Nabila Suayd Gold 131039 November 17th, 2015. CASE WRITE UP “KENT CHEMICAL: ORGANIZING FOR INTERNATIONAL GROWTH” INTRODUCTION Kent was established in 1917 as a rubber producer, established its corporate headquarters just outside of Akron, Ohio in a small town called Kent. Kent became a leading global specialty-chemical company when it chose to diversify into additives and other specialty chemicals, developing these products within their own research laboratory in 1953. Kent Chemical Products has grown throughout the years from its core domestic business to an international operation struggling to fully integrate globally. PROBLEM STATEMENT In 1998, CEO Ben Fisher decided global expansion would be Kent’s top priority stating, …show more content…
There were to many competing priorities, so the big issues were never addressed; many domestic division managers were blocking progress and trying to control the global business directly. 3. What do you think of Sterling Partners’ recommendations? What did Kent get for the US$1.8 million fee? The consultants concluded that one of the company´s main problems was that it had been imposing uniform organizational solutions on a strategically diverse portfolio. Because each business had a different mix of global imperatives and local demands, they suggested taking a ore tailored approach. Much of the problem seems to lie within the Leadership roles: they were assigned but undefined and also leaders were chosen mainly from staff in the US who did not understand cultures or know clients. The model required practically perfect managers”. They needed organizational solution that empowers international presence and to upgrade IT solutions for better communications. As a model, the consultants recommended that the company evolve to a more differentiated organization using a tool called “decision matrix”. The process would involve assembling the key business and then creating a process to analyze how they should be decided. The process would involve assembling the key business, geographic, and functional managers from each business and engaging them in discussion about the decisions. 4. What should Luis Morales recommend? What should Chairman Ben Fisher decide?
The global markets become increasingly interconnected and economic dynamics change, companies offering supply chain and logistics services are finding themselves facing multiple challenges and opportunities. Through the increasing integration of global labor markets, companies now have access to massive amounts of talent streams that were once not possible to obtain. However tapping into these talent streams is only possible through a global leadership strategy where the organization has global leaders with a high IQ and global management (Gardner, 2007).
In the case “Managing a Global Team: Greg James at Sun Microsystems, Inc. Tsedal Neeley states that lack of inappropriate communication, leadership and decision-making is root of the crisis of HS Holdings. Generally, cultural diversity is based on many things one being the idea that certain characteristics should not be completely disregarded but regulated and valued as important. With this in view, diverse cultural issues can result in organizational problems. First, we must view your techniques to manage your global team and recognize the primary root of the problems. Secondly, you will need to identify who should be responsible for the crisis of HS Holdings because of miscommunication and inefficient leadership. Thirdly, defining roles and job descriptions is extremely important in an open work environment and
* Transition from the existing pure-functional organizational structure to a matrix-style structure by which key functional executives, comprising a newly formed portfolio process committee, would be directly responsible for making portfolio-management decisions;
Businesses are facing a dichotomy between wanting to chalk out an all-time structure and strategy for their organization, and recognizing that their world is in a constant state of flux [3]. For most of the 20th century they were largely focused on the static elements of this dichotomy. However, in the last decade changes have become more frequent and more dramatic, so much so that a whole branch of management is now devoted to the subject of change itself.
There are six different organizational models: geography, number of employees, product evolution, and distribution of authority, control, and marketplace. Together work effectively to create an outline for how the company is laid out, and conclude how decision-making staff goes about effecting change in an organization is known as geography. Structure of the organization depends on how many corporate locations needed to account for in planning (Root III, 2018). As the company increases, the organizational structure needs to be adaptable enough to accommodate more employees and the possible need for a larger management organization (Root III, 2018). These are the first two models that complement the other four in the next paragraph that together work efficiently and grow for the future.
Transnational organizations also have flexible and ever-changing structures. Their managers incorporate innovation and strategies for the corporation as a whole. Unification and coordination goals are achieved by corporate culture, shared values, vision, and management style. It offers a high level of differentiation, while ensuring that a global organization can coordinate activities and transfer knowledge across various functional areas and geographies (Daft, 2010).
International business meshes across multiple domains most notably market entry strategies and sociocultural variances. Factoring in those two critical aspects and giving them the right amount of attention is the separating line between success and failure. Terralumen, Blue Ridge, and Delta are all successful companies; However, by not observing the basic requirements of
| This model has steps of how organization’s change. There are three steps 1) exploration, 2) planning, 3) action, and 4) integration. The exploration is how organization verify the need for change and acquire the necessary resources (such as expertise) to make the change. Planning involves the decision makers and technical experts and the plan is signed off by the manager. Action is completed by feedback and the replanning. The integration aligns the change with other areas in
Many Chief Executive Officers and top management teams of giant corporations, within North America, Europe, and Japan, acknowledge that providing the correct training model is the most vital challenge that they are challenged with today. They are mindful that it has become even worse during the past decade to identify internationalization strategies and to choose which countries to execute business with. Nevertheless, most companies have stuck to strategies they have conventionally used, which emphasize standardized approaches to new markets while sometimes experimenting with a few twists locally.
The case analysis performed on Travelink Solutions is to evaluate the problem being faced by Travelink and the decisions being made by the management which affect Travelink. The Organization Change Theory helped me to get to know the type of change is going in the organization. With the help of theories I can easily visualize the present scenario of the organization. Change agents are critical as they are the sources of energy and intellect that help organization’s members recognize the need for change, see what the future may look like build support, and mobilize the troops to move towards the vision, assess where and how to proceed next . The change phase is analyzed with context to certain theories which fit the best in different situations. In this case we came to know that while the change phase is going on we have to keep certain factors in our mind that are related to the strategies that need to be implemented during the changing phase. The expansion was there but after the expansion they did not focus on strategic planning and the implementation.
Determine the strategic factors of the company 70 12. Generating alternative strategies by using a TOWS matrix 73 13. Evaluate strategic alternatives – pros and cons. 74 14. Recommend strategic for company (short, medium, and long term) 81 1.
The firm, using international strategy, will develop products or services in their home country and subsequently introduce them to the international market. The company establishes manufacturing and marketing functions in local country, but the head office tight control over it. International strategy transfer distinctive competences to foreign market. However, it lack of local responsiveness.
For any business in the rapidly evolving world of business, planning and implementing successful organizational change is indispensable. Essentially, organizational change refers to a process whereby an organization strives to optimize performance in order to achieve its ideal state characterized by high performance and profitability (Côté & Mayhew, 2014). Any business would be more likely to lose its competitive edge, as well as fail to meet the demands of its loyal consumers if it doesn’t plan and implement change. Weiss (2012) emphasizes that all organizations ought to embrace change, and it’s imperative to note that successful organizational change doesn’t involve simple process of adjustments; instead it requires appropriate change management capabilities.
the skill sets and aptitudes to manage in global organizations. These skills include the culture, the
Paying dividends will reduce the available funds of the company but is a way to increase shareholder value. Increasing or decreasing of DPR spells out the standing of the company to its shareholders. Reduction or not giving dividends for a period will reduce AFN but will mean that the company is struggling to provide enough profit. Shareholders may see this as a signal that further investments for the company are riskier.