Why Didn’t We Know? Galvatrens is consumer products company based in Houston whose core business is in home-health care and personal beauty. The top management comprises of the CEO and Chairman Chip Brownlee, the COO Harry Mart, the Senior VP of Sales Terry Samples, the Senior VP of Human Resources (HR) Dale Willis, the Lead Director Arch Carter, General Counsel Sydney Baydown, and the head of Audit committee Sheila Cruse. Chip’s predecessor was Walter Nikels, who was “authoritarian and hierarchical in his management and strategy style” (Hasson, 2007, p 2). As the company grew, Walter’s refusal to hire new talents into his executive team led to the exit of some of the best employees to competitors and the unattractiveness of Galvatrens to MBA …show more content…
2), Chip lured Harry from a competitor into Galvatrens as COO. Harry made notable changes to the supply chain, manufacturing efficiency and capacity. Chip also replaced the general counsel with Syd, a colleague in that capacity at Paloreq – where with her contributions, Paloreq was able to attract and retain talent. At Galvatrens, Syd advised that procedures for revealing and solving conflicts in the workplace be improved, modifications she had made too at Paloreq. With the CEO’s permission, Syd had a consulting firm review Galvatren’s existing system; the consultants’ advice brought about the institution of new policies. An open-door policy for raising workplace concerns was one of them; this policy required employees to meet with immediate supervisors or managers at any level about their concerns, and also included a ban on retaliation. Other additions include an ethics officer responsible for enforcing the code of conduct, the use of a toll-free 24-hour hotline in reporting violations to the code of conduct and the launch of an ethics awareness campaign. Essentially, Galvatrens aimed at being transparent and ethical. Even with these reforms, Galvatrens still faced the challenge of having a weak system of confidentially reporting misconduct. Hence, they found themselves in a lawsuit situation filed by Mike Fields, a former divisional sales manager at …show more content…
According to Trevino and Nelson (2014), “rewards and discipline are probably the most important influences on people’s behavior at work”. To prove this, HR should clarify to employees that Mike’s job termination was as a result of his performance slide and not because he uncovered a misconduct. Management should reward Mike by letting him return to his job, giving him a more flexible schedule to allow him manage his personal problems and attach monetary benefits. For Galvatrens, this would be the best recommendation because rewarding Mike would aid an out-of-court settlement and keep the reputation of Galvatrens
The second part, “Why It Happened: Eighty-Five Years,” explains the origins of the firm and its founding and operating principles, and it sets the basics for why several deviations from these founding principles eventually led the firm astray.
When Jim Kilts showed up at Gillette in 2001, the first outsider to run the Boston-based company in more than 70 years, he found a business with great brands losing market share. Its acquisitions of Duracell and Braun were not delivering. Sales and earnings were flat, the company had missed its earnings estimates for 15 straight quarters, the stock had plummeted, and Wall Street had lost patience. Yet two-thirds of the top managers were getting top ratings. People were being rewarded for effort; performance, under Mr. Kilts regime, became the new measure.
Out of the three examples he wrote about, one’s motto was to ‘eliminate excuses’. In 1980, John Paul DeJoria (who was then living in his car) and Paul Mitchell (a hairdresser) started their company, John Paul Mitchell Systems, of selling shampoos and conditioners. Their starting capital was only $700. It was a rather unpromising time to start a business, with inflation at 12.5 percent and interest rates at 18 percent. Previous to the start of the company, DeJoria grew up poor in the Los Angeles area. He did not have the money to attend college, so he took numerous sales jobs, including a succession of positions at hair-care firms. In fact, he got himself fired from most of them. This had a profound effect on him as he told Charles Payne on his radio show. “When people fire you for not being their kind of manager, it makes you want to be your own manager,” DeJoria said. DeJoria later teamed up with Paul Mitchell. Unfortunately, a European investor pulled out of their business before they were able to launch. This left Dejoria and Mitchell with practically nothing. So before the first bills were due, DeJoria packed his new hair product in his trunk and found his own buyers going door to door. Perseverance pays off, as DeJoria and Mitchell’s privately held company makes 90 hair-care products that are sold in 100,000 salons nationally and in 80 countries today. DeJoria’s advice to
Sears has created a “Financial Crisis” when hedge fund manager Edward Lampert took over control of the company. The mentality of investors of a CFO is an important viewpoint during crisis because it can help streamline process and reduce cost. Retail experience should be dominant the retail in order to feel the pulse of the consumer desires and to determine proper margin levels while eliminating inefficiencies in the organization. According to Marina Strauss of the Globe and Mail, “a sweeping change will be required to improve the retailer’s outlook”. She quoted the (CEO of Sears-Canada) Mr. McDonald saying in a memo that “Our store are too difficult to shop in. We have inconsistent execution…We do not offer the right product in the right market” (STRAUSS M., 2011).
General Motors became a “centralized organization, so decision-making authority is concentrated in the hands of top-level managers, and little authority is delegated to lower levels” (Ferrell et al., 2015, p. 199). Centralized organizations have little upward communication and top-level manager may not be aware of problems and unethical activities. According to Ferrell et al., (2015), it has been noted that “centralized organization may exert influence on their employees because they have a central core of policies and codes of ethical conduct” (p. 201). Conversely, to survive at GM employees praised the CEO intelligence and carried out their orders by keeping a low profile, and never made waves. GM rewarded employees who followed the old traditional ways and those that challenged their thinking lost promotion opportunities or their jobs. However, General Motors experienced conflict between corporate management responsibility and social responsibility. Consequently, General Motors “attempted to implement a new mentality upon its management in a short period of time” (Goussak, Webber, & Ser, 2012, p. 49) by changing the company’s environment, but
Several employees have witnessed varied offensive conduct by Mazey but have kept opinions to themselves until recently (Yemen & Clawson, 2007). Senior management at Hudson is aware of his behavior via 360o reviews; however, Mazey’s ability to produce revenue secured his promotion to vice president (Yemen & Clawson, 2007). Mazey acquiesces to upper management and believes employees of lower stature should do the same for him, while also accepting his unprofessional, degrading and condescending habits (Yemen & Clawson, 2007).
