In: Operations Management
In the documentary “The Corporation”, the standard metaphor for a corporation is that of an apple within a barrel where most apples are good and just a few bad. Can you think of another metaphor for a corporation? What does this metaphor mean to you?
A football team is a suitable metaphor for a corporation.
A game of football is played between two teams, with each team consisting of 11 players. In a football team, players have different roles like goalkeeper, defender, midfielder, forward. Players in different roles have different responsibilities. A goalkeeper's responsibility is to stop the opposing team from scoring a goal, while a forward's responsibility is to score goals for his or her team. Even though players have different individual responsibilities, the common objective of all the players is the same, to make their team win games.
The football team is therefore very similar to a corporation. In a corporation, people have different roles like Accounts Manager, Operations Manager, Admin Executive, Human Resource Executive, etc. However, all the people in a corporation work towards the common objective of making the corporation successful.