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CASE APPLICATION #3 A New Kind of Structure Topic: Virtual assistants A dmit it. Sometimes the projects you're working on for global engineering. He enjoys his job assessing environ (school, work, or both) can get pretty boring and mo mental real estate risks, managing facilities, and controlling a notonous. Wouldn't it be great to have a magic button multimillion-dollar budget. But he didn't so much enjoy having you could push to get someone else to do that boring, time to go through spreadsheets and put together PowerPoints. Now, consuming stuff? At Pfizer, that "magic button" is a reality for however, with Pfizer's "magic button," those tasks are passed a large number of employees. off to individuals outside the organization. As a global pharmaceutical company, Pfizer is continually Just what is this "magic button"? Originally called the looking for ways to help employees be more efficient and effec Office of the Future (OOF), the renamed PfizerWorks al- tive. The company's senior director of organizational effective lows employees to shift tedious and time-consuming tasks ness found that the "Harvard with the click of a single but- MBA staff we hired to develop Wouldn't you like a MAGIC ton on their computer desktop, instead Googling and making BUTTON you could on an online form, which is PowerPoints." Indeed, internal push to get someone else then sent to one of two Indian studies conducted to find out service-outsourcing firms. just how much time its valu to do all your tedious and When a request is received, able talent was spending on boring work?74 a team member in India calls menial tasks was startling. The the Pfizer employee to clarify average Pfizer employee was what's needed and by when. spending 20 percent to 40 percent of his or her time on sup The team member then e-mails back a cost specification for the port work (creating documents, typing notes, doing research, requested work. If the Pfizer employee decides to proceed, the manipulating data, scheduling meetings) and only 60 percent costs involved are charged to the employee's department. About to 80 percent on knowledge work (strategy, innovation, net- this unique arrangement, Cain said that he relishes working with working, collaborating, critical thinking). And the problem what he prefers to call his "personal consulting organization." wasn't just at lower levels. Even the highest-level employees The number 66,500 illustrates just how beneficial were affected. Take, for instance, Chaz, an executive director PfizerWorks has been for the company. That's the number CHAPTER 8 - Organizational Structure and Design 261 of work hours estimated to have been saved by employees Discussion Questions who've used PfizerWorks. Other outcomes include: a reduc- tion in project-related costs, employee productivity increased, 8-23 Describe and evaluate what Pfizer is doing with its PfizerWorks. turnaround time for projects reduced, and wide acceptance 8-24 What structural implicationsgood and baddoes this ap- by Pfizer employees. What about Chaz's experiences? When proach have? (Think in terms of the six organizational design he gave the virtual assistant company team a complex project 8-25 Do you think this arrangement would work for other types of elements.) researching strategic actions that worked when consolidating organizations? Why or why not? What types of organizations company facilities, the team put the report together in a month, might it also work for? something that would have taken him six months to do alone. He says, "Pfizer pays me not to work tactically, but to work 8-26 What role do you think organizational structure plays in an organization's efficiency and effectiveness? Working together strategically." with your assigned group, discuss this