In 2008, a senior associate at Richard, Wood and Hulme LLP (RWH) was amazed at the speed with which the audit team for an important client of the firm was rapidly falling apart. Two members had just been fired presumably because they did not pass their chartered accounting qualification examinations; team morale had grown non-existent; there were difficulties in completing the engagement due to lack of preparation from both RWH and the client; there were doubts about the commitment of particular individuals; and with the audit falling behind schedule, the senior associate perceived an absence of strong leadership from the partners of the firm. He did not understand why the team had been so unfocused from the start of the engagement, as prior years’ engagements had been quite successful. He was unsure how to proceed. What would he tell the client? What should he do to keep this audit on track and keep the team together?
This case deals with an exporting challenge faced by Ferro Industries, a small enterprise within the steel industry in India. The company’s manufacturing facility was located in the National Capital Region of Delhi. Ferro’s main products were roll-forming machines, cut-to-length lines, and slitting lines; the company was one of only three firms in the Indian sub-continent catering to the market for such products. This case raises two basic questions in relation to Ferro’s role as an exporter. Firstly, at what stage should an importer have to pay an exporter? Secondly, should the exporter release consignment to the importer before receiving payment? The case illustrates the challenges of exporting and international entrepreneurship for a small firm, taking into account payment risk, product pricing, deal-making strategies, promotional strategy, and client-management strategies. It also addresses the complexities involved in the decision-making process while exporting, as well as outlining various conflict-resolution techniques for closing a deal effectively while considering the appropriateness of taking risks.
While lying in the workplace is prevalent, it simply doesn’t work, argues John Carlson. In fact, the greatest risk is in “turning a blind eye” and making dishonesty acceptable. As Carlson writes, the potential damage unleashed by an ethically permissive workplace may far exceed the lost labour of an employee taking a short nap under his desk. Three types of deceptive impression management (IM) agents are identified — the sycophant, the cover-up artist, and the all-purpose liar. The author finds that once an employee begins a deceptive IM campaign, the employee will eventually receive negative feedback, which will often result in a vicious circle of even more deceptive IM that is difficult to break.
“Occupy” movements highlighting economic inequality, such as Occupy Wall Street, have quickly spread around the world. But they have not appeared in several countries, with one interesting example being India. How have businesses in India coped with the dual pressures of enhancing shareholder wealth leading to economic growth and operating in a society with a high level of inequality? Can businesses in the developed world learn from Indian enterprises that have attempted to balance corporate strength with societal benefit? This article discusses the initiatives of Indian companies, including in community development, education, partnerships, and the development of low-cost products.
Business leaders are trained to focus on big, attractive markets, yet some of the most compelling sources of growth come from markets that begin as tiny “footholds.” Eight of the ten most valuable U.S. companies started in small segments of the economy, such as IBM, whose origins were in punched cards to tabulate the 1890 U.S. Census, or ExxonMobil, which refined petroleum for kerosene lamps. Penetrating foothold markets requires an entirely different approach than that used for big, established markets, and there are three imperatives of successful foothold strategies: to reduce uncertainty, stimulate demand, and enable leadership. While the narrowness of foothold markets makes them powerful, it also creates difficulty in choosing them. Leaders can identify a strong foothold because it has a clear target customer, provides a pathway to a broader market, is easily satisfied, and has few dependencies on separate decision makers and business partners. After comparing the foothold markets of Blackberry and Gatorade, this article states that a company searching for footholds should consider what it wants to accomplish, assess potential markets, create an exhaustive list of footholds, and evaluate them according to its objectives.
It is common in the workplace to hear about the need to have more effective meetings. Yet employees still find themselves in meetings that are poorly organized, too long, and resolve little except when to have the next meeting. In breaking down a meeting into its component parts — including considerations of physical space and primary activities — and applying Michael Porter’s organizational value chain model, this author offers constructive steps that will turn meetings into exercises in value creation.
Every leader needs to have smooth, productive relationships with those around him or her. But what makes for a rewarding relationship — and its opposite — has long been unclear. Boyatzis, who has conducted studies and written extensively about the impact of brain activity on such relationships, describes some important new research that holds the promise of helping leaders to form more effective relationships. In one study, executives underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and were asked questions about past work events involving both resonant and dissonant leaders; recalling events with resonant leaders activated brain pathways linked to openness and learning, while recalling events with dissonant leaders had an almost opposite effect. In another study, sophomores were interviewed first about their ideal future and then about their current homework and work ethic; the latter questions activated parts of the brain associated with guilt and self-consciousness, calling into question the efficacy of traditional performance management reviews.
The sum of virtues, values, and traits equals good character, which, in addition to competence and commitment, is one of the three components that make a leader effective and respected. For many, however, virtues and values remain undefinable or elusive. These authors define and de-construct them, and in the process demonstrate how character helps people in their personal journeys to become better leaders. Furthermore, they explain how character develops and why it matters.
Most management intervention strategies are conceived to meet routine or predictable challenges. Yet managers rarely have effective strategies for non-routine challenges, which puts firms at a disadvantage, as non-routine challenges present extraordinary opportunities for innovations and breakthroughs. This article offers transformational leadership principles for non-routine challenges, based on perception, context, and self-empowerment.
