Matrix organization...

I am back. Yes, after a short turmoil in life i am back to the chit chats of some abstract and interesting stuff. Last few days I have been reading a book called Khyber pass which talks briefly about Alexander and aftermath. I will not bore you with the mundane songs about Alexander's kingdom winning spree, but what I want to talk about is something I discovered something really interesting through this book.

Last few years I have been working with American companies and the one thing that remained elusive to me was the Matrix structure. For those who don't know this structure, salesmen reports to other salesmen, finance guys report to other finance guys, techies report to other techies and eventually, nobody ends up reporting to the business leader in a business unit. In fact, this also implies that some times the hierarchies of people working in the same team intersect at the Global CEO who runs this multi-billion dollar company operating in something like 30 countries (and who is hardly interested in this team). In this structure, lack of consensus comes easily and this provides opportunities to take politics and power play to another level altogether. 

Lack of consensus is after all not so common, tell me when was the last time there was a consensus in your family about your holiday plan. Kids want to go Disneyland, husband wants to go diving and wife wants to go shopping. Now just imagine, if children of house listened to only some other children, wife reported to your mother-in-law, and you reported to your father. I have no doubt that the family have a high chance of becoming mad house over course of time. It so happens that not everyone can be aligned to the same conclusion, specially when the incentives are not aligned properly.  

Well, yesterday I came to know who invented this. Alexander, who was an Achaemenian, won a lot of random countries from this end (Aegan sea) to the other (Indus river) and that too quickly, but there was a problem. He handed over the kingdoms to one strong guy in that kingdom, who would report to him, and moved on to another. He never tried to convert the people or culture to Achaemenian. This autonomy looked good and liberal for discussions in 20th century,  but it resulted in collapse of empire when Alexander died. 

Seven years later came Darius, he fought everything back into the Achaemenian reign and this time, he took good care that the King from far far away rules. First he converted the culture of the kingdoms he won. Second, he invented matrix structure. This means he separated soldiers from day to day execution done by the local king. These soldiers reported to a general, who will directly report to far far away king and not the local king. similarly, for other functions as well. This helped far far away king in curbing the powers of the local kings. Hmmm...so that is what it was meant to be. 

Well I wonder if far far away kings are still meeting their objectives this way, but it certainly does provide an experience to the people stuck in the middle of these local kingdoms.  Not that I am a supporter of command and control system, but i do think that sometimes people with different perspectives have to just agree to disagree. And in that situation, it is better if you have a empowered local leader who can help decide quickly. But well, power play is enjoyable and how about getting both, enjoyment and salary.