Four Organizational Ways of Life

Archetypes are ways of describing the world, not limiting it.  The four organizational archetypes presented here are not clear-cut categories into which all businesses neatly fit at all times.  While many organizations are classic pioneers, or hunters, or rulers, others are better described as hybrids of two different archetypes.  Still others closely fit one archetype in many ways, yet have a handful of elements of one or more of the others.  The point here is not to put companies into pre-fabricated boxes and then provide black and white "solutions" for any organization that's been dumped into that box.  In fact, my purpose is quite the opposite: to provide you with a useful framework for examining your own organization and its market environment, so that you can devise your own unique answers based on the skills and information you'll acquire from this book.

Furthermore, I need to stress that it is quite possible-with long-term effort, strong leadership, and careful strategic planning-for virtually any organization to transform itself from one archetypal structure to another.  Indeed, most of Perfect Biz Match is designed to help you instigate and lead such changes in your own company.

The four organizational archetypes - rulers, warriors, hunters, and pioneers - can be compared and differentiated in a wide variety of ways.  Initially, however, they can be identified by 1) how open they are, and how collectively they operate, and 2) how oriented they are to external forces and demands.  The following breakdown looks at both of these scales together:

Perhaps the two most central questions to ask of any organization are these:

- How does it use its energy to accomplish important tasks?
- How does it create synergy from the efforts of everyone in the system?

Another way of looking at the graph above is to see how each archetype addresses these crucial concerns.

Any organization gets its energy from both internal ideas and strategies and from its outside environment, in the form of opportunities or competition.  With rulers and pioneers, most of the energy, ideas, and direction need to come from within the company.  Warriors and hunters, however, perform at their best when they are responding to outside opportunities and competition.

Synergy (or the lack of it) is normally a reflection of the flow of information and the sharing of tasks and duties. In difficult and unpredictable markets-jungles and frontiers-continuous information about the market's behavior is essential to survival.  Hunters and pioneers must therefore be very open and receptive to information about their markets.

However, information can be a burden if it is not needed.  (This is why we ignore the 30-page instruction manuals that come with new toasters.)  Rulers and warriors compete in generally stable, predictable markets (kingdoms and battlegrounds, respectively), and thus already have most or all of the information they need about those markets.  In these organizations, the information flow is (and should be) a helpful trickle rather than an urgently-needed torrent.

The other synergy issue is how collectively the members of an organization work and how interdependent they are.  Collective action can be a critical need in the difficult and unpredictable environments faced by pioneers and hunters.  In stable markets, however-those served by rulers and warriors--interdependence and collectivity not only aren't as necessary, but can actually be a detriment. 

Let's drill down another level and look more deeply and specifically at the characteristics of each of the four organizational archetypes.

Rulers
In order to respond to a kingdom market environment, rulers need to concentrate on fulfilling whatever demands are driving the market.  Minimal external customer data are needed, except those that determine delivery goals.  Little information about competitors is required, except when there are serious attempts to encroach on the market. 

In short, a ruler can function well almost entirely on internal ideas.  The big issue is usually figuring out ways to cope with demand.  Since the demand is so great, quality usually gets improved slowly, whenever sufficient time and resources are available.  Many problems are simply solved financially-e.g., by hiring the most talented people, buying up competitors, etc. 

These companies should be organized according to function, in order to fulfill demand as efficiently and cost-effectively as possible.  At all levels above line management, people should be expected to act more or less independently, though teams might be used for some specific activities, such as new product development.  There normally is little sharing of costs or responsibilities and little cross-company development, since these are unnecessary (and, typically, difficult and costly).  What interdependence there may be is initiated and supported by management decree.  However, in such organizations it is difficult and expensive to achieve much interdependence across functional lines.

Ruler organizations are relatively simple to manage, and much of what they deal with is either certain or predictable-which is why most managers prefer working in them. 

Warriors
In order to respond effectively in a battleground market environment, warriors need to concentrate on 1) increasing demand for their products or services, and 2) expanding and improving their distribution.  Since margins tend to continually erode, warriors need to be ever-vigilant for new ways to find market openings and make new inroads.  In part this means being open to ideas from outside the organization about how to expand the market.  This often means borrowing ideas and strategies from competitors.

People in a warrior organization normally can and should operate independently.  There is a very significant exception, however: sales projects are usually huge, demanding great coordination over vast geographical distances.  These can succeed only through very strong management, which draws people together to carry out a common strategy.  Such concerted action requires a great deal of planning and organization.

Hunters
In order to respond to a jungle market environment, hunters need to be successful at contradictory, and seemingly impossible, tasks-meeting customer expectations superbly while managing constantly shrinking margins.  Alertness to moves by competitors, and the ability to counter them, are absolutely crucial.

Hunters normally need an organizational structure that focuses the attention of everyone in the company on the market.  This structure must also be able to make internal adaptations very quickly.  In practice, this usually requires a highly interdependent culture, and the same kind of sharing of information and effort that is seen in start-up organizations.  There needs to be a simultaneous emphasis on keeping quality up and internal costs down.

These organizations must have mechanisms in place to monitor market movements carefully, accurately, and in a timely fashion.  This information then must be made quickly and widely available throughout the organization.

Pioneers
Pioneer organizations must concentrate on developing new products and finding ways of getting them accepted into the market in a significant way.  This is a highly unpredictable and complex task, especially when it involves displacing a competitor's product.  The process needs to be driven by some internal function, normally research and development, and the entire system and culture need to be structured around that function.

People who work for pioneer organizations need to be highly interdependent, although this interdependence does not always need to be built into the organizational structure (e.g., it might be primarily a function of day-to-day operations).  Pioneers need to be very open to product and market information, regardless of where it comes from.

The culture of a pioneer organization should be comprised of interdependent groups that operate easily together and are able to rearrange themselves as the market changes.  This should occur at all levels of the organization.  Any walls between functions or groups should be seen as unnecessary barriers that keep information from circulating and being acted upon.  
 
Because there is little chance for management to plan in a frontier environment, contingencies are the rule for pioneers.  Everyone needs to be trusted to interpret the situation for the good of the whole.  This means that trustworthy people need to be hired, and that trust needs to be continually nurtured and rewarded.

Interestingly, it is not usually necessary to create a formal organization structure specifically for nurturing concerted, common effort.  This seems to arise naturally when the focus is on new ideas and innovative products or services.

Here's what all four of these archetypes look like together: