...Assignment: Background Read the following Case Scenario and then attempt this task Enron: How the Failure of Leadership, Culture, and Unethical Behavior Brought a Giant to its Knees Background A company with humble beginnings, Enron began as a merger of two Houston pipeline companies in 1985. Although Enron faced a number of financially difficult years, the deregulation of the electrical power markets took effect in 1988, and the company redefined its business from "energy delivery" to "energy broker." Enron quickly changed from a surviving company to a thriving one. Deregulation allowed Enron to become a matchmaker in the power industry, bringing buyers and sellers together. Enron profited from the exchanges, generating revenue from the difference between the buying and selling prices. Deregulation allowed Enron to be creative—for the first time, a company that had been required to operate within the lines could innovate and test limits. Over time, Enron's contracts became increasingly diverse and significantly more complex. Customers could insure themselves against all sorts of eventualities—such as a rise or fall in interest rates, a change in the weather, or a customer's inability to pay. By the end, the volume of such financial contracts far outstripped the volume of contracts to deliver actual commodities, and Enron was employing a small army of Ph.D.s in mathematics, physics, and economics to help manage its risk. As Enron's products and services evolved, so did...
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...Business Research Decisions Team success or failure is caused by many factors. Even with the best efforts of organization leadership and team members, team success is not guaranteed. Organizations desiring success will study team failures within the organization for the health of future projects. Analyzing failure is important because it affects employee morale and also has financial implications (Team, 2013). There are five major categories attributed to team failure. In this paper we will examine and discuss the five categories identified as environmental influences, goals, roles, processes, and relationships. Failure in any or all of these categories leads to failure of the organization as a whole (Team, 2013). The hierarchy of business decision makers categorizes organizations based on how they use business research to make decisions. List and explain the three levels in the hierarchy. Environmental influences can be described as external factors such as team members working in different locations or teams having to straddle different time zones making it difficult to communication quickly and effectively(Team, 2013.) In the world of today’s communication options, this could be remedied by using Skype® or instant messaging, along with Google Docs® for group efforts. Communication is the most important part of successful teams. Another environmental influence is that a team may not be given sufficient resources to do the job. A team that does not have the necessary...
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...The ABC’s of Failure – Getting Rid of the Noise in Your System For the past 40 years, I have observed many companies, including DuPont (where I spent 27 years) pursuing planned maintenance with the standard tools of planned maintenance: inspections, planning, scheduling, materials procurement, CMMS systems, etc. with the same results. They succeed for a while and get their percent planned and scheduled maintenance up to the 80+ only to see that drop back later to 60 I am amazed how many of the companies we work with have had this experience. This pattern of behavior has led us to conclude that the reason for this experience is that only 60% of the normal work of maintenance is inherently plannable. The rest of the work is created by random acts of what we are now calling care-lessness. The sites where we see people break this pattern and achieve 92% to 96% planned maintenance for the long term without regressing, are the ones who eliminate the inherently unplannable work. Of course, this cannot be done by maintenance alone. Everyone who does work at a site contributes to the defects that create the unplannable work, and therefore everyone must participate in eliminating the defects that create the 40% of the work that is unplannable. In the diagram below we attempt to more clearly articulate the true significance of Defect Elimination by outlining the ABC’s of failure. Fundamentally, failures happen because things that exist are not perfect. To reduce failures we must eliminate...
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...A woman named Alexandra Elle once said “I am thankful for my struggle because without it, I wouldn’t have stumbled upon my strength.” Accepting defeat is perhaps one of the most difficult challenges to go through. The mortification is tough to overcome after experiencing failure. Failure comes in many different forms and people have different ways of handling it. For myself, my failure came recently after I was not reelected for senior class president. After I found out I was no longer a part of student council, I had one question to answer: what do I do now? Throughout my years at high school, I have held a variety of positions in student council. I was class reporter my freshman year, class vice president my sophomore year, and class president...
