Strategic Leadership Lecture 11

Re:  Indra Nooyi-Pepsico

From the PEPSICO case study, I learnt the important for an effective strategic leadership to make profit.  In business, the rule for profit is to continually make as much profit for the shareholders. Therefore, Shareholders can gauge the success of the leadership based on increasing or decreasing profits. This can determine if the leader, or other top executives, should be replaced. That is why in PepsiCo, shareholders are unhappy with the way Indra Nooy is running the company. As the result, Nooy`s job is on the line and from the shareholders standpoint she is not effective at all.

Furthermore, being profitable and responsible are equally important because it is indispensable for the continuity of any business.  It is generally held that corporate social responsibility (CSR) could increase company profits and thus most large companies are actively engaged in it. When a company chooses to be socially responsible they are not only helping out the community, environment etc. They are also helping themselves in the long run. Companies are effectively learning how to attract customers through being socially responsible. Customers tend to avoid selfish companies whose only goal is to maximise profit and economic power. Most leaders believe that CSR can improve profits. They understand that CSR can promote respect for their company in the marketplace which can result in higher sales, enhance employee loyalty and attract better personnel to the firm.

PepsiCo strategic leadership approach is different to other case studies.  First, the firm`s leadership (PepsiCo) has created multiple brands business strategy. For example, they have many successful brands such as Tropicana, Quaker Oats and so on. Second, they are the only one from the other case studies, who incorporated CSR to their business strategy. Finally, they understood the culture difference between nations and as a result they are able to target different countries with specific product (effectively).

DJ......

Strategic Leadership Lecture 10

Re: Managing change at Faslane

Faslane change was successful because of the manner they implemented change in the organisation. They analysed all different aspects of the company and then transformed weaknesses into strengths. Accordingly, the changing of their organisational strategy, structure, systems, skills, style, staff and share value helped them to succeed.  

Furthermore, when we use transcendent leadership model to analyse the leadership in Faslane, l believe that there was a leadership of organisation. Hence, from the Faslane case study, l understood how a leadership of organisation takes action within an organisation.  For instance, the leaderships were focused on the organisation not on the people or themselves; all was about the organisation and how make it successful.

Finally, Faslane strategic leadership approach and Lynch`s model have some similarities. For example, the changings made by Faslane`s leadership cover Lynch`s element of managing human resource and organisation decisions. Conversely, it strategic leadership approach is different to other case studies. Because it is the only case study from other cases that cover the topic of management change and therefore their strategic approach differ.

DJ....

Strategic Leadership Lecture 9

Re: Leadership

Does effective strategic leadership depend on the situation or is there ‘one right way’? Why? That is very good question. If you asked writers or global leaders on this question, they would have different perspectives. However, one could argue that an effective strategic leadership depend on the situation. In other words, sometime leaders are successful because of the environment they operate within. For instance, a successful strategic leader of Tesco moves as leader in IT Company. The probability of success of that leader in IT industry would be low and this is due to the changing of situation. Therefore, it can be said that the success of leader depends on, if the situation is similar with his or her life experience, personality, ability and knowledge.

On the other hand, some authors could disagree with that and say there is one way. It does not matter which situation they are in, effective strategic leaders are successful. They believe that there is some magic effective strategic leaders use to be successful in any situation. For example, an effective strategic leader from Zara decided to be the head of IBM and it does not matter the circumstances that leader would be effective.

In general, situations require different reaction and the understanding of that is very important thing for an effective strategic leader. In David case, there are many reasons why he was successful in one role and not in another. Firstly, David’s behaviour was very aggressive and did not realise the way things are done in Energix (Culture). Secondly, effective strategic leaders know that employees do not like changing and in order to be able to make changing in an organisation power and control is vital. David did not have that power and that makes his effort to change things in Energix very difficult. Finally, he was in different situation, therefore we can say that his traits were not appropriated for the job in first place.

                                                               

From the different case studies we did so far, IDEO`s leadership style and culture might have worked. l believe the main problem why David has been unsuccessful, is due to the manner he tried to resolve Energix`s problems (Alone). As the consequence, employees did not like is method and possibly did anything they can to make him unsuccessful. On the other hand, if it was IDEO`s leadership, they would have worked with employees to find solutions to the problems.Thus, IDEO leadership approach might have the highest probability to work from the different case studies.  

Strategic Leadership Lecture 8

In today, organisation creativity and innovation are an important aspect of effective strategic leadership. In essence, leadership is the most important aspect of the organisational creativity and innovation dynamics. For creativity and the spirit of innovation to be developed in any organisation, it must recognize the role of the leaders in encouraging creativity. Leaders can successfully encourage organisational creativity and innovation by designing the organisation to foster an environment that is conducive for creativity to flourish. Leaders can do this by building friendly and inclusive working conditions for the members of the organisation.

The essential thing I understood from IDEO case study is that, how the firm leadership was able to combine innovation and organisational culture. In IDEO, they created an organisational culture where creativity and innovation are component parts of the culture. In addition to this, the company leadership gathered workers from different education circumstances such as marketer, psychologist and so on. They respect, value, and harness the richness of ideas, backgrounds, and perspectives of every employee and allow them to use their unique personal assets and experiences to work for the organisation. The purpose of IDEO is to create and innovate; therefore the leadership designed everything in the organisation around that objective.

