Page 323 - Universitas Terbuka Center of Excellence In Asia 2010 and The World 2020 (A Journey Towards a Leading Open and Distance Education Institution 1984-2008)

The sixth characteristic relies on organization's ability to, as Peters &

Waterman call, "fit to the net." A successful organization does business in the
area of its true expertise, and avoids doing business the area beyond its true

expertise . Experience has shown that an organization focusing on specific
expertise and hard to beat by its competitors has an unbeatable competitive

edge. Organization's core of competence should be developed, maintained , and
refined seriously and continuously in order to ensure its survival.

The seventh characteristic is organization 's simple form and its streamlined

staffing. Most successful organizations run not with big structure of organization ,
but with a simple one and streamlined staffing. A leading organization works

efficiently. Simple structure of organization and streamlined staffing will enable
an organization to be flexible to act effectively in fulfilling the needs of its

clients.

The eighth characteristic is simultaneously loose-tight ownership. A leading
organization is simultaneously centralized and decentralized. On one hand, an
organization is fostering autonomy down to the lowest level of hierarchy, to the

front line of service provision , or to product development team which directly

produce the products to be presented to the clients. However, an organization
should also maintain the central characteristic of its basic values. Both
decentralization and centralization needs should be equally managed so that

they can be mutually supportive and in synergy with organization 's strong desire

to keep moving , be successful and sustainable.
Characteristics of a leading organization as mentioned above are common

and not really surprising. Apart from them, human resources play an important
role in mobilizing thoughts, initiatives, plans and actions to improve the

organization's performance so that it can develop, be highly competitive, achieve

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