DHL, a successful European company, is attempting to overcome various legal problems in order to enter the U.S. market of overnight package delivery. Its two major competitors would be FedEx and UPS. As DHL looks to set up a U.S. subsidiary, it wishes to benchmark its organizational architecture. What should it do?
What will be an ideal response?
DHL should realize that a successful organizational architecture is more than a collection of good ideas or good parts. A successful organization should be carefully coordinated to align individuals' incentives with the firm's goals. DHL's organizational architecture has survived in a European legal and regulatory environment. In contrast, FedEx's and UPS's architectures have survived under the U.S. legal system in the market for overnight delivery. There is no single "best" organizational form for all firms in all external legal and market environments. Instead, the best organizational form for a firm depends critically on its current business environment. DHL should be aware of possible unintended side effects of changing one component of organizational architecture without considering its effects on the other parts of organizational architecture.
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