Article at a glance:

When organization isn't enough

• CEOs often maintain that structural reorganization is the quickest way to address poor performance. McKinsey research suggests that they may be wrong.
• Our analysis shows that a number of struggling global companies that embarked on major restructuring initiatives did worse, on average, than a number of underperformers that made no structural changes.
• Most sectors have a default architecture that companies should reject only if they have clear evidence that it is linked to their underperformance.