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...Failure is a path to understanding success MGT302 Management and Leadership June 08, 2012 Failure is a path to understanding success Success means being a winner, an achiever. When we are successful, we feel good. This means that we have achieved a goal that we have set, or that we have experienced some good fortune. Too often, however, our successes run through our fingers like water, regardless of how tight we cling to them, and soon we find ourselves unsuccessful once more (Rock, 2007). By the time Steve Jobs’ (1955-2011) Wikipedia page had been adjusted to past tense, eulogists had added a footnote to his biography of success – failure. Steve Jobs, though wildly successful, also failed often and badly. Therein, perhaps lies the larger lesson of his life: Sometimes you have to fail to succeed (Parker, 2011). The truth is you usually have to fail to succeed. No one emerges at the top. Even those born lucky eventually get a turn on the wheel of misfortune. Anyone with a resume of accomplishments also has a resume of failures, humiliations and setbacks. Steve Jobs was fired by the company he cofounded. Yet it was during this period of exile that he picked up a little computer graphics company later called Pixar® Animation Studios, the sale of which made him a billionaire. This is to say, to fail is human. To resurrect oneself is an act of courage (Parker, 2011). If you want to learn the secrets of success, it seems perfectly reasonable...
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...known as Hostess Brands. Hostess Brands filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in November 2012. They had to close all the Hostess Brands factories and ending 18,500 jobs. In the fiscal year 2012, Hostess had a net loss of $1.1 billion with a revenue of $2.5 billion. Hostess spent eight years in bankruptcy. Many will like to know what the cause of the company bankruptcy was. (Ghillyer, 2014). Hostess Brands products and equipment would be sold through what is known as a “363 sale” because it was still in a formal liquidation. A 363 sale means everything will be sold without any liabilities for the financial ruin that the company had previously caused. $1 billion was forecasted as the sale price hoping some jobs would still be available. The leadership teams of Hostess and the unions that represented the employees of the companies, along with the funding companies said their goal was to save the company (Ghillyer, 2014). On lookers believe the company choice in snacks was the downfall of the company. Hostess had a complete line of snacks, famously known for Twinkies and Ho-Ho’s, that were not healthy. With the change of diets in some of their consumer; the company failed to adjust to their consumer wants, a healthy snack. The company found it hard to keep them going by just offering a 100-calorie Twinkie (Ghillyer, 2014). In 2004, Continental Baking Company was known as Interstate Bakeries Corporation and was in their first bankruptcy. Dealing with high-labor costs, over 5,000 delivery...
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...Companies that have been Unsuccessful because of their Refusal to Implement Project Management Student’s name Institution Introduction To begin with, the major objective of a business is to maximize profits. At the beginning or startup of a business, the owner expects that the business will earn him or her higher returns from his or her invested funds. However, this is not always the case almost businesses fail to meet this desired goal. What then are the causes of these disappointments? How can the problem be resolved? Well, project management is among the best techniques or strategies that can enable a business to attain its desired goal of profit maximization. Failure to implement project management in a business has been found to affect the performance of many businesses (Robbins & Coulter, 2005). This paper contains a detailed explanation of three companies that have been unsuccessful because of their refusal to implement project management. The three companies with some background information Alpa, MiniScribe and Panther are among the companies that have become unsuccessful due to lack of implementing project management. Beginning with Alpa, it previously used to design and manufacture 35 mm SLR cameras. It was known as among the best companies in this task. However, Alpa could not attain their goal. Not only did they fail to earn higher returns or profits but they ended up experiencing a bankruptcy something that made them to sell the company. Today, those who...
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...Memorial Health System’s CPOE implementation. There are several factors that contributed to the implementation’s failure. We will discuss them here, and what could have been done instead to help the project succeed instead of fail. Lack of Belief in the Project Members of the organization do not see the need for change, and are resistant to it. They feel the project is more of a hassle than a help, and will cause them problems (Wager, Lee, & Glaser, 2009). Indicator/Root Cause In this case study, several physicians’ were opposed to switching to a CPOE system. They were not convinced of the need for the CPOE implementation and resisted to the change. Eventually some of the prominent physicians’ left the organization for an organization that does not use CPOE. The root cause in the lack of belief in the project is that these physicians did not have confidence that it would help them. Also the CIO did not help any by making the physicians’ feel at ease or explain to them why and how the CPOE would help them. Solution An easy solution would be for the CIO to hold one meeting for everyone and explain the pros versus cons. Allow for everyone to air his or her frustrations, and address each one. This was not addressed initially and could have saved a lot of hassle and uncertainty from the organization’s employees. Insufficient Leadership Support Insufficient Leadership Support is when the leader (CIO) does not devote the time and effort into the project. Instead, he or she...
