Business Turnaround & Organizational Transformation (BTOT)
Learning Diary
Sessions 12 | Date: 13th July 2018 | Case: Three in the Middle: The Experience of Making Change at Micro Switch
In this session we discussed the case three in the middle: the experience of making change at Micro Switch. The key take away from the session are:
Early stage acquisition integration: It had been over 40 years since the merger of the two firms still there is feeling of alienated among the employees shows how well the firm is integrated. This has resulted in more conflicts among the employees and a perception of the acquired firm that they are being milked by the corporate who acquired them.
For instance Rick Rowe was branded as a local boy (Micro Switch) and Deb Massof was branded as an individual hailing from a corporate background (Honeywell)
Work recognition: The firm culture had little recognition for the work done by the employees and the employees wanted small bit of recognition (by saying “Thank you”). The firm did not focus on the small appreciation which could have gone a long way in solving the bigger issues of the firm.
Pygmalion effect kicks in wherein higher expectations result in higher performance
Eagle Visionary: Rick Rowe was awarded eagle visionary which lent credibility to him. With such a tag and a leadership position in the ‘recognition council’, the result is higher motivation to produce better results
Lack of Measurability: No appreciation/criticism can be awarded to the employees because of the lack of benchmarks or measurement parameters. There is no standard measure of employees’ performance.
Managers may think that the subordinates would feel that they outperformed the manager as a result of which they have been thanked by the managers or superiors for the tasks performed by the subordinates.
Empowering employees not optimal every time: During times of crisis, it makes little sense to empower the employees to make decision. At such point of time when there is high stress, managers should be the one showing the direction to the employees. Thus employees would be better off by taking orders from managers than by being empowered to take the decisions at their own ends.
Anchor: There is a strong need to provide direction to the masses by way anchoring via suitable anchor specially at times of extre.....[read full text]
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Please downloadthe paper. Too much to handle: Deb is facing some level of guilt as she feels that she’s not doing enough as she cannot see the results. There’s a lot to take care of but things just don’t seem to fall in place. This led to the further worsening on the issue as she was faced with tiredness, guilt, and confusion – all at the same time.
She is in a situation where there is a need of guidance and direction.
Eagle Visionary v/s a Dreamer: There is a difference between an eagle visionary and a dreamer which is that there is a well laid out action plan to achieve the dream in case of a visionary. Hence, there is credibility lent to the visionary.
Choice of surgical Vs developmental turnaround: Alvarez who was a turnaround leader having turned around 2 divisions before was assigned this firm. There is a felt fear amongst the employees regarding him taking decisions that might be against the employees’ interests and might involve layoffs.
However, to the surprise of everyone Alvarez did not resort to surgical turnaround but rather to growth from the inside via customer-oriented quality solutions involving no layoffs.
Sessions 15 | Date: 14th July 2018 | Case: Three in the Middle: The Experience of Making Change at Micro Switch
Growth turnaround -Understanding Customer Needs Critical Requirement: For turnaround, understanding customer needs and developing processes to meet those needs is essential. Deb was assigned the said role, come year end when the realization of nothing being done in the customer satisfa.....
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Please downloadthe paper. Integration of Building Blocks: A well laid out strategy with the defined focus areasfor all the products and areas is needed to help bring about successful turnaround of a firm in crisis.
Six Steps of Developmental Turnaround
Defining activities Identifying Anchors
Defining sequence of activities
The Speed and focus of turnaround
Coordination and collaboration
Resources: Utilisation of resources
Define the Turnaround Activities: It is not appropriate to overload Deb’s responsibilities even if she’s capable enough of handling numerous tasks at once. An effective turnaround happens only when the right people are given the right work, that too in the right amount of quantity such that there is no over-burdening. So it’s not only about mapping the right individual but also about the quantum of work allotted.
Define sequence of activities to avoid the set of activities from go.....
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DE
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