Schwartz, Felice N.”Management Women and the New Facts of Life.” Harvard Business Review Jan.-Feb. 1999: 3-14.
Lawrence, A. T., & Weber, J. (2014). Business and Society (14thth ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Companies Inc
Andrea Jung became president and CEO of Avon in 1999 and has totally revamped the company. Under her leadership, the company has updated its product line, launched new advertising, and created a new image (Fact Monster, 2005). Avon's sales have increased by 30 %, profits 40%, and the stock price has dramatically improved (Ibid). Jung's has been able to align the firm's core capabilities with its strategic targets which has lead to phenomenal results. It appears that Jung has been able to establish a clear vision for the firm that has been incorporated in every aspect of the firm's operating system. This vision is shared by all employees and representatives of Avon priming the company for continued success.
Not all strategies “fit” within the companies activities, some are hit and misses such as when Stewart placed Charles Koppelman to the board, where “he became chairman of the board in 2005, where he negotiated a paid consulting arrangement for himself. He was viewed as enabling Stewart’s self-regard as much as tending to th...
The corporate culture at W.L. Gore & Associates (Gore) is refreshingly different than that of other firms. Forgoing the more traditional organizational chart, the company describes itself as a “team-based, flat lattice organization” (W.L. Gore & Associates [Our Culture], 2011, para. 1). Its employees generally do not have job titles and are called “associates”; also favoring the term “sponsors” over bosses (Our Culture, 2011). While some businesses in today’s economic environment are just trying to survive, Gore takes a long-term view approach to decision-making that has helped it thrive for over 50 years (Our Culture, 2011). As a privately held company, it is also interesting that Gore’s culture provides for making a wide variety of information available to the public on its website. In addition to publishing information about its history, leadership, and associates Gore includes annual growth and revenue figures for the world to see. It is quite unusual for a non-public company, especially one of this significant size, to voluntarily make this information available to everyone including the competition. This sends a consistent message that strengthens and protects the organization’s well-deserved reputation for integrity among customers, associates, and vendors alike.
BR was sold to Delta Foods in 1996 for US $2 billion. At this time, it was one of the largest fast-food chains in the world generating sales of US $6.8 billion. DF purchase of BR brought in a new cultural paradigm. DF is an individualistic, aggressive growth company with brands they believe are strong enough to support entry into new overseas markets without the need for local partnership. The DF strategy is one of direct acquisition and JV’s were not part of their strong suit. DF strategic implementation is based on hiring local managers directly or transferring seasoned managers from their soft drink and snack food divisions. The DF disdain for JVs is clearly reflected by their participation in only those JVs where local partnering was mandatory (e.g. China) to overcome regulatory barriers to entry. JVs had been the predominant strategy for BR which was unlike the DF outlook. Terralumen’s strategy was misaligned and out of sync with the DF strategy. This was unlike the complementarity that existed with BR’s strategy. This misalignment began to affect the JV relationship that had worked well with BR in the initial years. The failure of Terralumen and DF to recognize this fundamental cultural difference between their operational strategy styles i.e. Individualistic and Collectivism leads to their inability to proactively create steps for better alignment in the early period after acquisition, creating uncertainties and difficulties for both corporations. There is a lack of communication and virtually absence of trust between two new partners. DF appeared to be flexing its muscles in the relationship and using a more masculine approach compared to Terralumen’s more feminine approach. Both the corporations are strategically involved in a complex situation where they appear reluctant to address the issues at stake and move ahead together. The DF strategy of
General Mills Canada is declining in sales due to a lack of innovation. For instance, Homer notices that risk aversion within the company is causing it to not perform at its fullest potential. Therefore, one can assume that “employees offer few new ideas or few ideas that are well outside of what is considered safe or ordinary” out of fear that such ideas will hinder General Mills’ success. The employees’ risk aversion causes the company to continue offering mature products such as Cheerios, Nature Valley granola bars, Green Giant vegetables, and Old El Paso taco and seasoning products, which can only change in limited ways. Another issue is that employees in the Marketing, Finance, Sales, Consumer Insights, and other departments, stick with their own department, are collaborate only within their department, and do not embrace individualism. Homer posits, “we found …that our collaborative culture made it so that ever...
General Electric Corporation is a multi-billion dollar conglomerate founded in 1892. The company was founded in Schenectady, New York to capitalize on the patents of Thomas Edison and the use of electric power through generation and distribution. Now a blue chip publicly traded company that has branched out beyond its core into arenas such as aircraft engineering, television, and home appliances to name a few. Over the years the corporation has been through different management models that have brought innovation in many forms that have allowed them to be envied by companies around the world. Despite great success since its conception, like many companies who can withstand the test of times, it’s natural for them to become self-absorbed, which can have a negative impact on the company structure as a whole. Coming across someone like Jack Welch who can think out of the box and in a manner that doesn’t strain the resources of the company but expands the thinking of the company as a collective unit is needed to continue the legacy of innovation in all aspects of business.
Boone, L. E., & Kurtz, D. L. (2009). Contemporary Business (13 ed.). New York, NY: Wiley.