Have Organizational Units Outlived their Function?

Three ideas collided this week.

1. I spoke with an executive at a global FMCG company who shared that their CEO is working on reshaping the enterprise from a functional to a value-stream, or end-to-end process, structure. A bold but thought-provoking move.
2. I revisited the SSON Research & Analytics survey to which 87% of GBS and Shared Services leaders asserted that “End-to-End Process Integration is Top Priority”.
3. I read an interesting report from Deloitte predicting the demise of the corporate function as an organization unit.

It is well accepted that connecting and streamlining “work” across departments, suppliers, and customers helps eliminate functional silos and drives higher operational performance.

This idea of “Breaking down Silos” is “End-to-End Process Integration” designed to improve end-to-end efficiency, effectiveness, speed and customer experience by connecting and unifying teams, work, data, systems and performance measures.

This does not require the physical destruction of the organizational silos, just a broader “Outside In” mindset.  

There are perennial worries about the challenges in achieving End-to-End Process Integration, not least the “Control vs. Influence” question. Guiding cross-functional coalitions where there is no universal direct authority is challenging. But it is the real world. And no-one, with the possible exception of the CEO, actually “OWNS” an entire value stream or end-to-end process.

But Victor Reyes, Yves Van Durme and David Mallon of Deloitte ask whether “the time has come to question the usefulness of traditional organizational pillars”.

Driving growth, profitability and healthy working capital in the enterprise is challenging. 

“Functional capacity is limited. Functional capability is mismatched, and end-to-end data and processes are lacking. Ultimately, the functions aren’t set up to orchestrate across the business at speed. Meanwhile, functional headcounts and leadership layers have expanded, adding cost without enabling business growth.”

The CEO has a nagging thought: “Is there a better way?”

In Deloitte’s 2026 Global Human Capital Trends survey, 66% of C-suite leaders agree that it is very or extremely important for their organizations to push beyond the boundaries of traditional organizational functions, 58% have efforts underway but only 7% are making great progress in achieving this goal.

The report makes some interesting recommendations;

• Decouple domain expertise from organizational structure
• Integrate data and tech across functional boundaries
• Enhance cross-functional accountability and collaboration (with the right metrics!)
• Enable new cross-functional, end-to-end process (value stream) capabilities and insights in the business

Rather than clinging to rigid silos, enterprises have an opportunity to deconstruct traditional corporate functions and reassemble their capabilities around human and business outcomes.

This has been mooted for years, but global leaders are making genuine moves now as my discussion with the FMCG executive confirmed.

You can read “Have organizational functions outlived their function?” by Deloitte here . . .

Thanks for reading . . .