Organizational Development: A Manual for Managers and ... - FPDL

External cooperation
A relevant or meaningful environment for an organization does not consist of customers and
competitors only. An organization is rarely able to produce its product or service independently
from other players in the market. It needs suppliers of many kinds, sub-contractors, and other
partners.
When the development of partnerships extends to organizations outside, the organization
becomes broader and much more capable. The emergent features of synergy create great
advantages, and organizational borders became conditional – up to the appearance of a virtual
organization, an entity that actually operates and performs certain tasks but does not exist formally
as a juridical body.
What an organization is able or chooses to do depend on what others can do and how well they do
it. Suppliers may do part of the job of processing materials, and may leave part for the
organization; sub-contractors may perform some functions or processes better and cheaper than
the organization, etc. Generally, partnership networks are much more capable – more flexible and
responsive - than big formal establishments.
In many areas of business, the scale of cooperation conditions the scale of competitiveness. How
an organization is included in external networks determines to a great extent what the organization
will do itself, - which functions, technologies, processes and structures should be employed in or
by it. It is impossible to say how an organization should look without considering its possible
cooperation with others.
Product development
Any organization offers the external world a certain range of products, or a range of products with
certain characteristics. Let’s call it the space of actual products. This space of already developed
and existing products, of course, corresponds with the space of possible products related to the
organization’s capability and capacity. The space of possible products is always wider; it is never
covered by the space of actually existing products. Thus, what an organization is actually doing is
the result of choice, rational or not.
On the other hand, not everything that an organization offers to the external world (to the market or
to the local community) is equally appreciated by this world. Some products (or product features)
are in demand, others not. The space of demanded products should correspond somehow to the
customers’ needs. However, it never covers all existing needs, because some needs may not be
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