The Spaghetti that became Revolutionary
When Lars Kolind, CEO at Oticon, returned from his Christmas vacation in January 1990, he may have looked a little more enthusiastic and self assured than usual.
Lars Kolind had spent his vacation trying to conceptualize an idea he had gotten during his first year at Oticon; he wanted to create a company that was open, transparent and mobile. Kolind believed this was the only way for Oticon to regain its positioning back from the seventies as the world's leading hearing aid manufacturing company. Because Lars Kolind's way of creating such a company would involve drastic changes, he had coined his idea: "Think the Unthinkable."
What made Kolind think of spaghetti?
The overriding idea of Kolind's "Unthinkable Thoughts" was to promote the co-operation between the different departments at Oticon.
In the seventies, Oticon was the world's largest hearing aid manufacturing company. The company's success had turned Oticon into a proud and tradition bound company, dominated by an engineer's culture. The company had used its audiological knowledge to develop ever more advanced products without considering whether clients were actually interested in the improvements. At the end of the eighties technology changes had made it imperative to integrate the individual customer's demands into the hearing aids, and service had become at least as important as production itself. Oticon had fallen behind, and the company's internal communication problems had made coordination difficult and new product launchings rare. As a result, Oticon had overlooked the importance of the new, modern
In The Ear hearing aids that had become very popular among customers.
Questions for Consideration
1. Which changes would you make in running OrgCon for 1990?
2. What were the major changes?
3. What is the relationship between the physical structure and organizational structure?
4. Would you like to work for Oticon? Why/why not?
5. What is the relationship between the organizational/management changes and product innovation?
References
Morsing, M. 1995. Omstigning til Paradis?, Copenhagen: Handelshøjskolens Forlag.
Poulsen, P.T. 1993. Tænk det Utænkelige - Revolutionen i Oticon. J.H. Schultz A/S
Attachment:- The-Spaghetti-that-became.rar