Leadership approaches and strategy

The board of directors has recently appointed Authur Mabuso as the new Chief Executive Officer. Arthur has a reputation for leading successful organisational transformations from his previous appointments in other companies. His leadership is predominantly transformational, characterised by his strong vision, inspirational communication and focus on employee development. He believes in creating a culture of innovation, empowerment and accountability.

Upon joining PCL, Arthur conducted a comprehensive analysis of the company’s operations, market position and employee satisfaction. The following issues were identified: 

Arthur’s first major initiative was to launch a company-wide transformation programme dubbed “PCL revamped”, aimed at revitalising the company’s culture, processes and market research. The programme includes the following components: 

However, Arthur faces the following challenges in implementing “PCL revamped”: 

Within the first six months, PCL revamped has shown promising results. Early innovations from the hubs have led to the development of two new product lines which are yet to be launched into the market. Employee engagement scores have improved and there is a noticeable increase in collaboration across departments. However, some resistance remains and Arthur is working on addressing these issues through continued communication and support. 

(a) Explain FIVE objectives of innovation hubs in the context of “PCL revamped”. 

(b) Suggest FOUR potential strategies that Arthur could use to overcome resistance to change among the long standing employees. 

(c) Analyse FOUR potential long-term impacts of the “PCL revamped” programme on the company’s culture and market position. 

(d) Evaluate THREE roles of leadership development in the success of “PCL revamped”. 

(e) Discuss THREE roles of client feedback in enhancing PCL’s service quality and client relationship. 

(f) Explain THREE differences between “strategic goals” and “operational goals” in the context of PCL. 

(g) Highlight FOUR ways in which the Chief Executive Officer may address the challenge of balancing short-term operational needs with long-term strategic goals. 

(h) Advise the Chief Executive Officer and his team on FIVE alternative pricing strategies that the company could adopt when introducing the new products.  

Before Harold, the only other president of HTEL was the founder and owner of the company, Mark Lewis. Mark stepped down from the leadership of HTEL after reaching retirement age in accordance with the company’s policies. During his tenure, HTEL was bureaucratic and had a traditional and rigid organisational structure. Mark made most of the strategic decisions many times overstepping his Board of Directors. Despite his style of management, the company had a very rich hierarchical organisational culture.

After taking over from Mark Lewis, Harold embarked on transformation of HTEL to a modern company. He believed in involving employees in decision making as much as possible. Though he was a people’s person, Mark seemed not to have the right skills mix required of a Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of HTEL. He was however convinced that new technologies and advanced management techniques could make HTEL one of the best manufacturing companies in the country. To this end, Harold created a vision statement that was displayed throughout the company. The two page statement which had a strong democratic tone, described the overall purpose, direction and values of the company. 

During the first three years of Harold’s tenure as president, a major process re-engineering took place at the company. This was designed by Harold and selected few of his senior managers with the help of some consultants. The consultancy firm was not competitively sourced and had done no similar work before. One of the intentions of the re engineering process was to implement an advanced organisational structure to facilitate achievement of the new HTEL vision. Drastic Changes were made in the organisation. These changes affected all members of staff and how they worked. As part of the changes, the organisation structure was flattened and some offices merged. Some of the changes gave employees more control but less in some instances, where employees should have been given more power. There were some situations in which individual workers reported to three different bosses and other situations in which one manager had far too many workers to oversee.

Rather than feeling comfortable in their various roles at HTEL, some employees began to feel uncertain about their responsibilities and how they contributed to stated goals and vision of the company. Though the CEO had good intentions for the company, the re-engineering process did more harm than good. The overall effect was a precipitous drop in worker morale and productivity. In the midst of all the changes, the vision that Harold had for the company was lost. The instability that employees felt made it difficult for them to support the company’s vision. Employees at HTEL complained that although the mission statement was displayed throughout the company, no one understood the direction the company was going. 

To the employees at HTEL, Harold was an enigma. Harold claimed to be democratic in his style of leadership, but he was arbitrary on how he treated people. He acted in a non-directive style towards some people and he showed arbitrary control towards others. He wanted to be seen as a hands-on CEO, but he delegated operational control of the company to others while he focused on external customer relations and matters of the board of directors. At times, Harold appeared to be insensitive to employees’ concerns. He wanted HTEL to be an environment in which everyone could feel empowered, but he often failed to listen closely to what employees were saying. He seldom engaged in open, two way communication. HTEL had a long, rich history with many unique stories, but the employees felt that Harold either misunderstood or did not care about that history. Four years after arriving at HTEL, Harold stepped down as president after his operations officer ran the company into a large debt and cash flow crisis. His dream of building HTEL into a world-class manufacturing company was never realised.  

(a) Harold Barelli believed to possess a certain leadership style. Drawing evidence from the case study, discuss FIVE characteristics of this leadership style. 

(b) Examine FIVE drawbacks to HTEL from its wide span of control.

(c) For each function of management, explain Harold Barelli’s inadequacies. 

