This tutorial guides you through performing a forensic analysis of organizational structure using public data, org charts, and C-suite titles to understand where power resides, how coordination happens, and where you can add strategic value as a leader.
This tutorial supports one milestone of your Personal Leadership Report, which is built from six milestones:
This analysis feeds your final Personal Leadership Report.
You will examine your chosen organization’s formal structure to identify:
Leaders often fail not because they don’t execute — but because they misunderstand the structure they’re embedded in.
Key Question: How does the design of this firm potentially constrain or enable YOUR leadership style and career success?
By the end of this analysis, you will be able to:
| Step | Activity | Output | Data Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Firm Selection | Choose target organization | Company name + rationale | Your career goals |
| 2. Structure Mapping | Document formal hierarchy | Org chart sketch | Leadership Connect |
| 3. C-Suite Analysis | List executive titles & roles | Leadership table | Company reports, IR page |
| 4. Silo Identification | Map boundaries & divisions | Division structure | Public filings, org charts |
| 5. Power Diagnosis | Infer where decisions happen | Power center analysis | Title analysis, reporting lines |
| 6. Strategic Synthesis | Connect structure to strategy | Interpretation memo | Your analysis |
Leaders often fail not because they don’t execute — but because they misunderstand the structure they’re embedded in. Organizational design is not cosmetic; it encodes power, decision rights, and coordination costs.
This section is a forensic analysis of one organization’s structure — using titles, hierarchies, divisions, reporting lines, and formal artifacts to surface where authority lives, silos emerge, and brokerage is possible.
What does the design of a firm reveal about its logic — and your place within it?
Goal: Use structure to reverse-engineer how a firm operates. Analyze how coordination happens, where power resides, and where you can add value.
Perform a detailed analysis of your chosen company’s formal organizational structure using Leadership Connect, company reports, or other verified sources such as the firm’s investor relations page. Your task is to uncover and interpret the firm’s hierarchy: Who holds executive titles? How are departments or units arranged? Is the company organized functionally, divisionally, geographically, or via a matrix?
The objective is not simply to describe the structure, but to analyze what it reveals about how the company operates. For instance, a traditional hierarchy with many layers may indicate formality, stability, and control—but it might also suggest rigidity or slower decision-making. Conversely, a flat or team-based structure may support agility and innovation but pose risks for coordination and clarity.
As part of your analysis, consider which roles are elevated to C-suite status (e.g., presence of a Chief Diversity Officer or Chief AI Officer) and what that says about strategic priorities. Pay attention to what types of silos may exist, where cross-functional integration is encouraged or limited, and how power and influence might be distributed.
Through this, you can identify potential inefficiencies, strengths, or vulnerabilities. For example, a firm with a highly siloed structure might benefit from brokers who can bridge gaps—a role you might one day play. This section trains you to read between the lines of an org chart to understand how structure shapes behavior, opportunity, and strategic execution.
Choose a firm you know or want to understand. Use public information, org charts, C-suite titles, and personal experience to answer:
Select a firm that you would like to either 1) work for, 2) understand a sector, or 3) learn from as a competitor
Criteria: - Sufficient public information available (public company preferred) - Ideally the same firm you use for your Culture Analysis - Personal or professional relevance to your career goals
Primary Data Source: Leadership Connect — from the CMU Libraries databases list, search for “Leadership Connect,” click through, and authenticate with your Andrew ID. (If you have login issues, email Ryan Splenda: rsplenda@andrew.cmu.edu.)
What to Do: 1. In the main search bar, set the search type to Organization, enter your company name, run it, and click your company in the results. 2. On the Organization profile, review the leadership listed in hierarchical order (scroll down as needed). Titles signal how the firm splits into units and any strategic initiatives. 3. Document: - Executive leadership titles (full C-suite) - Reporting relationships (who reports to whom) - Division/business unit structure - Geographic organization (if applicable)
If you cannot find your firm on Leadership Connect, you may complete this analysis with primary sources (internal documents, the firm website, or the SEC 10-K).
Once you find your firm, review the structure and answer:
Treat this as a forensic analysis of how the organization is designed to operate and where decision-making power resides.
Pay Attention To: - Any emerging or nontraditional roles (like Chief AI Officer or Chief Sustainability Officer)—these reflect evolving strategic priorities - Where internal coordination may break down - Where you, as a future leader, could play a broker role to bridge gaps and create value
This Exercise Is About: - Understanding where influence and decision-making reside - Identifying potential structural bottlenecks - Recognizing information brokers or siloed departments - Gaining insight into how the firm executes strategy - Finding where someone in your position could add value or build cross-functional ties
You’ll decode whether the structure aligns with the stated strategy — or works against it.
From structure, you can infer:
| Structure Type | What It Signals | Common Risks | Your Leadership Opportunity |
|---|---|---|---|
| Functional Hierarchy | Efficiency, specialization, clear authority | Silos by function, slow cross-functional work | Bridge functional silos if you have high Betweenness |
| Divisional (M-form) | Product/market focus, autonomy, duplication of functions | Coordination across divisions, inconsistent practices | Broker across divisions, translate best practices |
| Matrix | Dual reporting, integration needs, complexity | Role ambiguity, political navigation, slow decisions | Navigate ambiguity, build coalitions |
| Flat/Team-based | Agility, collaboration, innovation focus | Coordination challenges, unclear authority | Create structure, establish processes |
| Hybrid | Legacy of M&A, transition state, strategic ambiguity | Confusion, competing logics, power struggles | Clarify roles, integrate legacy units |
Structure is strategy made visible. Understanding the architectural DNA of a firm lets you:
This section is about learning to read the firm as terrain — like a strategist preparing for a campaign.
Your structure analysis does NOT stand alone—it must connect to:
Question: Does culture reinforce or conflict with structure?
Example: > “Company X’s matrix structure requires extensive collaboration, but the culture punishes ‘consensus-building’ for slowing decisions. This structure-culture misalignment creates a ‘structural hole trap’: the architecture demands bridging, but the culture penalizes it.”
Question: Does my network position fit this structure?
Example: > “My high Betweenness Centrality (0.23) positions me as a natural broker. Company X’s highly siloed functional structure creates coordination gaps that someone with my bridging capabilities could fill—provided the culture rewards cross-functional work (see your culture analysis).”
Question: Does my external network align with this firm’s structure?
Example: > “Company X is organized by geography (EMEA, APAC, Americas divisions). However, my LinkedIn network is heavily U.S.-focused (70%), suggesting I lack the global connections needed to navigate a geo-based structure effectively.”
Use this analysis before:
It reveals where leadership is needed — and where formal roles lack real power.
Definition: How firms organize to manage interdependence and information flow
Application: - Functional structure minimizes coordination within functions, maximizes it across - Matrix structure attempts to coordinate multiple dimensions simultaneously - Your network position valuable ONLY if structure allows you to activate it
Definition: Gaps between divisions, functions, or units where coordination is needed but difficult
Application: - Silos create opportunities for brokerage