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...correction with timeframes, and consequences for non-compliance. Copy the instructor (your superior, Graham) on the memo. Also, as a supplement to the memo and written to your superior only, prepare a brief report (2-3 paragraphs) on which style of leadership you would like to employ to correct the situation and use support from text and other management resources. CONFIDENTIAL MEMORANDUM To: Betsy Graham Metro City Health Department Supervisor As you know there has been significant stories regarding employee Dorothy Wilson and her unfavorable rapport she has at Suburban. The depth of the problem is much bigger than I even realized, such that I am asking you to take disciplinary action on behalf of Suburban Health Center by terminating RN Dorothy Wilson. This letter highlights the official written report of Dorothy Wilson’s job performance. This analysis was prepared from my own research that was conducted from 2 weeks of extensive review on Wilson’s job performance, employee relations, and the evaluation of her personal file. CC: Dorothy Wilson Surburban Health Center and Staff RN From: Metro City Health Department Supervisor(s) This is in regards to the multiple issues of absenteeism, tardiness, careless work, and failure to follow rules/directions. The Metro City Health Department Supervisor(s) have found the following to be detrimental to the Suburban Health Center and Staff: Upon Your Personal File Evaluation— • Wilson has showed excessive tardiness which...
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...Week Five Failure Analysis/Change Strategy Deirdre Martin-Banks, Claudia K. Elizondo, Hana Habbal, Aisha Lawson, Elizabeth Walton, and Erika Williams MGT/521 August 9th, 2015 Dr. Arny Bereson Introduction Analyzing and comparing the organizational strategies of different businesses operating under the same circumstances can help in understanding the factors that affect the success or failure of a business. Team A indentified as an organization that managed to succeed, and Borders Books as a business that failed during the past few years. This paper examines each company by analyzing each of their structure, culture, strategies, and behavioral theories, and creates a change strategy for Borders Book to save the company assuming the failure did not take place yet. Part One A- Southwest Airlines Objective, Mission, and Vision Southwest Airlines was founded in March 15, 1967 by Rollin King and Herb Kelleher, ("About Southwest"). They wanted to start a different airline that advocated for the people. Their objectives were to get passengers to their destinations when they wanted to be there and for the lowest fare possible. From these objectives grew a successful company that passengers and employees alike will agree, advocates for them. The mission to customers then aligned with these objectives and became, “dedication to the highest quality of customer service delivered with a sense of warmth, friendliness, individual pride, and company spirit, ("About...
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...Sampson Racing Case Organizational Leadership – Fall 2011 John Perron I really tried to think about the Framing of this scenario as I also went through the numbers. One unique perspective that I had is that as a young man I used to race motorcycles. While I understand the basic costs and the elements of racing that are presented here, I was surprised that there was never any concern for the driver’s safety in this scenario. It should be the number one concern when making a decision to race or not race. It was not even an element presented in the framing of this decision-making exercise. That being said, I included that in my analysis. I took the approach of listing the facts that the scenario presented and tried to look at the cost of racing versus not racing in the same way as I would look at any scenario where lives are also at stake as in going to the moon, or having brain surgery. Certainly at racings speeds, lives are at stake. How much is a driver’s life worth? There are no guarantees in this scenario for $1,000,000+….it only says Goodstone is considering it. Is a driver’s life worth more or less than $1,000,000? The current financial state of the team is $32,500 in the hole. There are 4 possible outcomes in this scenario: 1) Sampson Team decides to race and finishes in the Top 5 50% Chance. Result: There were no definite numbers, but let’s guess and say that the new annual sponsorship is worth $1,000,000+. 2) Sampson Team decides to race...
