There are four traditional organization structures popularly used, and they include functional structure, divisional structure, hybrid structure and matrix structure. When a small business grows, the simple structure in the business becomes less effective, and therefore most individuals running such business find it wise to adopt a functional structure as the business becomes more complex and it requires a strong hierarchy and division of labor within the business. The functional structure is more effective in this case as the evolution from a simple structure to a functional structure ensures that the operations in the business run more smoothly despite the complexity of the business. The employees are divided into their departments of specialization and assigned the tasks they have specialized in to make the production process quick and effective as the employee learns their particular functions, although the demerits in this structure can be slow when trying to adopt strategic changes.

An organization like Godiva adapts the division structure since it offers a variety of goods and services. They sell these products in various geographical regions, and thus the division structure suits them best. Godiva is responsive to their local customer’s needs and adapting the functional business structure will cost them as it is slow to strategic changes. The divisional structure allows Godiva to divide its employees to departments that are based on products and services in different geographical regions quickly. Thus this division ensures each region is responsible for its production of products and maximization of profits on their own and this allows Godiva to act to changes quickly and serve its customer’s needs more efficiently as one of the advantages of this business structure plan. Although this type of structure has its demerits as divisions in different regions may make decisions that do not meet the company’s strategy without any consultations. Managing the division structure in an organization is very expensive to manage too.

The matrix business structure plan uses the horizontal linkages in most cases as compared to the functional and division structures that use the vertical linkages (Aithal, 2017). The horizontal linkages in the matrix structure bring teams from different projects in an organization cross, and this gives the matrix structure and advantage of maximizing the flexibility of its operations, and this enhances communications within the organization leading to strong teamwork and collaborations within the organization. Through this teamwork, it helps nature leaders within the organization. The only disadvantage in the matrix organization structure is killing the command principle within an organization because of the confusion that comes through the assigning of several bosses to employees.

The division business structure is recommended for Godiva as it gives the divisions the freedom to strive and maximize their divisions. Through the divisions will ensure there is an increase in the number of machinery and technology used in each division, this indicates there will be an increase in the volume of production in the range of products produced to serve the customer’s needs in each region. The different departments in each region will work hard to ensure they design their products according to the tastes and preferences of the customers in that region. The speed of production will be enhanced as each division will strive to meet the demands of the customers.

Social media has been a current trend towards increasing sales through advertisements. Godiva should ensure that there is an increase in social engagement with customers through social media (Möller & Halinen, 2018). Research has shown that customers spend most of their time on social media searching and liking on items. And thus, a manager should ensure that they create social networks as a commonplace to interact with the customers. Social media is the most extensive market to advertise and reach a lot of customers within a short time; also industrial discussions are more effective on social media. The organization should make sure they send newsletters to the customers through emails since most of the customers own mobile phones. Technology is another current trend in the market and exploration of innovative is essential. Innovative technology help in improving the production and also sales and thus the manager should make sure there is an upgrade in technology in the organization to enhance productivity and cut down on the costs of production. Through improved technology, Godiva can move into a more organic structure whereby the employees work as a team, and the coordination will improve the volumes of production.

The expansion of Godiva will depend on the excellent application of organizational design skills. Sharpening and cultivation of the employees’ skills in marketing help in solving the problems of marketing the Godiva as it promotes the flow of ideas and it breaches the gap within different cultures. The ideas from the employees of varying culture stimulate new thoughts that the organization will use to create multicultural networks and using available mechanisms to improve the volume of sales by the help of the employees. Godiva has a background marketing that includes people from different cultures, and they are complemented by the use of e-commerce that enhances the reaching of more customers in a short while when advertising and marketing a new product. Through organizational design skills, Godiva can enhance high levels of strategy in marketing.

There are four types of job approaches, and they include rotation, simplification, enrichment and enlargement. Job rotation is the rotation of employees in different departments or from job to job allowing them to perform various tasks in the organization to reduce boredom and add variety to them. The employees gain a wide range of skills, become flexible in doing different tasks within the same level and thus giving the employer more options. Although there are benefits of having flexible employees it also has demerits as it increases the cost of training employees to perform various tasks in an organization.

Job simplification is achieved by researching and designing factors that will make the job to be done more efficiently and within a short time. One of the way organizations have been able to achieve job simplification is through specialization of labor. Labor specialization allows teamwork within employees and makes work easy with less mental and physical effort and this makes hiring easy as the employees fill certain specific positions. Although simplification makes work easy and improves the quality of production, it can lead to boredom when employees do the same task each day over and over.

