Lincoln Electric Venturing Abroad Essay

The Lincoln Electric company, under the leadership of James F. Lincoln saw a major shift in the way business was to be directed and operated with visionary mind-set emulating companies like Ford, Wal-Mart, Merck, 3M as focus was towards the customer’s needs and employee’s compensation. Philosophically customer needs become critical as the reason for being in business and the employees also being the vehicle in achieving the needs of the customers as the case study by Sharplin, A (1989, p.3) clearly positions the companies aspirations. James Lincoln places much importance on the relationship with employees that is guided by mutual respect and individual effort.

The strategy of Lincoln electric is known for its highly unique ideas for paying working according to the number of pieces they produced at works which means higher performance and productivity leads to higher pay roll. He believed in generating the best productivity and utilizing the company’s resources properly. A global organization is complex and has different task and requirement which needs different skills, education, experiences, knowledge and background. And that is why there is different kind of degree and education is available. Each major requires specific knowledge, like marketing, management accounting etc. the companies have segment in its organization also which divides the members into different groups each group have

The founders of the Lincoln Electric Company left a legacy of an organization culture that promotes high productivity through sound management policies which have stood the test of time. The exponential growth of the company after the death of James F. Lincoln was a direct result of the establishment of a rich culture mix based on values that were widely shared and accepted by the members of the organization. Management empowered employees to become part of the decision making process through the contribution of ideas through the Advisory Board which was elected by the employees from amongst themselves. Reward management systems and all the other artifacts of the Lincoln Electric’s distinguished strong organizational culture will be analyzed in greater detail in this essay.

Key elements of the first wave of LE's international ventures are: domestic operations accounted for 85% of the worldwide production and nearly all new product development until the late 1980's, universal application of the "incentive management programs", and in general the corporation paid little attention to there international divisions. However, as of 1996, Lincoln re-organized its international ventures by naming a president for each of the five regions, this is a demonstration of a new emphasis and focus on the international ventures from LE. In additional to the CEO having a planned oversight into the expansion there will be council consisting of each of these presidents to plan, integrate and implement global strategies. The compensation for these presidents will also include interregional cooperation. Both of these efforts address key Lincoln weakness from there prior international ventures of: "sink or swim" corporate attitude and interregional destructive competition. One final item is that Lincoln realized that in the second wave of international expansion true understanding of a country/culture is as important as technological skills.

1. The observable artifacts associated with the Chrysler culture was that the CEO was located in a penthouse office of the building which Mr. Marchionne moved to the middle of the engineering department; he streamlined senior leadership, and to the remaining 15 members he gave them added responsibility feeling that the more decisions they had to make the faster they would work to meet the deadlines; he also gave them the opportunity to take full authority to take risks without worrying about bureaucrats barriers and they were allowed to make smart decisions and to be held accountable for them (Lueneburger, 2014).

Every organization has values and beliefs that define what they do and how they do things in the organization. These values have significant influence on how the employees behaves and the general performance of the organization – it is these set of values and beliefs, rooted deep in the company’s organizational structure that depict the “dos”, “don’t” and the “hows”, of the organization and these unequivocally represents the culture of the organization. This concept became popular in the 1980s when Peters and Waterman in their book: “In search of Excellence” presented the profound argument that, the success of any organization is inextricable linked to the quality of its culture. (Carpenter, M., Taylor, B., Erdogan, B. 2009 p183). The purpose of this paper is an attempt to analyse the impact diverse cultures played in the success of the Lincoln Electric Company.

In his book, Phillips delves into the leadership qualities embodied by Lincoln and explores Lincoln’s own leadership style as it related to both his early career as a lawyer and later, into Lincoln’s political life. Through his research into this book, Phillips relates how Lincoln developed strategies for management based upon his own early lessons in life. Phillips then demonstrates how Lincoln used this knowledge to not only convince the public he was the right man to lead the nation as president, but also to win the Civil War.

1. How was Lincoln able to grow and prosper for so long in such a difficult commodity industry that forced out other giants such as General Electric, Westinghouse, and BOC? What is the source of Lincoln’s outstanding and enduring success?

In conclusion, this incentive system was crucial for Lincoln Electric Company’s success. However, it is difficult for the others to copy because it is based on the culture of competition and justice, which was set up in the very beginning. In the future, the effects of this system might be comparatively lower because machines, which don’t have incentive, are replacing workers in production. However, it still has advantage as there are people in the company, and their innovation in production line design will also benefit the company for long.

I think that Lincoln Electric (LE) should definitely has a production facility in India because of its growth and foreseen opportunities, but if I were LE I would suggest to enter with a local partner in order to gain knowledge and experience in how the country operates in terms of bureaucracy, labor, culture and so on.

Lincoln's competitive advantage lies mainly in its effective compensation and benefits system which put forth three main elements to spearhead the company's efforts. The trinity of elements comprised of piecework, bonus system and guaranteed employment. Piecework provided workers with a sense of autonomy in that now, workers can earn as much as they are willing to work for. The bonus levels in Lincoln far exceeded those of industry peers and were based on their contributions in the form of output, ideas, cooperation, dependability and quality. Consequently, the benefits provided by Lincoln were not extensive as they saw higher wages as substitutes for things such as insurance,

After analyzing the story of Lincoln Electric Company I’ve come to the Conclusion that their organizational culture they practicing is People-oriented culture. Because the company values fairness, supportiveness and they respect individual rights. There is a greater emphasis on expectation of treating people with respect and dignity.

The idea that stuck out the most about the Lincoln Electric Company is that they obviously have a strong culture that all levels of employees are proud to be a part of. According to Carpenter, Taylor, and Erdogan (2010), “culture is a more powerful way of controlling and managing employee behaviors than organizational rules and regulations” (pg. 193, para. 2). The Lincoln Electric Company encompasses facets of multiple types of cultures instead of adhering to only one.

In order to make future international plants more successful than previous acquisitions, Lincoln Electric’s managers may consider re-evaluating their management control approach; carefully evaluating the international labor laws and regulations of the plant prior to deciding whether or not to invest in it; and providing increased training and development to managers and workers of both the parent company and host company to ensure understanding of both sides’ cultural values and beliefs.

Ans. Lincoln has not been very successful in making successful and profitable acquisitions outside of North America, especially when the company has tried to enter a market strictly through the acquisition route. Inexperience of Lincoln’s executives with trade-unions and lack of knowledge of labor practices and laws in other countries proved major stumbling blocks in the effort to integrate the new acquisitions into Lincoln’s distinctive management culture. Local managers and employees are not convinced that these practices are appropriate for their local environment. As a result the Lincoln has realized that it would rely more on joint ventures and strategic alliances rather than an acquisition. In consonance with its investment philosophy Lincoln would only go forward with an acquisition only if it is immediately accretive, the investment had a minimum internal rate of return of 10%, increasing it to over 18% in 3-4 years also the acquisition should be done at less than 8XEBITDA. Since India is a booming market, Lincoln would not be able to achieve its initial investment goals, any acquisition would require paying up a premium. One of the target companies is already owned by the competitor and other local target had a company of family ownership and dispersed ownership structure.