Organizational restructuring and leadership challenges at Versutia

¶ … trigger for the problem is that the company's positions are down, but the key problem is that Versutia needs to absorb its growth. There are issues with morale and training that are affecting performance, and if these problems become more serious the company could be a risk.

One of the problems lies with work specialization In a growing company, new roles emerge and new people are constantly arriving. Versutia has to this point utilized an ad hoc approach to role determination, which has led to many feeling overworked, and certain tasks being overlooked. Brinkman might have had a good sense of the different roles when the company was founded, but she should revisit the organizational structure and ensure that everybody has clearly-defined roles, and that all the roles the company needs fulfilled are being filled

To this point, everything is centralized. This is a problem for Brinkman, because she is also overworked and is not always able to dedicate time to her employees. This lack of availability has become a problem, in more than one way. First, when a boss is unapproachable, employees are less likely to communicate problems Second, this is a young and somewhat inexperienced team. This team, therefore, needs strong, hands-on leadership. If Brinkman wants to handle the higher-level work, she needs a manager underneath of her to help work with the employees and give them the guidance that they need to be their best. Too much power is centralized under Brinkman, which perhaps suits her personality. If she is going to build a business, however, she needs to delegate some responsibility to others that she trusts.

Brinkman also lacks a clear chain of command. When she founded the company, she wanted a flat organizational structure. For a startup, that is fine. As the company grows, however, it needs to have a little more structure. Brinkman is the head of the company, but she cannot be in charge of everything. She should not be directly in charge of doing any analytical work, for example. This needs to be delegated. Brinkman's chain of command at this point starts and ends with her, so she needs to develop the leadership capabilities of others on the team and begin to trust in them more. The centralization needs to be scaled back and the workers need to feel more empowered. Right now, people are nervous about taking risks because if a position goes south Brinkman is all over them, and not forgiving of errors. Perfectionism has its place at a hedge fund, but fear of failure is a poor motivator and leads to worse investment decisions.

Formalization is an issue as well at Versutia. The company has only loose job descriptions. An improvement would be to define all the roles within the company, and make a determination of what the company's capabilities are. Then, Versutia can begin to formalize roles a bit more. This will help when brining in new employees -- instead of being flung into chaos they will be brought into a specific role.