Evaluate two (2) key changes in the selected company management style from the company inception to the current day. Indicate whether or not you believe the company is properly managed. Provide support for your position.
The two major company management styles that have ever taken place in Xerox happened in 1980 and in 2001. Xerox is a company whose development start in 1930s through the company was registered in 1948. The company was initially involved in business of making photocopiers. The demand for its products grew with time and the company was able to experience financial growth during 1960s and 1970s. In 1970s the company diversified its operations to business of information technology through acquisition. However, in the beginning of 1980s, the company experienced rising vulnerability as a result of strong competition from Japanese and US competitors. This according to the analyst was blamed on the management inability to provide a strategic direction to the company. The cost of operation was said to be high and the quality of the company’s product was considered inferior compared to that of its emerging competitors. The company was using centralized decision making strategy which resulted to reduction in its return on assets to below 8% and the market share of the company lowered drastically. One of the executive Kearns intervene trying to lower on manufacturing cost after realizing the competitor operation cost was 45-50% that of the company. He was appointed as the CEO in 1982 where he introduced quality readership and benchmarking management process. This was marked as the first major change in the company (Dragolea & Cotirlea, 2009).
After the 1980s company’s restoration, the company experienced another major financial problem in 1999 where its revenue started going down. The company report huge losses in 2000, this was blamed on bad performance and big effort of reorganization facilitated by Richard Thoman who was the company’s CEO at that time. This resulted to Thoman dismissal and he was replaced by Paul Allaire who was working closely with Mulcahy who was working as COO. The two employed open communication in the organization to foster customer-oriented organization goals, strategies and operations. Mulcahy took over two years after and enhanced what she had stated as a COO to enhance open communication, honesty and working toward achieving the organization goals which were basically based on customer satisfaction. This solved the problem that had been created by Thoman who was an outsourced CEO. This was the second major change for the company (Icmrindia.org, 2004).
Explain senior management role in preparing the organization for its most recent change. Provide evidence of whether the transition was seamless or problematic from a management perspective. Provide support for your rationale.
Xerox Company has always left the role of defining the organization direction to the company’s CEO and his or her executive team. Normally, all changes both positive and negative that have taken place in the company have been initiated by the company’s CEO based on what the CEO consider to be the best strategy to attain the best results. The company’s main aim is to increase its competitive advantage by gaining more market shares. This is can only be achieved by ensuring that the company has quality affordable products as compared to similar products in the market. Therefore the senior management in the company is basically involved in identifying the organization failures or new goals and defines new strategies to solve the problems or to achieve the goals. For instance, the latest major change in Xerox Company was as a result of failed reorganization process which was facilitated by Thoman. In this regard, Paul and Mulcahy had to identify the main cause of failure in Thoman approach and turn it around using their own strategy. For instance Mulcahy had to move from one location to another to speak with the workers regarding their new changes and the approach to follow.
She also established open communication that allowed the employees to post any concern when need be (Icmrindia.org, 2004). This was used to attain the customer oriented goals in the organization. So the management main role is to define the solution, and the strategy to be employed in so doing and to facilitate the implementation of the defined strategies. They also ensure its sustainability and regular adjustment to fit new changes in the market and in technology. The transition was very successful. This is because Mulcahy was able to restore the company’s revenues and profit and since then up to now the company has been registering great financial records and growth. The company management is currently able to focus more on innovation and not correction of previous failures. Thus, Mulcahy work was credible (Xerox, 2015).
Evaluate management decision on its use of vendors and spokespersons. Indicate the organizational impact of these decisions.
Xerox Company has been working with different vendors from different places with intention of enhancing diversity and an extensive range of product distribution in the entire world. To qualify to be a company vendor or distributor, the company provides that one must beware of the company’s rules and regulation and must fill a contract forms that shows one commitment into safeguarding the ethical value of the company. The company has established an electronic system that monitors vendors’ code of conduct which corrects information regarding environmental, safety, health and labor related activities (Xerox, 2015). This ensures that the company’s reputation remains even after involving so many middlemen to effect the distribution system of the company’s product. The management decision to use vendors in their distribution system results to reduction of the product distribution cost and to enhance the availability of the company’s products at different parts of the world. This assist in increasing the market share of the company by making their products available at all times. It also ensures the company’s intensive market penetration at a lower cost. The employment of code of conduct monitoring system enhances the company’s ability to grow and to remain reputable in the market.
The company has used spokesperson in a number of instances. The main goal of using spokesperson is to create customer awareness of their products in the market. It also does so to win the customer’s trust regarding the quality of their products. Use of spokesperson is a market strategy normally used to influence celebrity fans buying behavior due to the honor and trust they have for the celebrity. The company uses spokesperson to increase sales at a particular time since celebrity influence last for a short period. Normally, the company use spokesperson for a certain products and duration mostly while introducing the product to the market to enhance the awareness speed.
As a manager within the selected company, suggest one (1) innovative idea that could have a positive impact on both the employees and customers of the company. Indicate the approach you will take in implementing the new idea. Provide support for your suggestion.
Xerox Company is currently involved in manufacturing of hardware and in business systems development. In this regard, the best innovative strategy that the company can employ to enhance its growth is by developing unplanned innovative environment. In this case, the company will need to develop its employees through training and exposure and also by offering them independent time in the company where they can explore and try something new. This way, the company will allow the workers to get time to grow and to discover new knowledge and ideas that can be useful to the company. This will enhance the spirit of problems solving since workers will have enough time to focus on aspect which has been creating doubt or difficulties in its functionality. It will also give them time to research and get new ways of doing things. This will be beneficial to employees’ career development and life achievements and it will also give customers quality and unique products. This independent time has highly enhanced growth and great level of unique innovations in companies such as Google which has been a leading company in smartphone software. Thus it is a viable idea.
Predict the selected company ability to adapt to the changing needs of customers and the market environment. Indicate one (1) key change in the management structure that may be beneficial to ensuring such an adaptation to change. Provide support for your prediction.
Xerox is a technology company which is well aware of the dynamics of the industry and thus it has the ability to improve its level of innovation to ensure that it can always change a head of time and be the director of the new changes in the technology market. Xerox Company is still a bit centralized in its decisions making and development of ideas. Mostly, workers normally follow the CEOs ideas which are likely to change in every regime and thus the company’s ability to move forward is highly determined by the next leader. However to ensure consistency and reliability in the market and to be able to remain competitive in the market even with the current swift change in the technology the company will have to create a more integrated working environment. In this environment the company will involve workers and leaders in ideas development to enhance a high level of innovation. This proposal is supported by Bowen et al. (2012) who argues that a high level of innovation can be attained through workforce inclusion, exposure, open communication, and teamwork.
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