BUS 410
Moritz Straube, Mario Pacheco, Alex Rutherford, Haitham Al Najjar
Prof. Bresciani
P & G Case Study

Mount Everest

Humans often feel the need to conquer Earth and explore it to the fullest. Among the biggest challenges the planet has for humans, stands the quest to climb Mount Everest. At almost 9,000 meters above sea level, in between Nepal and Tibet, the quest to climb Mount Everest has become the point of no return for some climbers and the ultimate conquest for other climbers. Since May 29, 1953 up to December 1996, 846 persons had conquered successfully Mount Everest
Climbing Mount Everest became available to the public through entrepreneurs who were visionary enough to apply their passion to their profits in the year of 1996. Such is the case of Hall, founder of Adventure Consultants and Fischer, founder of Mountain Madness; each one of them had a passion for climbing and a vision for profit from leading teams to the top of Mount Everest, the summit. Together they both lead the largest commercial expeditions. Their experiences of their journey, which began in May 6, 1996, can be used to discuss different aspects of international organizational behavior. Leadership, communication, organizational structure, and visualization are key aspects of organizational behavior for businesses worldwide which are also related to the quest of conquering Mount Everestf.
Hall and Fischer began as leaders of their organizations. Their climbing experiences are closely related to individualistic behavior and in order to be leaders, Hall and Fischer had employ collective behavior. The journey to climb Mount Everest begins with acclimatization, which is similar to a CEO sending management to a team building exercise. Although the acclimatization issue gave problems to the teams, both teams decided to push forward. In a firm, lack of cooperation within management indicates an issue for the overall performance of the firm, usually in a negative direction.
Although the teams had issue with acclimatization, both teams pushed forward. To add to the problem guides who take the roll of managers, underwent groupthink. Although guides and clients felt uncomfortable turning back, both lacked the courage to voice their opinion as a contributing factor, which could have saved lives; in the case of a firm, groupthink can impede the contribution of ideas, which may be profitable. As for Hall and Fischer as leaders, both lacked the ability to listen to their subordinates.
Every organization requires a certain structure. This could be done in different ways: Matrix, Functional, Hollow, and Divisional. The case’s climbing teams were set up similarly in functional organizational structures. The leader represents the role of the CEO. He is the one who gives the orders and the other team members are expected to follow. The guides are the managers who answer directly to the CEO and give orders to their subordinates who, in this case, are the Sherpa’s. The clients could be interpreted as clients per se, being considered by the CEO himself, or they could be seen as members of the team that contribute to the well being of the group.
The communication process of the team was clouded due to several issues including high levels of noise. The noise was created by a lack of appropriate technology and preparation. In particular, radios at the latest stand of technology were missing which create problems and added to the noise. The more noise there is, the more unclear the message becomes when sent from the encoder to the decoder through various channels, thus affecting the ultimate goal. In the case of a company, in order to reduce noise levels, internal networks linked to the Internet and proficiency are required. Throughout the journey a language barrier occurred which led to an impairment in the communication process of the team. The establishment of a common language is essential to any kind of organization in order to put ease to the process of communication.
Visualization is a necessity. Similar to what a consultant’s job is, we informed ourselves about the text, which gave us a broad understanding of what the issue is about. Afterwards we took a closer look at the map provided in the case study to receive a better understanding. The map provides clarity when combined with the reading because it depicts the stations at which the group made halt on their way up. In reference to a company, a visualization of the issue at hand can greatly improve understanding through, for example, various kinds of charts or metaphors.
We believe in order for a better survival we believe that it is necessary to be prepared for the worst-case scenarios. Feedback from the climbers would be an integral part of restructuring the plan and as a result the team. This all occurs because solutions the obvious problems have to happen. It is necessary to also not rely on statistical data such as weather reports, since situations rapidly change in that sort of dangerous environment and have to be viewed in the extreme short term. Carlos Goshen the CEO of Renault and Nissan was always prepared for the worst-case scenario, which in his case was the economic crisis. Carlos solved the worst-case scenario by becoming more efficient and cutting unnecessary costs. Lack of humility amongst the leadership led to an unsuccessful venture. The leaders had successfully done the climb on there own and unrealistically believed they could lead a group. A good leader known that he has to take into account the team dynamics, which applies to every aspect from the finances to the equipment.