What should the scope of headquarters' functions and its structure look like? This is a key question raised by companies when organizing their corporate structures.

Both decentralized and centralized structures offer advantages. In decentralized corporate structures, more powers are delegated to operational units. This gives companies the ability to adapt quickly to changing market conditions. On the other hand, centralizing structures, e.g. bundling all service units at corporate headquarters, produces economies of scale and can help cut costs. A current Roland Berger study (Organizing profitable growth: combining centralized and decentralized management) shows that linking centralized and decentralized elements is possible and drives profitable growth.

The structure of corporate headquarters must always be adapted to the current corporate framework. Since 1999, Roland Berger Strategy Consultants has therefore regularly conducted its "Corporate Headquarters" study to identify current trends in structuring headquarters.

The current edition of Roland Berger's study focuses on the size of headquarters and its role in dealing with the operational units.

The study addresses the following questions:

1. What is the management style of headquarters and what role does it assume in regard to the business units?
2. How is headquarters set up and how extensive is it?
3. What is the relationship between the role of headquarters and its structure and size?

The current study looks mainly at companies in Germany, Switzerland and Austria. We contact companies directly and provide them with the survey.

Follow the link below for more information on our "Corporate Headquarters 2008": Corporate Headquarters 2008 (PDF, 1632 KB).

You're also welcome to take a look at the results from the "Corporate Headquarters 2005" study by clicking on the following link: Corporate Headquarters 2005 (PDF, 1627 KB).