Job enlargement refers to when there is an expansion of the different tasks that are carried out by an individual. The employee does many various tasks that are closely related. The advantages of job enlargement are the provision of variety to the employee (Scholes, 2015). Work enlargement can be boring too when an employee does the tasks with a short cycle over and over. Job enrichment, on the other hand, is the additional advantages to the tasks carried out by employees. The additions may include rewards or motivations, and thus this gives employees a challenge and pushes them to be creative. For an organization like Godiva, job simplification will be ideal as different employees will specialize in the production of specific products. Through the specialization, there will be an increment in the quality of the products, and also the volumes of production will go high as the employees will spend less time in output per unit.

Godiva ought to use benchmarking as a strategy to compare its performance with that of the other companies that deal with the same line of products to determine the level of standards that it’s required to maintain in its operations and the products it produces. Benchmarking is essential as it will help Godiva to understand how the competitors are performing in the market and also to now the strategies that the competitors are using to gain an advantage in the competitive market. The organization can also use the ADL matrix to determine its competitive position in the market (Schildt, 2017). For this to be possible the organization needs to understand the amount of influence it has in the market and the ADL matrix can be used as a point of reference by the organization to improve its operations.

Many problems present themselves in an organization, and some may be obvious like machines breakdown. Some of the problems may include when the sales of Godiva are increasing, but on the other hand, their shares in the market are decreasing. Such problems need to be identified first, analyzed and the area manager should come up with management intervention that will guide the organization into problem-solving. The techniques used to solve such problems should take less time to restore the organization into a good state and to avoid making of loses or being overtaken by the competing firms.

Strategic planning will help in growing Godiva business in different geographical regions, and through strategic planning, it will be easy to make decisions on the expansion of the organization’s operations. A business organization cannot grow without a strategic plan. The plan allows the business to make realistic plans for the future and also to understand its position and be able to maximize its potential growth. The organization has to make difficult decisions that will enhance its growth. Godiva has taken its time in identifying the strategic regions to expand its operations. The expansion of the organization’s operations comes with risks, and the organization should be ready to embrace the risks and come up with means to minimize such risks that may hinder its growth.

Strategy formulation needs to be sophisticated as the organization grows in its operations and becomes more complex. The sophisticated strategy will help in the sustaining of business growth and also ensuring that it utilizes its available resources to fuel its growth. The collection and analysis of information are essential in strategic planning because the information helps the organization to set realistic goals. Strategic planning should be complemented with everyone who is part of the organization to ensure there is a smooth implementation of the plan.

Godiva has been flexible in its corporate culture by ensuring that its production is set above the standards of the performance objectives. It has put a lot of efforts into innovation, competing with other firms and engagement of its employees to achieve its goals (Guiso et al., 2015). The organization has walked on a path that is set by its strong values, vision and mission to be the best in the market. Godiva has invested a lot in technology and innovation to improve on the quality and the volume of its production. The organization has also linked different branches in various regions to ensure that the customer’s needs are met and satisfied fully. The operations in Godiva run smoothly since there are levels of corporate that are adhered to strictly. The board of directors and the CEO ensure that the operations run smoothly and the employees are performing as expected in the organization. The corporate levels develop and set goals, strategic plans and policies that will enhance the growth and sustainability of the organization.

When expanding marketing, the organization may meet barriers targeting the content to the right audience. It’s necessary to make the right decisions when coming up with the content and finding the proper channels to deliver the content to the audience. For the content to reach the right audience, the organization needs to develop a deep understanding of its customers. In e-commerce, the organization needs to turn the website visitors into buyers. And thus this means the content on the website should be attractive and meet the required criteria.

In conclusion, for an organization to grow and expand its operations, there is a need for a good business structure plan. The plan should address all the aspects of the business both internally and externally. The planning should be full of creativity to gain advantage in the market competition with other firms. The creativity in the business plan should give room to innovation and use of updated technology to meet the standards required in the market.

References

Aithal, P. S. (2017). ABCD Analysis as Research Methodology in Company Case Studies. International Journal of Management, Technology, and Social Sciences (IJMTS), 2(2), 40-54.

Erl, T. (2016). SOA Principles of Service Design (paperback). Prentice Hall Press.

Guiso, L., Sapienza, P., & Zingales, L. (2015). The value of corporate culture. Journal of Financial Economics, 117(1), 60-76.

Möller, K., & Halinen, A. (2018). IMP thinking and IMM: Co-creating value for business marketing. Industrial Marketing Management, 69, 18-31.

Schildt, H. (2017). Big data and organizational design–the brave new world of algorithmic management and computer augmented transparency. Innovation, 19(1), 23-30.

Scholes, M. S. (2015). Taxes and business strategy. Prentice Hall.