Organization Life Cycle

Stage I: Leader: The head of the organization makes all the decisions, which
are then implemented by the employees. These decisions are normally taken
in isolation and follow a top-down approach. There is likely to be no visibility
into the ideas by the rest of the organization. This stage is best suited for
small organizations and start-ups, where quick decisions are required.

Stage II: Management Team: Decisions here are made by the management
team, which represents a small percentage of the entire organization. The
team discusses the strategic issues, making decisions by consensus that are
then implemented top-down. There is a limited visibility of ideas, which is
localized within immediate sub-units. This means that each member of the
management team would have visibility of the ideas of his immediate
subordinates. This stage is best suited for organizations in their early growth
phase, where the business is relatively small.
Stage III: Consultants: The management team takes the final decisions, but
it invites inputs from consultants. Such consultants, who are experts in the
field, could be either internal or external. The ideas suggested would require
some level of validation to ascertain their relevance to the goals of the
organization. This stage is best suited for organizations in their growth phase,
where the company would require a new perspective to achieve a paradigm
shift.

Stage IV: Employees: Here, inputs required for decision making are invited
from the entire employee base of the organization. Further, the ideas are
filtered, validated and then the final decision is taken by the management
team. Thus, the management would have full visibility about the ideas that
exist within the company, and by a formal process can capture and nurture
them. This stage is best suited for large organizations heading towards their
maturity phase and there is a compelling need for a paradigm shift.

Stage V: Stakeholders: In this stage, inputs are invited not only from the
employee base, but also from other strategic stakeholders. All of them can
contribute to the growth and direction of the organization. In addition to
filtering and validating the ideas, the organization also needs to align or alter
the suggestions to fit to its vision. This stage is suited for fully mature global
organizations with stable processes, which have the capacity to channel ideas
from such a large population.

As a company progresses from one stage to another, the reach of the idea-
management system increases. More people are involved in the decision-
making process. As the number of ideas to scan and filter increases, the need
for a proper process in place also increases. Thus, the robustness of the
process needs to increase from one stage to another.