An org chart example is only useful if you know which company it came from, because the shape is decided by two numbers: how many people there are and how many report to the average manager. A twelve-person company and a four-hundred-person company do not have the same chart with more boxes; they have different shapes. The examples below are grouped by the arithmetic that produces them, so you can find the one that matches the company you actually have rather than the one that looks tidiest. Put your own headcount and span into the planner and it will tell you which group you are in before you start drawing.
The twelve to forty person chart: two layers and no middle
Everyone reports to a founder or to one of three or four leads, and there is no layer between the top and the work. At a span of seven, four leaders reach 28 people, which is why companies of this size can run flat honestly rather than as a slogan. The chart is one screen, the useful detail is what each person owns rather than who they report to, and the mistake is inventing titles to fill a layer nobody needs yet.
The forty to a hundred and fifty person chart: three layers and real managers
This is where the middle appears: 120 people at a span of seven implies 15 managers and 105 individual contributors, and three layers reach 228 so four layers is comfortable. The chart now needs departments as groupings rather than colours, and it needs contractors marked, because at this size nobody knows everyone. Eight contractors take a 120-box chart to 128, and every one of them needs a line.
The functional, matrix and divisional shapes, side by side
The same headcount can be drawn three ways. Functional groups people by what they do and is the default. Matrix adds a second line for people who serve more than one department, and the count matters: 22% of a 140-person company at 1.4 lines each is 43 dotted lines. Divisional splits by product or region and repeats the functions inside each, which multiplies managers and is why it usually arrives with headcount rather than before it.
Questions people ask about org chart examples
Which org chart example should I copy?
The one whose headcount and span match yours. Copying the shape of a company four times your size buys you layers you cannot fill and managers you have not hired.
Do these examples include contractors?
The worked example does, as separate boxes. A chart that hides contractors is a chart that cannot answer who somebody should ask about a piece of work.
What span of control do the examples use?
Seven, because that is the example company's own figure. Change it in the planner and every count on this page moves with it.