The focus of this week’s learning team assignment was on organizational structure and design. To make the company more efficient and beneficial, Team C will examine Walgreens’ organizational chart and restructure it. The students have decided that the current CEO is overwhelmed with too many departments reporting to him.
Therefore, some departments will be consolidated and moved to more specialized officers under the CEO for a more productive company. The officers to receiver these additional departments will be Chief Financial Officer (CFO), Chief Strategy Officer (CSO) and Chief Informational Officer (CIO).
The CFO will be in charge of the departments of human resources, accounting, and finance. The CSO will control the marketing, sales, and research and development departments. The CIO will oversee the information technology and operations departments.
These changes in organizational structure are designed to help the company focus on its strengths, become more efficient and improve communication between departments.
The goal of this project is to make the necessary changes in the organizational structure of Walgreens so that it may become a more profitable company.
The current structure has the Administration and Human Resources department reporting directly to the CEO, however we are proposing a change where Human Resources would be combined with administration under one department that reports to the CFO.
The advantage of this change is that it will put Human Resources closer to the financial decision making for the company. Additionally, the CFO is already responsible for the Legal department, which has many similarities to Human Resources.
The Human Capital Management (Human Resources) department directly affects an organization’s profitability through its workforce, benefits costs, training and development, and employee engagement. The Administration department manages Walgreens overall direction.
Since the management of the workforce is a key factor in an organization’s financial success, it makes sense to reorganize and combine these departments under the CFO. To accomplish this, we will use cross-functional teams to address each department’s work specializations, strengths and weaknesses. This will be more efficient and cost effective overall.
The goal of this reorganization is to reduce costs, while improving communication and collaboration between these departments. This will be done by breaking down the silos that currently exist. The cross-functional teams will be charged with finding ways to improve processes and procedures within their areas. This will require team members to think outside the box and challenge the status quo.
The human resources function will be a key player in this reorganization. They will need to work closely with the cross-functional teams to ensure that the workforce is aligned with the new organizational structure. They will also need to develop new policies and procedures to support the new structure. Finally, they will need to communicate the changes to the employees.
The administration department will be responsible for ensuring that the overall direction of Walgreens is aligned with the new organizational structure. They will need to develop new strategies and plans to support the new structure. They will also need to communicate the changes to the shareholders.
The finance department will be responsible for managing the budget for the new organizational structure. They will need to develop new financial models to support the new structure. They will also need to communicate the changes to the investors.
The marketing department will be responsible for communicating the changes to the customers. They will need to develop new campaigns to support the new organizational structure.
The Chief Strategy Officer (CSO) will continue to report directly to the CEO. In an effort to increase workplace efficiency, we have decided to reorganize the following departments and make them branches under Strategy: Customer Experience, Daily Living and Community Management. As Walgreens embraces today’s consumer, creating a unique customer experience is part of the strategy being used to build their trusted brand and set them apart from competitors.
The title of Chief Customer Experience Officer (CCEO) will be created and reporting to the CSO. Under the CCEO, there will be 3 Vice Presidents:
– One who focuses on the in-store experience
– One who focuses on the online/digital experience
– And one who manages our Walgreens app & loyalty programs
To align with our goal to be America’s first choice for health and daily living needs, we are also creating a new position – Chief Health Officer (CHO). This role will report directly to the CEO. The CHO will lead a team of experts across various functions including pharmacy, clinical, wellness, and beauty.
The following functions will now report to the CHO:
– Pharmacy
– Health
– Wellness
– Beauty
Benefits of moving these departments include increased collaboration between department leaders on customer-focused strategies and plans. In addition to reporting to the CSO, the Community Management department will also receive new responsibilities, including overseeing Facilities Development and Store Operations. To create a more efficient department, they will now oversee two additional departments; Well Experience and Operations Community.
Walgreens has created a new position, Chief Customer Officer (CCO). This executive will focus on the customer experience and be responsible for four departments; Store Experience, Marketing, Digital, and Community Management. Prior to this change three of these departments reported to the Chief Operating Officer (COO). The COO will now only oversee two departments, Facilities Development and Store Operations.
By realigning some of the responsibilities under different leaders, Walgreens feels they can better meet the needs of their customers. The goal is to have all decisions made with the customer in mind. Creating a CCO position shows that Walgreens is committed to create a more customer-centric culture within their organization.
Walgreens emphasizes on “The Well Experience” in order to provide store designs which lead the industry, an expansive product assortment and innovative pharmacies. This allows for interactions with patients that were not possible before (Walgreens 2014).
The eCommerce and Design departments will now come under the direct supervision of the Chief Information Officer (CIO). By doing so, we hope to reduce the number of CEO’s direct reports. In addition, this change will Walgreens into a technology-driven company with cohesive creativity across platforms. The CIO already oversees enterprise technology that supports Walgreen operations, including security software—making them uniquely suited to oversee these additional departments.
