Case Study: Modern Gears
Introduction
Global management entails a higher level of management as opposed to the smaller context of a local organization. For this reason, there are critical issues that a leader ought to consider when having the intention of becoming global. The local organization management aspects are important as they form the platform on which the ability to go global is based. A leader, therefore, ought to determine the various weaknesses that he or she has so as to improve on them in future. In the case under consideration, the two leaders seem to have done well in the management of Modern Gears. Being in their respective positions, the Organization seems to have benefited from its growth. In addition, the company has attained a great level of competitive advantage, which has seen it aspire to go international. Stefan and James, the CEO and the Chairman, therefore, have done well on various issues. However, each of the leaders has various aspects that he needs to improve on. It seems that the two leaders fail to work as a team and thus results in various difficulties. In addition, they seem to fight more of their legacy rather than the success of the company (Burrell et al, 1992). In addition, the working relationship between the two top leaders and the rest of the employees is wanting. This is because they fail to agree on various issues. Insecurity comes out as one of the great fears that the leaders have all along. It is, therefore, necessary for the leaders to address the issues for the company to be a success. Success cannot at any time be cultivated by an individual. It has to be cultivated and worked upon by all the stakeholders in the organization.
Question 1: Critical offer for chairman, James
From the case study, it is clear that James has done well in the past and in the enhancement improved performance for the organization. The major reason for the success is traced to his ability to control and pressure the CEO to have the improvement policies done well. However, he has various shortcomings in his style of leadership. For this reason, he ought to work on the various areas of weakness so as to lead the board of a global leading organization.
Consistency
First, it is important that James, as the chairman of Modern gears works on his consistency. From the case, it is indicated that he does so well in ensuring that all the CEO enhances an improvement in the performance of the organization. At this time, he mounts pressure on the CEO and keeps him on the check. However, this change after the organization attains a consistent flow of profitability. This is a big mistake for the chairman. Being at the helm of the board managing the company, he should be consistent in the oversight role that has been entrusted to him. This will ensure that the CEO and the rest of the management are kept in check on the decisions they make (Hamel 2000). James should, therefore, ensure that he remains interested in the decisions being made and induce his mind on the same. Ignoring the CEO for a long time may lead to a sole man decision making, which is not healthy in the long run. Again, the need to go global requires a high level of oversight authority. International businesses involve higher levels of risk. Therefore, every decision made means a lot to the company and all the stakeholders. It is, therefore, necessary to learn of the day to day occurrences at the company and elsewhere so as to update the rest of the board members effectively.
Efficient communication
From the case, the chairman, as well as the CEO, is seen as being two quite different people. Each of the parties works on his own. There is, therefore, a complete breakdown in the communication between the two leaders. This is a great mistake that the chairman makes. It is evident that the chairman literally ignores the CEO, having learned of his motives for a long time. The chairman and the CEO, therefore, fail to share on the important issues affecting the growth of the company (Bauman 2004). For instance, the chairman learns the Stefan intends to buy off a foreign company in the US to ensure the growth of the company. Instead of offering an insight into the matter, the chairman remains silent and lets Stefan work it out. At the end of it, the plan fails as none of the other parties is willing to engage exclusively with the CEO (Iansiti 2004). It is therefore important that James could adopt an effective and open communication strategy. This would ensure that he and the rest of the board members keep in touch and share their ideas openly. Working as a team and communicating effectively would ensure that the company succeeds.
Flexible leadership
It is also important that James adopts a flexible style of leadership at all times. This is quite important in the ever-changing global market. The case illustrates James as a person who is rigid in his form of leadership as well as his ideas (Lester et al, 2016). He is a person who is not ready to let another person’s ideas have the way. For instance, upon learning on the global ambitions of Stefan, he gets quick to warn him about remaining a CEO and not managing director. This owes to the fact that Stefan prepares to have the organization expand at a faster rate, that James does not agree with. In addition, James pressures Stefan about having the company get profits. During this time, he pressures him much on the profits rather than the future of the company (Urquhart 2013). This is an indication of rigid leadership which needs to be eliminated. Taking up the global board of directors will require the chairman to be quite flexible. This is because the world is a fast changing place and requires changing ideologies as well as people. It would, therefore, be expected that many of the directors will have different opinions. James will need to be flexible in letting other members contribute. He ought to get ready to accommodate the rest of the people opinions and at times disregarding his ideas.
Question 2: Critical Reflections for the CEO, Stefani, in going global
Just like James, there are various aspects that Stefani needs to work on before contemplating of leading a global organization. It is important for Stefani to appreciate that the global job could be more demanding than leading a local organization. Thus, the strategies applied in the local organization would not fully apply in the global organization arena (Morgan 2006). The case presents various weaknesses that Stefani portrays in his work, especially towards the ability to deal with other people. This are the points that Stefani needs to work on if he has to be better at the global level. The weaknesses at the local m management level are seen to have worked against him and the organization. The situation would, therefore, be worse if the same is taken to the global organization. He, therefore, has to critically think and improve on various matters.
Servant leadership
First, Stefani needs to work on the transformation of his form of leadership to servant leadership. The case reveals that the CEO views it as his right to be offered the highest level respect and treatment at the airport just because of his position. In this case, Stefani minds more about his personal interests and not those of the company. The personal interest of Stefani prolongs in the fact that he gets angered thought the meeting just because of the kind of treatment that he receives. According to him, he requires being received at the airport as a hero for the attainment that his company has made over time. Getting global would mean thinking more of the business and less of one’s status and personal life. It is expected that Stefani would rise to higher status when he becomes a global CEO. However, the egocentric behavior could lead him to his downfall (Al Ariss et al, 2014). It is therefore important that he concentrates works on his love for the job and the people rather than the respect and fame that he gains in course of his duties. The world would be more concerned with the service and the not the personal life exhibited.
