When an enterprise embarks upon an organizational redesign, everyone involved often has high hopes for spectacular results, an energized workforce, and improved profitability. Sadly, that's not always how a redesign plays out. It has been our experience at Sales Focus that all too often, major organization redesigns create little -- if any -- value. In many cases, they actually subtract value, frustrate managers, and lower employee morale.

How can you avoid frustration in your own reorganization? How can you plan for growth and successfully achieve it? Proper planning is the key to success. Sales Focus Inc. offers the following tips:

Clarify business goals in advance Set forth a clear and understandable vision. Imagine that it's a year from now and you have been successful. Ask yourself, "What has happened? How does the organization look? What is our value statement to our customers?" Too often an enterprise is halfway through a difficult reorganization before everyone involved starts asking, "What are we really trying to achieve here?" Ask all the questions repeatedly before starting the process.
Pinpoint underlying obstacles
	Look for cultural or performance issues that may be lurking. They must be dealt with early or changes in structural organization may be useless. Too many enterprises find themselves at a point where they are creating jobs for people, not a business!
Go organic
	Often the most successful redesigns are those that evolve slowly over time with an organic rather than mechanical feel. To make this work, management must adopt a test-and-learn approach to change. Pilot programs are designed and launched and used as roadmaps to broader organizational changes.
Go with the trends
	Redesigns should not be conducted in a vacuum. Instead, enterprise changes should reflect shifts in the broader global business economy. Ask the "what if" questions your competition avoids. What if the overall economy continues to develop in quickly changing cycles of optimism and constraint? What if the war continues for a longer time or expands? What if there's another event similar to 9/11?
Think globally
	Be sure your new design takes into account the need for speedy global information exchange, flexible command structure, and modernized rewards for performance. If your new design does not speak to these greater global forces, you may find yourself going back to the drawing board in a few years.
Look at your front line: your sales team
	All of your plans, strategies, and genius attacks will stay in the vacuum of your enterprise unless you have a sales team that can make it happen. A good salesperson is not just someone who can sell. A good salesperson for an enterprise is one who can sell within your culture, sell within your structure and process, and sell within your delivery system -- one who understands where you want to go and who is willing and able to get you there.
Take measurements along the way
	Reevaluate your strategy from time to time to make sure the path you have chosen will lead you to the results you envisioned!