CASE ING Asia - Pacific
Universiteit van Amsterdam
Executive Programme in Management Studies
Amsterdam Business School
Strategic and Organization Design
Submission date: 15 May 2019
Lecturer Prof. dhr. J.W. Stoelhorst
, ING Asia/Pacific
Based on the literature of the course (especially the literature of this week), what is your analysis
of then problem(s) faced by Jacques Kemp?
Even though the company is doing well, Jacques Kemp, the newly appointed CEO, wonders how the
firm could strengthen itself. We will analyze ING A/P`s organization using Mintzberg (1979) and
Chandler (1991) to determine what problems inhibit ING A/P to execute their strategy.
Mintzberg (1979) argues that for structuring the organization, the parameters of organizational design
(e.g. span of control, type of formalization and decentralization and planning systems) should logically
configure into internally consistent groupings, (internal alignment) while the contingency factors (e.g.
type of environment, production system, age and size) can be ‘chosen’ to achieve consistency with the
elements of its structure (environmental fit, determinism). In addition, coordination mechanisms are
matched with the configurations for optimal performance.
The current structure of ING A/P is one of highly autonomous business units (BU) and one coordinating
monitoring center. This resembles mostly the divisionalized firm, one of the configurations described by
Mintzberg (1979) “as a set of rather independent entities coupled together by a loose administrative
structure in which each division has its own structure”. The most suitable coordination mechanism for
this configuration is standardization of outputs. In this way the HQ can easily monitor how one division
contributes to the overarching goal of the organization. However, at ING A/P strategic objectives were
set according to business unit preferences, they were not formally aligned with regional strategy and
results were reported in different formats. These examples show that there is a lack of standardization of
outputs. Because of the misalignment and lack of standardization, coordination becomes difficult.
Strikwerda and Stoelhorst (2009) also propose that lack of standardization and coordination are
problems of the M-form (we will explain this below). Due to lack of standardization and coordination,
Universiteit van Amsterdam
Executive Programme in Management Studies
Amsterdam Business School
Strategic and Organization Design
Submission date: 15 May 2019
Lecturer Prof. dhr. J.W. Stoelhorst
, ING Asia/Pacific
Based on the literature of the course (especially the literature of this week), what is your analysis
of then problem(s) faced by Jacques Kemp?
Even though the company is doing well, Jacques Kemp, the newly appointed CEO, wonders how the
firm could strengthen itself. We will analyze ING A/P`s organization using Mintzberg (1979) and
Chandler (1991) to determine what problems inhibit ING A/P to execute their strategy.
Mintzberg (1979) argues that for structuring the organization, the parameters of organizational design
(e.g. span of control, type of formalization and decentralization and planning systems) should logically
configure into internally consistent groupings, (internal alignment) while the contingency factors (e.g.
type of environment, production system, age and size) can be ‘chosen’ to achieve consistency with the
elements of its structure (environmental fit, determinism). In addition, coordination mechanisms are
matched with the configurations for optimal performance.
The current structure of ING A/P is one of highly autonomous business units (BU) and one coordinating
monitoring center. This resembles mostly the divisionalized firm, one of the configurations described by
Mintzberg (1979) “as a set of rather independent entities coupled together by a loose administrative
structure in which each division has its own structure”. The most suitable coordination mechanism for
this configuration is standardization of outputs. In this way the HQ can easily monitor how one division
contributes to the overarching goal of the organization. However, at ING A/P strategic objectives were
set according to business unit preferences, they were not formally aligned with regional strategy and
results were reported in different formats. These examples show that there is a lack of standardization of
outputs. Because of the misalignment and lack of standardization, coordination becomes difficult.
Strikwerda and Stoelhorst (2009) also propose that lack of standardization and coordination are
problems of the M-form (we will explain this below). Due to lack of standardization and coordination,
