Consulting firm’s flat organizational structure increases productivity
We are ‘at least two times more profitable than most consulting firms’
Monday June 22, 2009 -- Camille Jensen
By creating a flat organization that discourages hierarchy, consulting firm Touchstone has been able to create a culture of entrepreneurship and innovation, enhancing productivity.

Tony Summerlin, vice-president and director of consulting at Touchstone, says the company has been operating without a hierarchical structure for eight years and the committed choice was to engage staff members while transforming the role of management.

“It was driven by my dislike of management in general and also by the kind of people that we wanted in the organization — which were people that were innovative and self motivated and needed very little structure or direction,” explains Summerlin.

“I needed people to think for themselves — I mean one thing begets the next — if you have management than you won’t have as much innovation and if you don’t have management, you better have people that know how to innovate on their own.”

Choosing the latter, the Washington D.C.-based firm that has 180 staff members, operates using a more fluid model they designed themselves, called a bubble structure.

The company’s key industries are divided into bubbles, such as technology, national security and global health that each have an engagement manager, whose role is to support staff members, and project team leads for each assignment.

Trust and responsibility is tasked to consultants who are free to choose the projects they want to work on, as well as initiate new work or direction for the company.

Staff members can work in different bubbles and invite others to join them on new projects. Summerlin says this can result in projects being lead by a new consultant who has a good idea and is able to enlist senior consultants to join the team.

Among the benefits, principal consultant Theresa Nishimotino says the model encourages greater autonomy for staff members.

“You don’t feel micro-managed, it encourages initiative and that entrepreneurial spirit,” she says.

By allowing staff members the freedom to focus on the work they want to pursue, people are more productive, adds Summerlin.

“It’s a self-riding ship, we don’t have to drive anybody, they drive themselves,” says Summerlin. “(We are) at least two times more profitable than most consulting firms.”

Touchstone was named one of the Most Democratic Workplaces by WorldBlu, a company specializing in workplace democracy.

To learn more about the company, click here.

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