Figgie International

As noted, brokers and innovators are the leadership roles associated with this model. The role of the broker is to build and maintain a power base, negotiate agreements, and present ideas. The innovators role is to be creative, initiate change, and sustain new ideas and changes. In this case, Langley exemplified leadership roles by single handily changing the mentality of the department soon after he took the position. Although this was a much-needed change for the departments personal, he did not show innovative characteristics by failing to create change regarding the production of tubes. Major change is needed in the process of the tube production. It has been noted by Harold Singer, “ The products and process here now are what they’ve traditionally been from almost the start”. This indicates that Langley needs to innovate and create new tactics and processes for the tube assembly. This would help American Radiotronics Corporation reach its goal of making the department a model show play for the company. Langley’s ability to quickly change the mentality is proof that he has innovative managerial skills. He must keep using these skills to help develop the department.

When working with case two and three focused on the human and the political perspective of management consulting, respectively, the value of identifying the power base and understanding the patterns of dependence and interdependence within the client organization became evident. Case three particularly called for an understanding of the political and human factors, since the presentation was intended for the actual client and not for the consulting mentor as was the case in the second assignment.

After reading the case study it seems that one problem between the hospitals and upper management seems to be lack of communication. It seems that Singh and Mrs. Manzoni have not affectively communicated to the hospital administrators what the goals of the company are and what is best for the company. I believe that Mrs. Singh and the hospital administrators value the importance of two different things. Mrs. Singh values the importance of correct data entry into the firm’s management information system. While, the hospital administrators seem to be placing more value on the importance of patient services. In addition, it seems Mrs. Singh does not know what

In early May 2008, talk began between president of Flinder Valves, Bill Flinder and Tom Eliot, chairman and CEO of RSE about a possible acquisition of Flinder Valves by RSE. The industrial manufacturing industry had taken a hit due to rough economic times and the acquisition made sense. Both leaders were very concerned about the challenges and risks of the deal. Flinder was a company that engineered and manufactured specialty valves and heat exchangers. These products required extensive research and development and they were one of very few firms working in these types of applications. A bullk to FVC’s sales came from defense and aerospace applications. They were known for their

Joe Hinrichs, a recent Harvard Business school graduate, was hired in February 1996 to run the General Motors’s the Fredericksburg Torque Converter Clutch (TCC) manufacturing plant. At 29 years old, Hinrichs was GM’s youngest plant manager. Hinrichs was inheriting a poor performing plant that continually underachieved, losing money year after year. Improvements were desperately needed to increase the efficiency of the manufacturing process and reduce operating costs. GM had considered shutting down the plant; however, when a new bonding process, using carbon fiber, for the TCC was approved in 1995, GM instead invested thirty million dollars into the Fredericksburg plant to incorporate the new process.

In this portion of my case analysis, I will be showing ways for suggested solutions in order to help improve the situation at the Engstrom Auto Mirror Plant. I will be showing ways in which organizational improvement outcomes can directly help remedy some of the issues and recommend strategic actions that would lead the organization in a proactive production workforce. The recommendations are creating committees, rework how the Scanlon Plan bonus works, create or use their marketing and sales department to the full capacity, and to help empower the workforce work to achieve Corporate Social Responsibility. (CSR)

In their case study, Bohmer and Ferlins (2008) presented the transformational change that occurred at Virginia Mason Medical Center (VMMC) since adopting the Toyota Production System (TPS) and tailoring it to create the Virginia Mason Production System (VPMS). The authors followed a structured way of presenting the case by outlining the need for change at VMMC, the strategy that Kaplan followed to transform VMMC, and the results achieved due to this change.

An experienced Philadelphia-area business administrator, Jonathan Golluber holds a bachelor of arts from the Philadelphia College of Textiles and Science. Directly after graduation, he established his own contract health care company with a few dozen professionals. Over the next 24 years, this company expanded under Jonathan Golluber’s direction to support of registry of more than 1000 independent contractors.

So with business going so well for Solectron, how did everything go wrong for the company starting in 2001? Revenue fell from $6.5 billion in 3rd quarter 2000 to $2.2 billion in the same quarter of 2001. The company laid-off 20,000 employees; its stock plummeted; it was faced with plant closures, excess inventory and reduction of floor space. Was it a case of poor planning and management or just the company a victim of an economic downturn? This case analysis will explore what Solectron did wrong and what they could have done and offer some suggestions. It is also interesting to note the Solectron foresaw a pending boom in the Asia (China & India) markets and that if it was able to weather the prevailing storm, Solectron stood a chance of rising up again and succeed.

Nypro, a world leading molded plastic maker, operates a global network to satisfy a worldwide demand of technologically progressive customers who became more demanding, in terms of better quality and shorter delivery time. Thus, NYPRO is faced with the challenge of coping with these issues. Gordon Lankton, president and majority owner, followed a strategy to develop superior technology based on large-scale jobs. Although the company is profitable, Lankton concern is, if the company grows stagnant, the best people would leave the company.

The vision of Cooper Industries, as stated in the case, was to do an ‘outstanding job at the unglamorous part by making necessary products of exceptional quality.’ The goal was to operate in industries that had become somewhat of a necessity for consumers. Examples of such industries include: power transmission, hand tools, drilling and others. Cooper industries had started in 1833, as an iron foundry, and had existed most of its 150 years as a small sized maker of engines and compressors. However, all this changed in the 1960s, when the management decided to expand the company to lessen its dependence on the capital expenditures of the cyclical natural gas business.

In the MIT article, Carroll and Mui reviewed and consolidated a pattern of innovation they summarize as “Think big, start small, fail quickly, scale fast.” This approach is consistent with Lean Startup™ approaches as well as the classic Lean Manufacturing approaches widely understood in manufacturing. We modified the original mantra to “Think Big. Start Small. Learn Quick. Scale Fast/Move On.”

Automotive Builders, Inc. (ABI) is a company that consistently changed its production lines and strategic goals relative to the needs of the times, starting out producing diesel engine parts for tractors in the 1940’s, switching over to the production of parts for military vehicles during World War II, and then, after the war, settling into its current placement in both the automobile and tractor industry. Due to the downturn in the economy and stiff and superior competition in both quality and price rising up from the Japanese who had recently entered into the industry, ABI is trying to find productive and innovative ways to improve sales and guarantee placement as the number one company in its

Acme's mechanistic style was kind of the right approach to begin with as they had all their work underway very quickly as the various roles and responsibilities were assigned and communication was quick. Omega took a lot more time in communicating it to the heads of all departments and spent more time trying to make sure that they all understood the task at hand even after the blueprints arrived. Acme did not take in all the inputs from all its production teams and the President kept overruling hi s engineers on the premise that it had to be done early. He made them build the units even though he was informed that a part was missing and it was crucial. His lack of communication there cost him as it was advised not to go ahead as they it would increase production cost and time by a big margin if they did so. Next he did not heed to the foreman's words when they said that they were not using an efficient process to get the job done. Next they did not bother to search for other suppliers for the part that they were missing. And finally due to the tight deadline they faced they skipped some crucial steps like quality checks and final inspection which ultimately led them giving 10 defective pieces to their customer. Omega took a better approach in this case as it took its time and made sure that everyone knew what they were doing and followed procedure. The advantage they had over Acme

4. How does this case illustrate how strategic intent needs to be matched by both organizational capability and managerial competence; and show how such