Organisational design is the deliberate process of structuring roles, reporting lines, teams, and decision-making authority to execute a company's business strategy. At growth-stage companies, organisational design decisions — who reports to whom, how functions are grouped, where authority sits — directly determine how fast the company can move, how effectively leaders collaborate, and whether the organisational structure enables or impedes strategy execution.
Why Organisational Design Matters
Most founders build an organisation reactively: they hire for immediate needs, reporting lines form around who hired whom, and the structure reflects historical decisions rather than strategic intention. By Series B or C, this organic structure is often the primary constraint on execution speed.
The typical signs of an organisation that has outgrown its structure: decisions that should be made at the function level are being escalated to the CEO, cross-functional collaboration requires constant executive involvement to resolve, and individual leaders have accountability without sufficient authority to act.
Key Organisational Design Decisions
The most consequential organisational design decisions at growth-stage companies are: centralised vs decentralised authority (does the CEO own decisions or do VPs?), functional vs matrix structure (do people report to their function or to a product/business unit?), and how many direct reports the CEO can effectively manage as the company scales.
Executive hiring is directly connected to organisational design: adding a CRO changes whether VP of Sales, VP of Marketing, and VP of Customer Success report to the CEO or to the CRO. Hiring a COO changes whether operational VPs report to the CEO or to the COO. Every leadership hire is also an organisational design decision.
“The most common organisational design failure is structural confusion that masquerades as a leadership gap. Before concluding that you need a different person in a role, confirm that the role's scope, authority, and reporting structure give any person in it a realistic chance of success.”
Organisational Design and Executive Search
Before running an executive search, the CEO or board should ensure the role being defined fits coherently into the organisational structure. Adding a new VP whose scope overlaps with an existing role, or whose reporting line creates confusion, sets up the new hire for failure regardless of their individual capability.
Majhi Group's intake process always includes a discussion of organisational context: where does this role sit, what authority does it carry, and what are the implicit organisational design questions that the hire will need to navigate on day one.