Leadership style
It is important that Stefani would improve on the style of leadership that he applies at the local management level. In this case, he is seen to have been a rigid and fixed person regarding his ideas. He, therefore, expects that the MDs ought to do as he wishes and not as they feel to be correct. For instance, Stefani gets mad with Fiona as she maintains that another acquisition would lead the company to a downfall. This does not go well with the wishes of the CEO as he feels that size means success for the organization. He, therefore, thinks of even firing Fiona at the meeting when she shows no interest in the speech that he gives (Schermerhorn et al, 2014). It is important that Stefani changes his style of leadership to the situational form. This will enable him to shit his stands based on the situation on the ground. Getting global would require that Stefani offers what is needed on the ground as opposed to what he feels to be right. Therefore, he will need to learn and exercise more on the flexible leadership strategy.
Open communication
As much as open communication is important in the local organization management, it is more important in managing a global organization. This is because the decisions made are more significant and mean a lot to more people. Stefani needs to really work on this as it forms part of his weaknesses. The mode of communication that he uses at the Modern Gears organization is quite poor. First, he does not engage the rest of the leaders when making decisions. This means that he holds information from them. Also, Stefani orders the managing directors to have things done his way and denies them the chance to raise their own ideas (Salend 2015). At the global level, it would be suicidal to have such form of communication as it may raise deep concerns among the rest of the stakeholders. Therefore, he should work on enhancing an open communication among all leaders. Giving a chance to the rest of the leaders also creates room for better ideas.
Teamwork
It is essential that a global organization leader induces teamwork as part of his management practice. This is because a global organization draws many people from all over the world. As such, they have different ideologies regarding the management of the organization. Stefani proves to be quite weak in this case. He makes the decision of making another acquisition on his own, without involving the chairman or even the managing directors. In this case, he fails to provide the chance to reason together about the effects of a new acquisition compared to other forms of investment. This ends up creating challenges for the leaders (Žižek 2011). In the end, the plan to have the acquisition fails as the potential sellers fear that the chairman of the company is not in the agreement of the idea. It is important to hold teamwork dear to his profession. This would work well in eliminating the possibility of conflicts among the leaders.
Conclusion
It is imperative that the best form of leadership is adopted at the local as well as the international management levels. Changes start from the top going downwards. The leaders shape the culture of the organization. For this reason, the leaders need to practice the best management to ensure that the organization does well effectively. Modern Geer case indicates that poor style of management leads to the failure of the embedded vision. The two leaders, James and Stefani have adorable levels of personal abilities and thus have seen the organization do well in the past. However, there are various weaknesses in the leadership that holds the organization hostage. They portray a poor aspect of communication, poor teamwork as well as rigidity in the leadership. This is the cause of their fall out in the making of major decisions such as the making of acquisitions. This is the sole reason why the deal dies at the end. The two, therefore, need to work on their weaknesses in order to make better leaders at the global stage.
References
Al Ariss, A., Cascio, W. F., & Paauwe, J. (2014). Talent management: Current theories and future research directions. Journal of World Business, 49(2), 173-179.
Bauman, Zygmunt (2004) – Wasted lives: modernity and its outcasts
Burrell, Gibson and Morgan, Gareth (1992) – Sociological paradigms and organisational analysis: elements of the sociology of corporate life
Hamel G. – The End of Progress (Book Review) in Business Strategy Review (2000)
HAMEL, G., DOZ, YL and PRAHALAD, CK (01/01/1989) – COLLABORATE WITH YOUR COMPETITORS – AND WIN [HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW] (magazine article)
Hamel, Gary (2000) – Leading the revolution
Iansiti, Marco and Levien, Roy (01/03/2004) – Strategy as ecology [Harvard business review] (magazine article)
Kuhn, Thomas S. (1996) – The structure of scientific revolutions (3rd ed)
Lane, Henry W., Maznevski, Martha, Mendenhall, Mark E., et al (eds.) (2003) – The Blackwell handbook of global management: a guide to managing complexity
Lasserre, Philippe (2007) – Global strategic management (2nd ed)
Lester, G. V., Virick, M., & Clapp-Smith, R. (2016). Harnessing Global Mindset to Positively Impact Advances in Global Leadership through International Human Resource Management Practices. In Advances in Global Leadership(pp. 325-349). Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
Maxwell, L.M. – The death of competition: Leadership and strategy in the age of business ecosystems – Moore,JF (Book Review) in Library Journal (1996)
Morgan, Gareth (2006) – Images of organization
Prahalad, C.K. – The future of competition: Co-creating unique value with customers (Book Review) in Research Technology Management (2004)
Salend, S. J. (2015). Creating inclusive classrooms: Effective, differentiated and reflective practices. Pearson.
Schermerhorn, J., Davidson, P., Poole, D., Woods, P., Simon, A., & McBarron, E. (2014). Management: Foundations and Applications (2nd Asia-Pacific Edition). John Wiley & Sons.
Sponheim, Paul R. – KIERKEGAARD, SØREN. “The Concept of Irony with Constant Reference to Socrates” (Book Review) in The Journal of Religion (1967)
Tsoukas, Haridimos – The Missing Link: A Transformational View of Metaphors in Organizational Science in The Academy of Management Review (1991)
Urquhart, Cathy (2013) – Grounded theory for qualitative research : a practical guide
Žižek, Slavoj (2011) – Violence: Six Sideways Reflections
