Page 549 - Handbook of Modern Telecommunications

4-80 CRC Handbook of Modern Telecommunications, Second Edition

Local
LOB

LOB

Local
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Global
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FIGu RE 4.5.2 Centralizing CMA governance pattern.
4.5.2.1.2 Centralizing Governance Pattern
Analysts expect the hard management governance pattern described above to remain popular among
enterprise executives, financial analysts, business consultants, and investors in formal communications
concerning strategic directions and vision statements through 2008/2009. Nevertheless, and despite the
most earnest and determined management intentions, analysts believe it will rarely be completely achieved
in a short period of time (less than three years) following CMA operations. Indeed, certain cultural, oper-
ational, and technical differences will linger across global geographies and LOBs for longer periods of time
(i.e., more than four to five years), or even permanently in post-CMA Fortune 2000 organizations.
The rapid execution of hard management patterns in CMA operations will often be hindered by the
culture and structure of the individual historical entities, particularly in “defensive” mergers involv-
ing companies of comparable size but with significantly different operations and processes. In certain
cases, geographical distinctiveness (e.g., national and regional laws, labor regulations, local supply/dis-
tribution networks) will present lingering impediments for a comprehensive consolidation of business
processes and operations as prescribed in the hard management pattern. Furthermore, CMA operations
will seldom be one-off occurrences. Indeed, such maneuvers are likely to take place several times in the
life of Fortune 2000 Organization, requiring constant revisiting of otherwise successful implementa-
tions of hard management governance patterns.
Therefore, enterprises with an otherwise strong affinity for the hard management governance
approach will find it difficult (or even impossible) to achieve it completely within the expected CMA
execution time, forcing enterprise executives to compromise with enduring local and LOB autonomic
processes. The management desire for process consistency and economies of scale and time will be lim-
ited by local specificities. Still, enterprise business executives retain a strong belief in the definitive ben-
efits of the hard management approach and will therefore tolerate local/LOB process specificities only
as temporary compromises, which will tend to diminish as CMA operations follow their due course and
organizations mature accordingly. Thus, the centralizing governance pattern (see Figure 4.5.2) tends
toward hard centralization of enterprise processes and operations, but with consent to certain levels of
autonomy as a “necessary evil” and as a tactical approach with a limited planned life span (i.e., less than
four to five years).