• How does Signodes structure compare to the general types of structures presented in Table 9-1 on page 252?

The Signode V-Team Structure Venture teams offer corporations the opportunity to capitalize on individual ta- lents together with collective wisdom and energy. A classic example from some years back was Signode, a $750-million-a-year manufacturer of plastic and steel strapping for packaging and materials handling, located in Glenview, Illinois. The company's leaders wanted to chart new directions to become a $1 billion-plus company. In pursuit of this goal, Signode devised an aggressive strategy for growth by developing new "legs" for the company. It formed a cor- porate development group to pursue markets outside the company's core busi- ness but within the framework of its corporate strengths. It also formed venture teams, but before launching the first of these, top management identified the company's global business strengths and broad areas with potential for new product lines: warehousing/shipping, packaging: plastics for non-packaging, fastening, and joining systems; and product identification and control systems. Each new business opportunity suggested by a venture team was to have the potential to generate $50 million in business within five years. In addition, each opportunity had to build on one of Signode's strengths: industrial customer base and marketing expertise, systems sales and service capabilities, containment and reinforcement technology, steel and plastic process technology, machine and design capabilities, and production and distribution know-how. The assessment criteria were based on selling to business-to-business markets. The basic technol- ogy to be employed in the new business had to already exist, and there had to be a strong likelihood of attaining a major market share within a niche. Finally, the initial investment in the new opportunity had to be $30 million or less. Based on these criteria, Signode began to build its V-Team (venture team) approach to entrepreneurship. It took three months to select the first team members, and initial teams had three common traits: high risk-taking ability, creativity, and the ability to deal with ambiguity. All participants were multidis- ciplinary volunteers who would work full-time on developing new consumer product packaging businesses. The team members came from diverse back- grounds: design engineering, marketing, sales, and product development. They set up shop in rented office space five miles from the company's headquarters. Not all six teams were able to develop highly successful new ventures. However, the efforts did pay off for Signode as one venture team developed a business plan to manufacture plastic trays for frozen entrees that could be used in either regular or microwave ovens, which did indeed turn out to be a $50-million-a-year business within five years. The V-Team experience rekindled enthusiasm and affected moral throughout the organization. Most importantly, the V-Team approach became Signode's strategy to invent its own future rather than waiting for things to happen. Table 9-1 on page 252 FIGURE 9-1 The Network Structure at Ove Arup POLICY BOARD Functional and strategy OPERATIONS BOARD CIVIL ENGINEERING AND INDUSTRIAL ENGINEERING BUILDING ENGINEERING PLANNING BOARD BOARD BOARD EAST ASIA BOARD HR skills Market Skill networks Project teams