(d) Harold Barelli failed as a leader, resulting to his stepping down as the president of HTEL. Discuss FIVE skills that Harold Barelli would have acquired, in order for him to become an effective leader. 

The company manufactures most of the appliances centrally in India and then ships them directly to its global markets. At the initial stages of establishment, MCL collaborated with technical institutes to train technologists who assembled and maintained the appliances. The company’s after-sale service approach has boosted its customer base globally. Any major repair was referred back to New Delhi.

In the year 2013, MCL hired a business analyst to carry out a worldwide business analysis with the aim of identifying countries where new offices could be set up. This decision would be based on a wide variety of factors. Globally, MCL customers were classified according to geographical regions. Africa region was the largest, with MCL present in five countries. The company had enjoyed monopoly status in the countries where it operated for a long period of time. 

From the year 2018, competition has been building up where some companies have been able to offer more advanced and better products. This has led to MCL’s bottom line being impacted adversely. The competitors’ products are imported as a complete portable set, and do not require local assembly. The marketing model used by competitors borrows heavily on multi-level marketing and therefore embraced by MCL customers. Perception associated with companies such as MCL which sell in large quantities undermines quality selling. The competitors introduced new modes of selling including hire purchase and loaning for the appliances. These modes were quickly adopted by customers. 

Peter Quick joined MCL in the year 2020 as the head of sales, Africa region, at a time competition was very stiff and the financial position of the company was very low. Major customers that had remained loyal to MCL were shifting their loyalty. By the year 2021 the competition grew exponentially as new entrants joined in with cheaper and more technologically advanced appliances.

Khan Ho, the global operations general manager, whose office is in New Delhi, planned for a brainstorming workshop in the year 2022 for all the regional sales heads to advise on the way forward. The regional sales managers were required to provide scientific responses to the problem, guided by facts and the unique challenges in each of their regions. Khan Ho expected that the workshop would yield remedies to the effects of fierce competition and the way forward would be arrived at. 

In preparation for the workshop, Peter Quick and his team carried out an in-depth internal and external analysis of MCL, studied the competitors’ strengths, customers behaviour, market volatility, competitors and products differentiation. In the analysis, it was undisputable that some of MCL’s appliances were unique and effective in the market. 

To enable him understand the reasons behind the customers shift in loyalty, Peter Quick purchased some of the competitors’ products and shipped them to the company’s main laboratories in India for detailed analysis of their constituent parts. The laboratory report revealed that 70% of the competitors’ products comprised of MCL’s products components. The only major differentiating factor was the logo, colour and packaging. Most of the competitors were buying MCL’s products, adding on a few improvements, re-branding, packaging and selling the products in the market as their own. 

In his presentation, Peter Quick noted that the assignment was complex and weighty. To enable him have a logical presentation during the workshop, he classified his findings in the following categories: marketing strategies, production and operations, human resource, ethics and morals, and legal issues. 

The workshop recommended certain measures to be undertaken. These measures included: • To broaden the customer base • Top management to implement e-marketing strategy 

By the beginning of this year, the company’s bottom line had started showing a positive increase. Customers were trickling back in and it is expected that by the end of the year, the company will have regained its lost market share. 

(a) Discuss THREE possible reasons why MCL engaged the services of a business analyst. 

(b) Evaluate FOUR internal factors that could have played part in impacting on MCL’s bottom-line.

(c) Examine FOUR ways in which MCL could apply Michael Porter’s generic competitive strategies to regain its competitive advantage. 

(d) (i) Identify the leadership style applied by Khan Ho in the case. 

     (ii) Analyse FOUR characteristics of the leadership style applied by Khan Ho in (d) (i) above. 

(e) (i) Explain the type of thinking that Peter Quick used, to address the problem. 

     (ii) Analyse FOUR steps followed in the thinking process described in (e) (i) above. 

BD will be taking over the leadership of the XYZ County at a time when nothing seems to work at the county. The county has been greatly mismanaged by the outgoing governor, Kipenda Pesa with his team. The population, especially in the two major towns of XYZ County, Kipeo and Makao has been declining at an alarming rate as many people have been migrating to other towns outside XYZ County in search of better prospects. Kipenda Pesa’s government has been highly bureaucratic and incompetent. His wife appears to wield more power than the governor and she influences how the county government is run. County employees follow her orders unquestionably to avoid trouble. Several large scale manufacturing plants in the county closed down while others have relocated to the neighbouring counties where the business environment is conducive. This has resulted in an increase in unemployment levels that further led to high crime rate in the county.

Many residents described Kipenda Pesa as a “lame duck” who could not make a decision without consulting his wife. As a result of the chronic bad decisions regarding the governance of XYZ County, the county is currently dysfunctional. Garbage is all over the streets, residents have no access to essential drugs in the county hospitals, educational facilities and county roads are dilapidated and some businesses have closed down due to high cost of doing business. Residents of XYZ county have become poorer under Kipenda Pesa’s reign. It is against this backdrop that Baridi Joto (BD), a renowned economist and consultant with an international organisation was approached by some opinion leaders to contest the position of governor and rescue the county. All the aspirants who had been nominated by their respective political parties stepped down in BD’s favour. 

