Organizational Structure for Innovation

Kimberly-Clark Corporation (KCC) is a multinational company that deals with a range of personal care products made from paper. Organization structures are very important in the operations of the company especially when dealing with innovation. It is very important for the organization to identify and define an innovation structure that is appropriate for its operations. Kimberly-Clark Corporation requires an appropriate organizational structure to help in the innovation of the new product such as the new rolled hand towel that was recently introduced into the market. There are four major types of innovation structures that include traditional two-tier structure, center of excellence, strategic horizon group or intrapreneuring, and venturing group (Desai, 2013). In the traditional two-tier structure, there is a central innovation group and functional innovation resources that build new opportunities for innovative ideas. In the case of center of excellence, the CEO is appointed and works with the innovation council which is responsible for facilitating the vision and set goals, process management, knowledge management, and other activities related to innovation. He/she is expected to report to a C-level executive. Strategic horizons group is a group of dedicated experts responsible for getting new opportunities for growth in an organization. Intrapreneuring and venturing group is an approach which allows anyone in an organization to contribute in the innovation journey.

The best organizational structure to use in Kimberly-Clark Corporation is the center of excellence structure. The objective of this structure is a faster response to all changes in the industry (Desai, 2013). In this case, the CEO and the board will sanction high-priority special programs that will help in the innovation process. This will be very important in our innovation journey as we introduce a new product in the market.  The innovation process has for stages, the conception or generation of the new idea, the proposal, the adoption or acceptance, and the implementation stage (Miles, Snow, Meyer, & Coleman, 1978). 

The generation of an idea involves the conceptualization of a new idea by an individual or a group of persons in an organization. The proposing involves gathering and processing of information while the adoption stage involves the official acceptance of the proposed innovation and the decision of giving the innovation attention is made. The last stage of implementation involves the actual utilization of the organization by the members of an organization as they perform their task.

Current Internal Organization Structure

The current internal organization structure used is the traditional two-tier structure. In this structure, people are grouped to perform a task together as a group. When these people with similar skills, knowledge, and competence are grouped together, they can learn from each other and increase the firm’s performance (Desai, 2013). The disadvantage of this strategy comes in when the organization wants to develop a new product or service which requires the input from other functions and the group is made up of individuals with similar skills. This strategy promotes innovation in case the innovation requires specific skills.

The New Internal Organization Structure for the Organization

Kimberly-Clark Corporation has determined that the best new internal organization structure is the center of excellence. The structure has the strongest ability to respond faster to changes. This strategy is also the best for big organizations such as Kimberly-Clark Corporation. It also encourages learning between individuals and results in the best innovation outcome (Desai, 2013). The method is also the best as it encourages the development of new ideas and also best decisions as a big number of individuals are involved in the decision making process.

Reference

Desai, J. (2013). Innovation Engine: Driving Execution for Breakthrough Results. John Wiley & Sons.Miles, R. E., Snow, C. C., Meyer, A. D., & Coleman, H. J. (1978). Organizational strategy, structure, and process. Academy of management review, 3(3), 546-562.