Organizational Structure for Q-Commerce Success in a Flat World

Traditionalists would have us sneer at the quick commerce, or q-commerce, or even q-com, industry. They point at its contribution to the traffic snarls and damage to the climate, with vehicles whizzing around town to deliver tiny orders.

They could have a point.

But what these armchair experts are missing is the value it adds in sheer convenience to the consumer. And if the regulatory framework and pricing structures permit this value to be added, then why should we complain?

Challenging the traditional hierarchy

Traditional hierarchies in large corporations have been built for control and ensuring that the ship sails a steady course. Decisions could take time, with good reason, as companies looked to back them up with data and research.

Enter q-commerce, where decisions need to be taken at the speed of light, to fulfil the expectations, which are also growing, of an increasingly demanding customer. She is not just ordering inexpensive everyday consumables like toothpaste; rising incomes are permitting her to order consumer durables and electronics as easily as soap and toothpaste.

Quick customer fulfilment requires an organization that can react with speed. It needs to be able to access real-time data and react to it. It needs to be able to scale up and down rapidly to ensure capital is not being wasted.

Flat and fast with an empowered frontline

An empowered front-line has been the market-facing slogan of large corporations since time immemorial. It was their way of showing that they care for the lowest level in the hierarchy.

It has also been common knowledge since time immemorial that this was lip service. The frontline had no decision-making authority and merely acted on instructions it received, once they got processed through the hierarchy.

For q-commerce, an empowered frontline is a necessary condition for success, even survival. It is not lip service. These are real situations:

• When weather conditions in a region suddenly turn hot, resulting in a spike in the delivery of drinking water, the local team does not need to wait for aggregation at the national level for a reallocation to be done. They can do peer-to-peer transactions and rearrange stocks and supplies.
• When a local traffic snarl throws delivery schedules out of gear, the local team, which has the best visibility of traffic conditions, can update the algorithm that calculates the routing, ensuring that valuable time is not lost.

Technology layer – a key enabler of flat

Credit must be given to the technology layer that ties all ends of the organization together in a manner that makes flat possible. While some of the benefits of technology may extend across industries, q-commerce is not leaving any stone unturned in its quest to empower the frontline.

It is real-time

It is transparent. There is nothing to hide and nowhere to hide. Real-time knowledge enables real-time decision-making.

Distributed role-based access levels

Empowered frontlines do not happen by chance; they are created that way. The platform provides defined controlled independence to everyone, within which decisions can be taken. 

In addition, most modern q-commerce platforms rely on an architecture that is microservices-based, and allows tweaks by city, product, etc.

Unified communication platform

Third-party messaging apps or platform-integrated ones make reaching out across the organization a breeze. This, of course, is accompanied by a loosening of attitudes in the upper echelons. The senior leadership levels no longer frown on being approached directly by what they would consider employees “too junior” to communicate with. They know it is for the benefit of the business.

Built-in knowledge platform and SOPs

What to do when you don’t know what to do?

Reach out to the knowledge library and SOP database and find out. In most cases, you don’t need to get guidance from your boss or ask a colleague. Execution can be swift.

Flat enablers

The way the company is built often determines how flat it can get and how empowered the frontline will be. Focusing on a few right things can unlock a flat-enabled organization:

• Focus the organization on a limited set of objectives. It could be based on fulfilment, customer lifetime value, or any other measure found suitable.
• Focus on doing what you do well, or very well, rather than copying others. In any case, most q-commerce companies are likely to have developed quickly, as a product of the time and place and situation they are in. 

Hiring for key roles

Whether you are hiring a Category Manager, a City Operational Lead, or Data Engineers, Ushankk can help you source to right people.

With Ushankk of your side, you can build a flat organization that will flatten the competition.