The economic engine is the part where the core value add takes place. It’s the activity in the company that “pays the bills”. It’s the part of the business that creates the thing your customers come to you to get.

The organization is the collection of people and procedures and infrastructures that surround the economic engine. The organization supports the economic engine, and is also supported by it.

I think it’s very important for a CEO to be clear about what the economic engine is, and to deliberately create a lean organization that exists to maximize the output of the economic engine, while consuming as little of that output as possible to support itself. The organization is essential, the engine cannot run without it. The economic engine needs sales to deliver on, it needs accounting to monitor it, it needs all those organizational functions. But those functions should exist because, and only to the extent that, the economic engine needs them, not the other way around.

One reason I think this idea holds true is that the economic engine is inherently customer focused. It’s the part that delivers what the customer wants. When the organization is arranged to efficiently support the economic engine, the organization is arranged to do things that ultimately matter to the customer. This lean, customer-focused combination sets the stage for profitability and growth.