Case Study : One Of Seagram 's Management

In the mid-nineties, Seagram’s core market, the spirits and wine business, had stalled. At the

Lueneburger, Christoph (2014). Lessons from Chrysler: how to rev up a purpose-driven corporate culture. Retrieved from

The chief concern is the major change and transformation that needs to take place, a new model that has the potential for new ground, trailblazing ahead. Currently, due to economic, social, and cultural shifts, Seagram recognizes a need for a shift as well in order to meet new demands, attitudes, and perferences. In attempting to increase profits, retain reputability, and influence, Seagram

To understand the organizational culture of a company, one needs to start by looking at the history. Lakeshore Learning Materials was born from a divorced mother of three named Ethelyn Kaplan, who took a dream and a chance by moving her family to California in 1954 to open a toy store. When she started noticing that teachers were interested in her material, Ethelyn realized that she needed to expand her business into educational materials. 60 years later, Lakeshore Learning Materials has grown into a company with over 2000 employees, 60 retail stores throughout the United States and growing. Lakeshore Learning Materials is currently headed by Ethelyn’s grandsons, Bo and Josh Kaplan. Under the supervision of Bo and Josh, Lakeshore continues to be a leader in the Educational Materials, yet still able to keep the family culture that their grandmother started. Highest quality customer service and hard work are the core values that shape Lakeshore’s Organizational Strategy. These high expectations aren’t hard for employees at Lakeshore because the company is so loved by everyone that works there, that they give nothing less than the best.

Upon review of the information provided, it is clear that a vision set forth by Upper management, President and CEO Edgar Bronfman, Jr. had not been implemented and there is much work that needs to be completed to fulfill his legacy. Bronfman’s statement was clear and concise with a vision to be sought after no matter the cost. His vision, according to Jick & Peiperl, 2011 is for Seagram’s to be the “best managed beverage company” (p. 255). Bronfman had an idea/image of how he wanted Seagram’s to be viewed by the world and its employees. His vision offered a baseline for all employees to follow which in turn offers a one company initiative. Offering this baseline for the corporation leaves no chance for deviation from the cause. This company with deep roots in diversity and was losing ground due to changes in the new ideas of sobriety, increases in taxes on liquor, the 1990s recession, increased government regulation and social criticism (Jick & Peiperl, 2011). To define this project is to give direction and purpose to Bronfman’s word by backing them with actual progress towards his vision. This vision for Seagram’s is to not be confused with the need of the newly acquired MCA Corporation. This company should have its own visions and values.

Do you buy your insurance at Progressive because you like Flo? She may be the current face of Progressive as a company, but a strong cultural emphasis over the past few years has produced significant results for their customers, their shareholders and their employees. Coleman (2013) discusses building a differentiated culture and a lasting organization through the six factors of vision, values, practices, people, narrative (a historical review of the culture) and places (work environment). This paper will use these six factors to review the significant growth at Progressive in overall revenue, earnings, and employee satisfaction through a gradual evolution of the Progressive corporate culture. It will discuss particularly people and customer focused changes in culture, their impacts on the workforce, and their effectiveness. It will close with a discussion of how the lessons learned could be applied at other companies that have high turnover, a poor image, and/or a culture that detracts from their competitive landscape.

Today’s companies are challenged by frequent changes in market demands and consumers’ desires for new products and services. Companies which fail to adapt to these changing conditions often find themselves struggling to survive. This is the situation for the Texas Plant, as described in the case study by Pryor, Humphreys, and Taneja (2011). The Vice President, Human Resources Director, and Organizational Development Manager find themselves not only facing the struggles of transforming the Texas Plant, but also the difficulties of working together to achieve it. The following paper describes these difficulties and examines how the actions of the leaders impacted the change process. Recommendations to assist the plant’s leadership in moving forward will be offered.

How has Hanna Andersson applied values-based leadership in terms of the organization’s choices related to P-O-L-C?