BD has promised to offer visionary leadership in the county. Towards this course, he has developed a manifesto that if implemented, water shortages, bad and impassable roads, lack of drugs in hospitals, children dropping out of schools will be a thing of the past. He has promised to pay all the pending bills owed to XYZ County’s suppliers which run into billions of shillings. Pending bills have really affected small scale suppliers especially those who had borrowed money from financial institutions on the strength of local purchase orders and local service orders issued by the county. Many of them have closed down their businesses while others have seen their businesses auctioned. 

BD has promised to develop a county integrated development plan (CIDP) six months after he assumes office which will address most of the social problems faced by the residents of the county. Currently, there are no recreational facilities in the county. County staff are demotivated due to meagre and delayed salaries. They have been bearing the brunt of various jokes from their peers in other counties especially when they meet in county forums. BD will have to work extremely hard to ensure that the county staff work as one united team in his endeavour to return the lost glory of the county. He has a daunting task of completing projects which were half-way abandoned by his predecessor due to inadequate budgetary allocation and misuse of funds. BD inspires hope and everyone in XYZ County, including children are looking up to him to deliver them from many years of bad leadership.

(a) Kipenda Pesa ran a highly bureaucratic county government. 

     With reference to the above statement, evaluate six drawbacks of bureaucracy that could have contributed to the ills at XYZ County. 

(b) Kipenda Pesa’s wife wields a lot of power and county employees follow her orders unquestionably. 

     (i) Identify Kipenda Pesa’s wife’s source of power. 

    (ii) Discuss six disadvantages of the use of power identified in (b) (i) above with respect the county government’s office. 

(c) Many small scale suppliers closed down their businesses or have seen their businesses auctioned due to failure of XYZ County to clear their pending bills. 

     Explain two external environment factors or aspects that might have contributed to the closure of businesses in XYZ County. 

(d) (i) State BD’s leadership style. 

     (ii) Examine five qualities of the leadership style stated in (d) (i) above.  

By the time of his death, in the year 2015, Modi had transformed EL, a company that was in a very weak financial position into the most profitable technology company in the region. Modi practised pacesetting style of leadership and many are the times he could be heard telling his employees to keep up. He rewarded his top 20% performers highly while at the same time let go of the bottom 10% of the employees. This created a high intensity environment in the organisation. Modi was a proponent of getting involved in the job of employees who were capable and competent.

Unlike founders of most technology companies, Modi had neither engineering experience nor business training. After all, he dropped out of college after only one semester. During his first stint as the CEO of EL, Modi was just a figurehead. He was a CEO without real power since the company was run by other executives and investors. The lesson he learnt after watching his replacement run down EL was to trust his own beliefs and values and completely disregard the conventional views on how to run a company, including the traditional duties of a CEО.

Modi delegated a lot of his duties to members of his executive team, most notably his second in command and eventual successor, Paul Rop. This enabled him to focus on what he was best at; creating products, recruitment of new staff and marketing. In one of the many interviews with the media, Modi commented that he spent most of his time on forward looking issues while his top executives assisted him with non-strategic assignments. In addition to being a strategist, Modi was effective as a transformational leader.

Modi had a hands on approach to product design which was arguably the favourite part of his job. He often went to the industrial design lab to spend time with the design team and would give his opinion and guidance on their prototypes. Product review sessions took up most of his workday. He tested new products and gave imperative feedback to the development team.

During his second tenure as the CEO of EL, the company experienced transformational change due to the implementation of guiding principles for change in the organisation as well as breakthrough in new technologies. Modi was a leading change management proponent and he significantly contributed to EL's alteration of business model, philosophy and business approach. As a transformational change agent, Modi introduced an executive development program where prospective executives of EL were trained on interpreting their surroundings and reacting when their power or safety was challenged. At EL, it was generally agreed that what differentiates leaders is not so much their philosophy of leadership, their personality, or their style of management, rather, their internal "action logic" - how leaders interpret their surroundings and react when their power or safety is challenged. 

(a) (i) Bev Modi turned from an entrepreneur to an intrapreneur. In the context of the case, explain the term "intrapreneur". 

    (ii) Before starting the business, Bev Modi and other founders had to generate a business idea which resulted to manufacturing and selling of computing devices. Examine six methods the founders might have used to generate the above business idea. 

(b) In his second tenure as the CEO of EL, Bev Modi used the pacesetting leadership style to steer EL towards achieving its goals. 

     Required: 

     (i) Explain the term "pacesetting leadership style". 

    (ii) Describe three prerequisites that had to have been put in place at EL for the pacesetting leadership style to work well. 

(c) Using five of Mintzberg's management roles, discuss how the managers of EL could improve their performance. 

(d) At EL, prospective executives went through an executive development program. 

     Examine six ways of leading and action logics that could have been included in the program's curriculum.