Informal structure and bottlenecks

For privacy purposes I do not want to use the company name or my friend’s name.

I would like to talk about the informal structure of the company. After reading the assigned readings I realized that I was actually involved in a similar situation. I once had a friend who started a company. As the company grew he became a bottleneck. After a year it was difficult not seeing him and talking to him the way I used too, it was also hard to see him becoming a bottleneck.

Informal structure usually happens in recently formed companies. When his company started to operate he knew everyone that was working for him; his friends were his only employees. While the company started to grow more rapidly, he became more and more distant from his employees.

A year went by, and I had free time to go and see him. After I entered the building I could not sense the feeling of community that was once there. It was strange walking in and not knowing anybody, things had changed.

My friend was the most important part of the company, his knowledge and determination were a way of linking the network together. Becoming a bottleneck was not easy for him, being under a lot of stress and constantly feeling pressure, the company operation started to go down. He started to lose some money, until he figured that he could just not do it by himself. He hired some people to help him out. After making these decisions the profits started to increase again.

After creating a company, informal structure comes in to play, and after the company progress’ executives become bottlenecks. Realizing that to manage and operate the company takes a lot out of you, and that having somebody on your side that could help everyday tasks is not such a bad idea. From what I know, my friend wanted to make as much money as he could therefore he did not consider spending extra money to hire someone else, and instead he took the entire load upon himself. It hurt him and his company until he found someone to help him.