ACCA Strategic Professional · Strategic Business Leader · Enabling success: organising
Brightwell Group, a conglomerate, decentralised decision-making to divisional heads and now reports declining group-wide coordination: divisions duplicate IT spending, pursue conflicting customer deals and take on risk the board did not approve. Which response best rebalances the structure while retaining the benefits of decentralisation?
Retain divisional autonomy over operations but centralise shared services, group risk limits and key investment approvals. The problems arise from weak coordination and control, not from decentralisation itself. Selective centralisation restores consistency and risk oversight while preserving local responsiveness, unlike full recentralisation or removing reporting.
- ARetain divisional autonomy over operations but centralise shared services, group risk limits and key investment approvalsCorrect
- BFully recentralise all operational decisions at group head office
- CFurther widen divisional heads' authority and drop group reporting to avoid bureaucracy
- DReplace divisional heads with a single group manager with a very wide span of control
Explanation
The symptoms (duplication, conflict, uncontrolled risk) show decentralisation without adequate coordination and control. The remedy is selective recentralisation of shared services, risk appetite and major investments, keeping local operational autonomy. Full recentralisation loses responsiveness; removing reporting worsens the problem; a single manager with a huge span lacks capacity.
Did you get it right without looking?
One question tells you little. A timed set on Enabling success: organising shows your real accuracy, how long you take and where you lose marks.
More Enabling success: organising questions
- Teluk Logistics has a finance director with 14 direct reports, including routine clerks and senior analysts. Errors in reporting have risen …
- Halvorsen Engineering runs a matrix structure in which project engineers report both to a functional head (for example, mechanical design) a…
- Orvane Pharma operates in 15 countries with very different regulatory regimes and customer needs. The board wants country managers to adapt …
- Halvorsen University Hospital relies on highly trained surgeons and physicians who work largely autonomously. Their work is coordinated main…
- Brindle Foods reviews a series of product complaints. Managers fix each defect by adjusting the existing quality procedure, without question…
- Meridian Software has decentralised divisions that have each developed their own systems and strategies; head office has lost visibility of …