In terms of differences or similarities, it can be said that IDEO and Madonna have similarities such as creativity and innovation. The main reason why Madonna has been successful for many years is due to the manner she was able to rebrand herself. In other words, she was very creative and innovative and that`s the motive of her similarities with IDEO. On the other hand, IDEO is different than Carrefour, Challenger and NHS. For instance, they have distinct organisational culture and therefore the way creativities and innovations are considered in IDEO and other three organisations are completely different.

DJ ...

Strategic Leadership Lecture 5

From the challenger case study, l understood that there are three important lessons which can be used by effective and ineffective leadership. They are:  organisational culture, ethic, power and control.

Moreover, there are many reasons why the mission went ahead; it can be due to the people on the top who used their power and control to influence the organisation’s employees’ deeds.  It can be also due to the organisational culture and ethic where personnel share the same objective.

In addition, the engineers could have done many things to stop the mission.  They had many options such as the media, police and so on.   The issues that Carrefour, NHS and Madonna face is completely different to the challenger case. Nonetheless, it is possible to compare them in terms of leadership’s effectiveness and style.

 DJ (A student)

Strategic Leadership Lecture 4

 

Madonna is an American singer, songwriter, actress and entrepreneur. According to many articles, she is the highest –ever paid female singer, in 2009 had the highest –earning tour of any artist and is second only to the Beatles in her haul of 11 UK number one albums.

The artist has managed to sustain her success for many decades due to, is unique trait. She has the ability to change her image and music genre. For instance, Madonna`s early poppy style was targeted at young wannabe girls. The image that she portrayed through hits such as Holidays and lucky star in 1983 was picked by Macy`s.

She is a very successful   singer, songwriter, actress, and entrepreneur. Thus, she is different than Gerry Robinson (Carrefour CEO). The lessons l learnt form Madonna case study about effective strategic leadership are belief and passion.   When you believe and are passionate about your idea or what you do, people will eventually follow you and share the same visions, goals and objectives.  It can be argued that is why Madonna is successful. 

A student DJ...

Strategic Leadership Lecture 3

This week case study is about the National Health Service (NHS),the name  is used to refer to the four public health services of England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales, individually or collectively, though only England's NHS officially has this title.  It is one of the biggest employers in the UK.

Regarding to the issues discussed with my colleagues on NHS, I believe that the key problem was the organisatioanl structure.   An important component to the success of any organisation is the type of structure it implements. Organisational structure determines the number of layers of management and how departments interact with one another. In NHS, it was not cleared who was leading the organisation, and therefore there was not a chain of command. As the result of that, a poor organizational structure in NHS has created a variety of problems such as bloated management, poor communication and so on.

In addition, when the Carrefour case study is compared with the NHS one, it can be seen that there are certain similarities and differentiates.  Primarily, in terms of differentiation the two businesses do not operate in the same commercial environment. For instance, one is a public limited company in care service and the other one is private limited company in retailing. Hence, one could argue that different organizational structures and strategies are required for each circumstance. However, a person number 2 may well argue that successful leaders have similar characteristics and thus they have the same reaction to the situation.  The similarity of these two leaders is, they are not effective at all.

In conclusion from this week class, I picked up the first art of effective strategic leadership. Bridging, which will be one of my three key lessons and it will be strategy 1.

(A student DJ).

Strategic Leadership Lecture 2

                                                                                  

Last Tuesday, we did a case study on Carrefour a French multinational company which is in turmoil. According to the Case study, Lars olofsson, the CEO was given another six months to revive the firm and his time is up at the moment.  

After all the analysis with my group members, we concluded that Mr olfssson was running the company as a marketing department director and therefore he was not qualify for the job of CEO. This is due to the Fact that he was just concentrated on the firm marketing aspect not on the other functions such as the financial area.  For instance, he has invested hundreds of millions of euros in a revamp called Carrefour planet which is known in marketing term as rebranding.

 It is known that a successful CEO should consider all aspects of the business before starting any strategy, and an effective leader should have clear goals and objectives. Therefore for Carrefour to have a brighter future, they should search for a CEO who has familiarity in all facets of a business.   Carrefour was not able to adapt to the environment they were operated and that was the main difficult. The important thing l learn from this case study is that, how a bad leadership can be a cause of fading of an organisation and the vital role a leader plays in an organisation.    

(A student DJ)

Strategic Leadership Lecture 1



Successful and Strategic Leader

I have started a new module call Strategic Leadership and l found the subject challenging and interesting.  As the result of toady lesson, l am able now to define the topic and also l realised that there are multiple definitions of Strategic Leadership. It can be said that there is not a wrong or right answer on the topic. Additionally, I have worked in group of three individual and each member contributed in the conversation.   To sum, l have had a good impression of my first class of Strategic Leadership environment, which includes how the module is designed, my classmates and the teaching method. Therefore, if l had to do the same class again at the same time, l would do nothing differently.

(A student DJ)