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...1. Define the stages that most companies experience as they grow, and explain the leadership issues and requirements anticipated at each stage. Research and development stage – This stage is also known as the nascent stage. This is characterized by a single aspiring entrepreneur, or small team, doing the investigation and due diligence for their business idea. This stage can be as short as a few months or can last years. Research indicates that if an idea is not turned into a going concern within 18 months, the chances of a start-up fall dramatically. Start-up stage – This stage usually covers the first two or three years and is the riskiest stage. It requires the drive of a lead entrepreneur. The level of sales reached varies widely but typically ranges between $2 million and $20 million. High-growth stage – This stage is characterized by a continually increasing rate of growth or the slope of the revenue curve. It is in this stage that new ventures tend to exhibit a failure rate exceeding 60 percent. Maturity stage – This is where the company is no longer fighting for survival, but rather remains at a steady level of profitable growth. Stability stage – This is the last stage. 2. Describe what is meant by “team” philosophy and attitudes. Why are these important? A team’s priority is to work together to succeed. Managers are more concerned with overseeing tasks, goals, and roles rather than the current status of the organizational chart of the office. ...
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...What is entrepreneurship? Entrepreneurship is the process of starting a business. An entrepreneur develops a business plan and is fully responsible for the company’s survival. He or she is in charge of resources or manpower, if any. What are the qualities of an entrepreneur? They are leadership, innovation in business and willing to take risks. They are willing to take on additional risks despite dealing with uncertainty. A risk taker, I would say. A good example of a successful entrepreneur would be Robert Kiyosaki, the author of Rich Dad Poor Dad. In his book, he taught about advocates financial independence and building wealth through various means such as investing and owning businesses. By reading his book, you are able to increase your financial intelligence. You can read his book to get a head start on entrepreneurship. As quoted from Rich Dad Poor Dad, “Winners are not afraid of losing. But losers are. Failure is part of the process of success. People who avoid failure also avoid success.” We must not be afraid to try. If we do not try, we do not know if we will be successful. There is a chance we might fail. But think of the positive side, there is a chance we will succeed. Positive mindset is very important being an entrepreneurship. By going into entrepreneurship, you let money work for money instead of you working for money. It takes a lot of courage to start but once you are willing to work hard, your efforts would be paid off. Thank...
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...A Failure of focus: Lessons from Kodak Q1- What are the #1 reasons for the failure of Kodak’s operational strategy and what are the lessons learned? Who should bear the main responsibility for corporate bankruptcy? One of the main reasons of why Kodak operational strategy did not work is because Kodak failed to adapt to new technology. Kodak literally did not add any kind of improvements or innovations to its products. Also, although Kodak did make efforts to outsource its camera manufacturing, the outsourcing arrangement did not achieve the integration of external knowledge. Another important fact that is involve in why the operational strategy failed is the quality of management. The fact that Kodak kept changing its CEOs drove the company to not focus and work towards a specific goal. After all, the lesson learned is that Kodak has to constantly keep evolving and innovating its products, rather than stay within its comfort zone. Basically, all the people who work in the company are responsible for what happens in there. This is why I think that the company, as a whole, should bear with the responsibility of bankruptcy. Q2- After Kodak went bankrupt, how was the brand value treat it? After a company goes bankrupt, it loses its brand value. Brand value is irreplaceable; it is really hard for a company to gain back its value once this has been through bankruptcy. When bankruptcy happens, profits go down as well as their credit score. As an investor I would not invest...
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...IT Project Implementation Failures Tracy Grainger HCS/483 September 19, 2011 Billy Kesserwani IT Project Implementation Failures The IT implementation process begins after an acquisition process. The acquisition process requirements are examined, the request for the proposal is sent, the vendor is chosen and contracts are negotiated and signed. When these parts have been finished the implementation can begin. During the beginning of the implementation the project has to be planned out ahead of time, a team must be selected and the best must be chosen, but problems should always be expected to happen along the line. Some of the IT problems that occur can often be prevented if you are paying close attention. In this particular case study, the implementation process seems to be working well. Dryer and Roberts decided to obtain a CPOE system running for their staff to use. Problems occur when the stakeholders in the faculty believed the system would only be more work for them and would not be very useful to their organization. This is the first sign to indicate a problem is happening. This is the first IT failure within the company. The organization and stakeholders must believe that the system is worth having, be willing to work with it, and believe in the help it will have for the organization. If the stakeholders think the system will fail ultimately then it will fail. They will not work and put forth the effort into the implementation process and training. Dryers and...
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