Seagram has enjoyed a long history of success from its inception in 1924 with a single distillery in Canada to a world-wise company. During this timeframe, global recognition has afforded Seagram the opportunity to grow to 14,000 employees as well as creatively diversify in a manner than many companies could not imagine. Unique purchases of oil companies as well as what some might argue to be more logical partnerships like fruit juices such as Dole Food Company, Inc. created continued accomplishments that would shore up the company and create a secure future. In addition calculated investments with DuPont, MCA Inc., which includes Universal Studios and them parks as well as electric companies build an impressive portfolio for Seagram as well. We know that highly diversified organizations are more successful, “firms whose business units are highly related to each other, such as in a focused company, are outperformed by those whose business units are moderately unrelated to each other” (Graham, 2012, p.14). Although this argument makes little sense, Seagram has, for years, experienced the benefits of being highly diversified.

First step is to set, agree and emphasize on our hard goals as a team. These goals are not expected to be too different form the ones set by Brian for V.H.E. After that, each division is expected to present their SWOT or a similar analysis for their individual center. Once these tasks have been completed, each individual center manager and I can set and agree on hard goals for that division along with a specific strategy to reach those goals. For example, the goal of reducing waste, including, high level inventory will be on the hard goals list for all profit centers. Profit sharing plan will be re-written to reward

The intent of the proposal is to address the case brought forward to our organization concerning “The Young Change Agents,” at Price Waterhouse (PW) who later merged with Coopers & Lybrand. It is my understanding that the platform to address the need for change in the organization plummeted with three young pioneers (Shaw, Middleburg and Sgaralgli) recognized a need for change. Prior to Shaw and Middleburg arrival to PWC, they had an opportunity to work in a well-known student organization AIESEC. In their tenure at AIESEC life was different, as Shaw recalled while operating as the president of the national organization in New Zealand division; he recognized that AIESEC focused on developing his leadership skills by focusing on such programs as skills, attitudes, values and cultural understanding. Furthermore, he noted that his transition to PwC led to a lower echelon, and it was difficult to transition from the president to a staff member. PwC also had a high spending budget for stationery compared to New Zealand AIESEC. Moreover, the technology was not up to par for such a large cooperation. (Jick & Peiperl, p. 463) Shaw and Middleburg later partnered with Sgaralgi to fight the deficiencies that they saw in PwC. They created a force that focused on overhauling the existing values at PwC. They approached each situation, manager and employee one step at a time. Expecting nothing in return, but only to share their message on the new

The case study detailing the dilemma faced by the organization known as Box, Inc., is one concerned with the challenge of maintaining organizational culture in the face of rapid growth. The organization began as a classic start-up company that evolved out of a garage by a few friends. Beginning as a simple organization with few team members paved the way for the successful culture that would permeate the company for years to come. The challenge facing Box, Inc. in the study is not one of loss, but, rather, one of gain. The organization has rapidly expanded in the last few years, now hosting multiple sites around the globe and over a thousand employees. This rapid change presents the top executives, such as CEO Aaron Levie with the difficult task of preserving their start-up culture that breeds ingenuity and success. One managerial solution the top executives implemented was their institution of a rigorous and highly selective hiring process. This solution was highly effective in maintaining the organizational culture within Box, Inc., in light of the multiple organizational behavior theories that describe the strong correlation between selective hiring and cultural sustainability within a company.

The image of the company is a lot dependent on how everyone will interpret and implement the message of the Statement of Vison and Values. Clients now view O&M people as “uninvolved, distant, and reserved”. Beers needs a way to reach all employees as effectively as she has done with the few key people: challenging them to be more creative, to toss aside the old rules and really embrace the new Vison.

There is a multitude of reasons as to why an organization may change their culture. Some catalysts to cultural change could be such things as changes in the economy, external events, internal shortcomings, restructuring of leadership, or growth of technological capabilities. Since IBM was founded in 1911, it has undergone a multitude of cultural changes driven by each one of these factors. The 1990’s included a large cultural shift for this organization driven by a new CEO and new technological capabilities.

Over the years 1994 – 2003, white goods producers Whirlpool Corporation initiated and implemented changes to their business model to enable them to move from a previously engineering focused organisation to a more customer focused entity. The structure and processes they put in places has since embedded itself in the company’s culture. This report analyses the 2005 Harvard business Review case study ‘Change at Whirlpool Corporation’ using the Hayes and Hyde model of change, Higgin’s 8-S model, Hayes Stakeholder management grid and Kotter’s Model of leadership to examine how senior