Analysis of Black and Decker International

In 1910, S. Duncan Black and Alonzo G. Decker started their business Black and Decker. Six years later they introduced the first portable power tool and the company has been growing and changing the world ever since (Stanley Black & Decker, Inc., 2011a). In 1990, Black & Decker acquired the Emhart Corporation that included locks and lock set products (Cummings & Worley, 2009). With the introduction of this new product and Black & Decker’s desire to improve their global market, Fred Grunewald worked to develop an intervention to restructure the organization. In this effort, he identified that they needed to reduce and consolidate the different models and manufacturing efforts within the organization (Cummings & Worley, 2009). This would mean increasing their need for global integration and reducing their need for customized products which is described by Cummings and Worley (2009) as global orientation. However, there are issues with globalization that must be understood and addressed in their strategic change plan to ensure that the new strucutre is effective and has the desired effects on the outcomes.

Characteristics and Interventions for Worldwide Strategic Orientations

According to Cummings and Worley (2009) there are four worldwide strategic orientations that are international, global, multinational, and transnational. These four strategic orientations are based on the need for global integrations and the need for local responsiveness (Cummings & Worely, 2009). Based on Black & Decker’s organization, they have a low need to offer customized products, which is the level of local responsiveness. In addition, Black & Decker wants to centralize and coordinate actives which would require a higher need for global integ...

... middle of paper ...

...dardization will improve the organization. The interventions have to be cognizant of the different cultural values of the different employees and work groups within the organization. Finally, management has to agree and visually support the new strategic structure to show commitment for the change program thus enabling employees to develop the new behaviors they will need to make the change successful.

While most change programs are not successful (Cummings & Worley, 2009), it appears that Black & Decker was successful in integrating the new lock product line into their global strategic structure, since they currently have a efficacious lock business worldwide (Stanley Black & Decker, Inc., 2011). In addition, Black & Decker combined with Stanley in 2010 to deliver tools and solutions that individuals count on worldwide (Stanley Black & Decker, Inc., 2011).