That an organizational conflict can be an ideal learning opportunity may seem unlikely. But though a conflict may never be fully resolved, organizations may learn how to relieve or eliminate the larger problems of their dispute. Based on a study of British Columbia’s salmon farming industry — an industry marked by conflict between farmers, government, First Nations, environmental organizations, and industry associations — MacDonald proposes eight practices of organizational leadership, individual leadership, and learning processes that can be applied in order to manage differences and learn from them. 1. Build robust and adaptable learning capabilities. 2. Encourage learning from a range of sources. 3. Focus on gaps in knowledge. 4. Motivate individuals to act. 5. Pair similar individuals between organizations. 6. Agree on rules and hold everyone accountable. 7. Change structures and people as the relationship evolves. 8. Take the time to understand each other.
In an increasingly complex and volatile business environment, companies need leaders who can collaborate, whether across national boundaries or teams. According to a recent survey of over 300 organizations by the Hay Group, organizations have become flatter and more “matrixed”; employees work on different project teams and report to different managers. Alongside benefits to innovation, information sharing, and complex problem solving, this also results in unclear lines of accountability and authority, and slower decision making. The survey found that executives are lacking competencies for collaboration, suggesting that leadership skills have not evolved with the new organizational structure. This flat, matrixed structure requires leaders who can subordinate their agenda, yield power, and give up resources for the greater good, rather than exercise maximum control. The Hay Group’s research found that successful collaborative leaders have six key capabilities: enterprise perspective, cross-functional perspective, customer perspective, self-management, respectful listening, and matrix influencing. Furthermore, companies can improve their chances of successful collaboration by following five guidelines: be clear about the destination, develop mutual understanding, know when to lead and when to follow, set schedules and stick to them, and encourage information sharing. After examining these issues with examples from Procter & Gamble, Apple, Sony, and Cisco, this article ends with a collaboration assessment tool.
A sports broadcasting firm, which is facing uncertain contract renewals by its current clients from several geographic territories, has to figure out the likelihood of making money if it goes ahead and purchases the global broadcasting rights of the Portuguese Soccer League ("Liga Zon Sagres") for the upcoming 2011/12 season.
This case examines Dimensional Fund Advisors (DFA)'s decision to enter the retirement market with their new "Dimensional Managed DC" product, a complete retirement solution that aimed to provide investors with what they really wanted: the same standard of living in retirement that they had while working. The case considers the challenges of entering the fiercely competitive retirement market, introduces students to the large literature on the behavioral biases of individual investors, and asks students to evaluate an innovative new financial product designed to automate the process of retirement investing.
Dow Chemical is one of the few major American industrial corporations that was founded in the late 19th century that is still in existence. From its origins producing bromine out of the brine underneath Midland, Michigan, the company has evolved from a diversified commodity chemical company to an advanced materials company whose products and services can make its clients more sustainable. During the 1960s and 1970s the company received a series of external shocks in the form of negative public opinion for some of its activities. These challenged the company's perception as being a "good company" and made it realize it needed to more proactively seek outside perspectives on how the company was viewed and what it should do. This led to the formation of the Corporate Environmental Advisory Council in 1992 which was renamed the Sustainability External Advisory Council (SEAC) in 2008. With substantial input from the SEAC, the company set two ambitious sets of ten-year goals: 1996-2005 and 2006-2015 and was largely successful in meeting them or on the way to doing so. In 2011, Neil Hawkins, Vice President of Sustainability and EH&S (Environmental, Health and safety) is trying to decide what the content and format of the next ten-year goals should be to ensure the company's viability on its 200th birthday. Should they be incremental goals like the ones for 2005 or ambitious stretch targets like the ones for 2015? Or should they be broad statements of principles that encourage innovating for sustainability throughout the company? A further challenge facing the company that it was rapidly globalizing with a large portion of its workforce outside its Midland, Michigan headquarters, making it even more difficult to preserve a common culture and commitment to sustainability.
In March 2011, Nicolas Hayek, the CEO of the leading Swiss watch manufacturer Swatch Group, reflected on the positioning of Omega, its revived flagship brand. Which marketing strategy would best allow it to confront its main competitor Rolex? And how would potential adjustments to Omega's product, pricing, distribution, and promotion strategies impact the sales of the Swatch Group's other 18 watch brands?
Inventory-based lending is a form of asset-based lending used by retailers and wholesalers. This note describes the development and the current state of the inventory-based lending industry.
The HR 500 Plus Scanner case examines how, in 2000, the Eastman Kodak Company confronted a drastic change in technology (from traditional to digital photography) that is eroding revenue and margins by double digits in its core film, paper and chemical business. Matt Giorgio, the worldwide product manager for film scanners, is being pushed by upper management to extend the life of film to provide cash for the painful and less profitable transition to digital photography. With limited overall research and development (R&D) and a dictate from the CEO for flawless execution of projects, Giorgio and his team take an aggressive approach to develop, in less than a year, a scanner that can both stave off film erosion and minimize the program's impact on corporate R&D. Missing the team's goal of nine months could cost him his job and leave the company vulnerable to even greater erosion of film, paper and chemical sales.
This case traces the history and growth of Forbes Marshall (FM), a family-owned company in India. FM provides steam engineering and control instrumentation solutions for the process industry. The company has evolved into a leader in process efficiency and energy conservation through technology tie-ups and focused investments in manufacturing and research. Its joint ventures with the world's leading firms enable it to deliver quality solutions in 14 countries. Forbes Marshall's business practices and processes have combined into a unified philosophy of being trusted partners who provide innovative solutions.