The Perspective of Simultaneously Designing Organization, Business, and IT

Introduction

In many companies, a tacit assumption of division of labor exists: “Business belongs to business units, organization to HR, and IT to the information systems department.” While seemingly rational, this division inevitably reaches its limits as a company grows. This article structurally organizes why organization, business, and IT cannot be designed in isolation and why management must design them simultaneously.

Separate Design Assumes a “Static Company”

The idea of designing business, organization, and IT separately functions under the premise of a stable business model, a long-term unchanging organizational structure, and IT playing a merely supportive role. However, in reality, markets change, businesses expand, organizations evolve, and IT is becoming core to business operations. Continuing with separate design in this state leads to situations where it’s unclear where the breakdown is occurring.

Business is Realized Through Organization and IT

A business plan may be complete on a slide deck. But in reality, a business only comes into being based on “who makes which decisions, using what information, and at what speed.” These are all elements dependent on organizational structure, authority design, and IT configuration. In other words, business only succeeds when premised on organization and IT; it cannot be added as an afterthought.

Organizational Design and IT Design Are Solving the Same Question in Different Languages

The questions organizational design seeks to answer are: “Who decides?”, “How much authority is delegated?”, and “Where are the stop points?”. On the other hand, the questions IT design seeks to answer are essentially the same: “What information is shown to whom?”, “How much is automated?”, and “Where are exceptions allowed?”. In other words, organizational design and IT design are merely expressing the same decision-making structure in different languages. Designing these two separately inevitably leads to contradictions.

Without Simultaneous Design, “Coordination Costs” Explode

Companies practicing separate design frequently encounter the following situations:

• The speed required by the business and IT’s response capabilities are misaligned.
• Major system modifications are triggered with every organizational change.
• Operations cannot function without constant human intervention.

This is not coincidental; it results from forcibly aligning elements that should have been decided together from the start. Consequently, coordinators burn out, processes become dependent on specific individuals, and overall optimization is lost.

Simultaneous Design Does Not Mean “Integration”

It is crucial not to misunderstand: simultaneous design does not mean “integrate organization and IT” or “centralize everything.” Simultaneous design means “answering the same questions based on the same premises.”

• Which decisions are centralized?
• Which decisions are delegated to the front lines?
• How is that boundary fixed?

It is vital to decide these points simultaneously in both organizational and IT design.

There is Design Only Management Can Perform

To design organization, business, and IT simultaneously requires crossing departmental boundaries, comparing short-term and medium-to-long-term perspectives, and sometimes making decisions to discard certain elements. This is a role only management can fulfill. The moment it is delegated to the information systems department, HR, or business units, the design will fragment into sub-optimizations.

Conclusion

The perspective of simultaneously designing organization, business, and IT is nothing less than management’s resolve to design the very structure of decision-making itself. IT is not a tool to be added later; it is what solidifies the authority structure of the organization and determines the scaling limits of the business. When standing on this premise, the role of the information systems department, the form of the organization, and the meaning of IT investment all naturally fall into place. A company that abandons simultaneous design becomes an organization perpetually chasing coordination. The responsibility to avoid this always lies with management.