Global Product structure:

Agilent technology is a multinational company with employees based in about 40

countries worldwide and customer markets in more than 120 countries. The
organisation is at a global stage, and owing to the technology and kind of
industry, Agilent technology’s products are to a large extent standardized. The
organization does perform some customization of its products based on
geography’s environment, but bulk of them is standardized.

In this case the managers of the three business units (CMG, CAG and LAS), have
a close control over their products and are able to bring faster respond to any
change that may be required in the product to fit it to the respective
environment. The manufacturing and the sales strategy are also largely
standardized and centrally directed. The product manager performs the liaison
role to enhance horizontal linkages and as well as enable the managers to get
regular feedback on their products. Owing to the large size nature of the
organization it is able to reap the benefit of the economies of scale and scope.

HIGH

FIG: Organisational structure to fit to international advantages

Forces
for
Global
integrati

LOW
Stages of life cycle:

The organization was LOWa large business unit beforeHIGH

it spun off of HP; hence it
didn’t have to go through all the normal
Forces for growth phase that any organization
would have had to go. After 11 National
years of operation, Agilent technology may be
considered at present to be Responsiveness
at a mature stage. Its presence in the collaborative
stage may also be observed through the hybrid structure, control systems and
needs for liaison roles in the form of a product manager and the AEO.

Strategy

Strategy is an action plan taken by the organization to counter the competition

and also with a purpose to reach its goals and missions.

The organization is designed to achieve the following as part of its strategy:

a) The organization is aims at distinguishing its products from the industry. It
has a strong management to achieve efficiency; quality control and tight cost
control. Meetings are held regularly where the middle management is
supposed to inform all the VPs on the status of their project.

b) The advertisement is done on a very small scale, but much of the promotion
is one through one to one sales. Buyers who are mostly scientists are also
invited to the site for a preview of the products.

c) It has a strong product research and development team whose challenge is to

find cutting edge technology. They have stable products and also to a large
extent uses innovation.

d) Price is not a factor and the products are mostly sold at premium.

A look into the Porter’s Competitive Strategy model will tell us that Agilent
technology is a differentiator
COMPETITVE
SCOPE
Low Cost Uniquenes
. COMPETI s
TVE
According Broa
to Miles and Snow strategy Agilent technology will be categorized as
Advantag
an Analyzer,dfor the following reasons.
e
a) Owing to its technology and industry type, Agilent technology has large
numbers of standardized products while simultaneously coming up with
new innovations and cutting edge products.
b) The products prices and technology are so designed to fit a wide spectrum
of customers

Narro
w

Fig: Porter competitive strategy

Under the former structure, the functional departments were treated as support
providers, stove-piped, often not aligned to higher-level strategy, and subject to
frequent cost reductions since they were not recognized as contributing to the
business value. As Agilent was making the change to the new governance
structure in the summer of 2000, this ‘business vs. infrastructure functions’
attitude

Global product Divisional structure with a Corporate office at New York. Page :
132 Global

Corporate reporting. Reason for structure:

BU structure: Product and sales division

Changes in structure

Size of firm:
16000 - Agilent being a big firm. Number of employees, Large, Eco of scale,
global reach. Impact of technology confined to unit level- Operate in all the
scales. Woodword;s classification. page number 402

Impact of growth on structure:

Which stages of growth is the organization/ Age of the firm- stage 5 (mature)
page no. 475 print screen, paint.

Liason role of the product manager.

Agilent in India/ Bangalore:

Markteting, functional units- role of the AEO. Pooled resources of team.
Advantages(book). Sales team across regions. Within the sales team they have
divisions and the distribution.

designation at different regional or product levels. AEO plays a role of liason

Products and services

How are services coordinated among themselves/ interactions. AEO

Sales above marketing why?

Which div was sold off.

Any switch in structure:

Groupings/ reporting relationships

Horizontal linkages: info system/ AEO

Why telecom under sales

Strategy:

Porter’s Competitive strategy: Diagram, higlight that part. Advantages, tech

driven, keep maing incremental changes.(differentiation) Competitive scope -
competing on selected segments, Com adv unique- demands premium, unique
offer

Miles and Snow: Analyzer: stable system – business unit maintains a stable
business while, innovating in the periphery- a balance of products for a more
stable market and also a dynamic product for newer markets.

Customer wants customization. They do it.

Impact of technology on structure:

The organizational structure study of Agilent technologies is done here at two

broad levels, one is on the global stage and the other is concentrated on its
Indian Sales area. Being a large MNC, with many products and operating all
around the globe, Agilent technology’s structure is multifocused, in that its
emphasis is both on the function and the product. It achieves this objective by
adopting a matrix structure.

Hybrid structure: Divisional/Product structure:

Electronic manufacturing Group:

Product 1(name)

Product 2

Product 3

Sales: Geographic structure

Head America, European Union, SAP, NAP, JAP, Service, quality

AEO, (Pooled resources) Matrix structure:

Marketing

India- SSQ- North, South, distributors

Telecom
At a global its

1. Overall corporate structure – hybrid – pros and cons(lets pick only related
ones from book)
2. Product based structure- pros and cons(lets pick only related ones from
book)
3. Sales team structure-draw diagrams and explain its division
4. Pooled resources- AEO

Innovation- given in the website agilent research labs – get some basic info and
mix with details in book

Decision making process- we will work with sateesh on this as he is already

working on centralization

Change in structure
http://www.agilent.com/about/newsroom/presrel/2009/02sep-gp09021.html

Buyout of Varian http://www.agilent.com/about/newsroom/presrel/2010/14may-

gp10010.html

Quarterly reports http://www.agilent.com/about/newsroom/presrel/2010/12feb-

gp10004.html

http://www.agilent.com/about/newsroom/presrel/2007/12jun-gp07016.html buy
out