonesia, Japan, Taiwan, Thailand, and Vietnam. On the other hand, the company recently opened branches in South Africa, Cameroon, and Kenya. It is also planning to extend operations to the Middle East.

A strategic restructuring plan

The divisional structure adopted by Bridgestone does not promote strategic management policies. Since I propose Bridgestone adopt diversification strategies, the company should make use of the Functional structure. The organizational structure is the best for companies with several SBUs (Mugambi, 2017). In the structure, there should be a central Apex CEO who is the overall and where CEOs of all the SBUs should report (Davis & Dolson, 2018, p. 45). My proposed growth strategies growth would involve establishing several product lines to avoid risks associated with the failure of one product line. The functional structure is the best where skills group the employees, and there is a greater sense of teamwork (Zaidi et al., 2019). Again, restructuring an organization is associated with unhealthy competition, management issues, and poor coordination among departments (Davis & Dolson, 2018, p. 46). The poor coordination will, however, get instilled through a robust information system.

Proposed Organizational Structure

My proposed organizational structure should encourage the formulation of strategic management policies, innovation, Diversification of products, and free flow of information. I suggest a functional organizational structure headed by a board of directors, who will be the top decision-making body. The board shall sit regularly and will formulate the vision and mission statements of the organization. Decisions of the board will get made after considering the opinions of both the middle level and bottom level managers. The mission statements proposed by the board should contain statements on innovation, administration, tire manufacturing, and Diversification (Noga, 2018). The four statements’ implementation should get facilitated by establishing the two deputy CEOs, the office of the secretary, and the innovation department.

While the secretary’s office will oversee the administrative functions, the innovation department will promote Bridgestone’s innovative policies. The proposed structure shall comprise six managing directors representing passenger tires, aircraft tires, Motorcycle tires, off-the-road tires, and commercial tires. The respective managing directors shall be answerable to the deputy CEO in charge of tires. The diversified product wing shall contain a conveyor belt, Seismic Isolator for buildings, Golf equipment, Hydraulic house, Automotive Components, and bicycle departments, each headed by a managing director.

The ultimate objective of strategic management is to attain a sustainable competitive advantage and thus maximize the long-run organizational performance (Ramanathan et al., 2017). Once the market is analyzed and the firm’s objectives are identified, the organization will use strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and strengths to develop strategies. Every departmental manager should ensure maximum use of the available resources to achieve long-term and short-run objectives. Strategic management will shape the future of the organization and is encouraged even where environmental changes are uncertain (Vevere & Svirina, 2020). Successful strategic managers establish the distinction between operational decisions and strategic decisions. Both the top managers and operational level managers should understand the long-run future of their organizations to implement relevant policies.

The organizational changes will get communicated to all the stakeholders through the media. The media include media houses that broadcast the organization’s performance based on the public’s opinion. The media houses also broadcast marketing advertisements and thus promote the marketing of the organization (Ugoani, 2020). Bridgestone Company should develop strategies for creating good working relationships with the media to avoid a poor image. Civil societies advocate for justice for all people, especially women, children, and people with disabilities. They work towards holding organizations into account (Ramanathan et al., 2017). Bridgestone should seek to understand all the civil societies within all the areas of operation and align the company’s goals to those of the societies. The tire company contributes to environmental degradation and should participate in climate change activities such as tree-planting and garbage management (Nwachukwu et al., 2019). A healthy environment is good for the organization and promotes the health of its employees, thus increasing their productivity.

References

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