Question: Speeding Up Website Design You have been called in as consultants by the top functional managers of a website design, production, and hosting company whose new animated website designs are attracting a lot of attention and a lot of customers. Currently, employees are organized into different functions such as hardware, software design, graphic art, and website hosting, as well as functions such as marketing and human resources. Each function takes its turn to work on a new project from initial customer request to final online website hosting. The problem this company is experiencing is that it typically takes one year from the initial idea stage to the time that the website is up and running and the company wants to shorten this time by half to protect and expand its market niche. The managers believe their current functional structure is the source of the problem; it is not allowing employees to develop websites fast enough to satisfy customers' demands. They want you to suggest a better one.

1. Discuss ways in which you can improve the way the current functional structure operates to speed up website development.

2. Discuss the pros and cons of changing to a matrix structure to reduce website development time. Then, discuss the pros and cons of following Sony's approach and using cross-functional teams to coordinate between functions.

3. Which of these structures do you think is most appropriate, and why?