Reflection for Week 5 - MN3032C
In Week 5, we look at the Challenger case study where innocent lives are taken away because of negligence and human's ambition to conquer the space. In this case study, the effective strategic leadership that I learn from the NASA top management is that one should use an influential profession, a noble profession such as a teacher for the company's PR stunts to gain publicity and promote the company's mission. Besides, an effective leader has to be ethical and ready to take accountability for whatever happens and not looking for scapegoat in his or her failures. Furthermore, communication and collaborations are another important factor that one leader should adhere because if one leader is so stubborn and continued to ignore the professional advice from the specialist, the leader's misjudgement would cost the company a lot of money and in some serious cases such as the Challenger, this mistakes cost 6 innocent lives where huge amount of money could not bring them back.
On the other side, the ineffective strategic leadership that I learn from the Challenger case study is that the leader should take into account all information provided by all parties when making a decision. Even though the NASA top management has received vital informations that this mission would be a failure due to the technical issues highlighted by the specialist, they are adamant and force the go ahead launch even though the dangers are imminent. For the sake of ego, pride or putting on the management hat, this is a very selfish decision because silly decision like this do cause misery and lifetime pain for the victim's family.
By the way, the main reason for this mission to go ahead is of course national pride. When one has received an instruction from the President of the country to launch a major project, the NASA top management surely would not back down and would press ahead with the project on scheduled time at all cost because any delay or cancellation would make their country looks like a joke or a laughing stock. Therefore, I believe even though the top management knows that this project will be a failure, they still pressed ahead with the project for the sake of show or saving their face. Besides, they know they can learn more from this mistakes for future projects into space. So, the victims are just the guinea pigs for the Government's experiment. As a matter of fact, it either you blame all the people involved in this project or you do not blame all of them but the President should be hold responsible for his ambitious project to space. Of course, the President has the power to determine who lives and die, so at the end of the day in this Challenger's case study, no one held accountable for all the deaths and the NASA top management just walk away from their mistakes by resigning and look for another job.
Basically, whatever the engineers do or attempted to do will have no effect at all because the top management has already decided, they already made the decision to launch from day one regardless of anything. They would not say No to the President's request and they will go ahead with the experiment because a No go for the experiment would mean misery to their lives as they will be held accountable by the President. In another word, the country is adamant to achieve a mission for whatever it takes. Because of that, the country has successfully launched many missions to space after this incident and today even Virgin are trying to make money from their Galactic Space program, of course thanks to all the failed space missions.
The similarity of the Challenger case study compared to NHS and Carrefour is that bureaucratic is again the main issue. The bosses makes the decision and his superior, who is the CEO takes on the tasks and takes the blame if the project failed. Then, the bosses move on to appoint other CEO to run his wishes and this process keeps going on.
Ultimately, the lesson I would want to remember from this case study is to be an ethical leader and has a sense of responsibility to the society and do the right things.
Sunday, 11 March 2012
Tuesday, 6 March 2012
Reflection for Week 4 - MN3032C
In week 4 case study, we look into Madonna, the popular female music icon in the world.
I believe most of us have heard or listened to atleast a Madonna's song in our lifetime whether or not you realized it is a song sung by this popular female artist. For the record, she has been in the music industry for 30 years and is the highest ever paid female singer compared to the likes of Beyonce, Britney Spears and many others.
Basically, Madonna has the power to sustain her fame and influence the world even until today is not just a matter of luck even though they play a role in her music career. Most of all, Madonna has the passion and desire to create music that touches people life and this has spread to all over the world. Obviously, Madonna has the motivation and the faith that keeps her going on and on for 30 years and she has not failed to "wow" the audience and still keeping them as a loyal listeners or advocates to her songs and life. When I analyze her career time-line, I do find out that she keeps an image life cycle for 2 - 3 years before changing it again to another theme and image and then dispose them and keeping it for another 2 -3 years and keep doing so to keep up herself in this ever-changing music industry. For instance, when she started out as an artist in 1982, she depicted herself as a trashy pop star with her release album of "Lucky Star" that target young wannabe girls. Then in 1984, she transformed herself to resemble Marilyn Monroe's glamour image in her release album of "Like a Virgin" to target the more grown up rebellious fan base and keep doing so until 2009. Therefore, the steps and strategy that Madonna taken in her career has made her a visionary music pop icon. She keeps delivering and setting a new standard in the music industry and her fan base keeps growing because they love it.
Therefore, the lessons that we can pick up from Madonna about the strategic leadership from the case study is that she has control of the path she wants to take and follow them throughly and every success she accumulated along the way gives her greater power to influence the audiences and keep them loyal while keeps growing and expanding her fan base in other segment of the music industry. By being able to influence eveyone who listens to her music, Madonna has become not just a name, instead, it has become a brand name that everyone wants to associate themselves when they talk about music.
The major differences between Madonna case study compared to Carrefour and Gerry NHS case study is that the bureaucratic that get involve. Madonna has only herself and probably some advisors to give her the advise where she can implement them straight away whereas big organization like NHS and Carrefour has a complex organization structure where decision and implementations are one big serious issues need to be addresss every now and then. In the case of Gerry NHS, he may have set up an ideal blue print for success but if no one adhere or follow the "ideal" plan, the plan is still a plan and it is not viable or enough to help the organization to cut or reduce waiting time in the NHS. Furthermore, I do not see any major similarity if I have to use Madonna case study to compared with the other 2 case study.
Finally, the lesson I would want to remember from Week 4 is that everyone has the chance to be successful if they possess the attributes such as passion, desire, faith, adaptability and focus as what Madonna displayed in order to achive something in our life. Luck itself is not enough as one needs to reach the end point by having all the attributes and take action on them.
In week 4 case study, we look into Madonna, the popular female music icon in the world.
I believe most of us have heard or listened to atleast a Madonna's song in our lifetime whether or not you realized it is a song sung by this popular female artist. For the record, she has been in the music industry for 30 years and is the highest ever paid female singer compared to the likes of Beyonce, Britney Spears and many others.
Basically, Madonna has the power to sustain her fame and influence the world even until today is not just a matter of luck even though they play a role in her music career. Most of all, Madonna has the passion and desire to create music that touches people life and this has spread to all over the world. Obviously, Madonna has the motivation and the faith that keeps her going on and on for 30 years and she has not failed to "wow" the audience and still keeping them as a loyal listeners or advocates to her songs and life. When I analyze her career time-line, I do find out that she keeps an image life cycle for 2 - 3 years before changing it again to another theme and image and then dispose them and keeping it for another 2 -3 years and keep doing so to keep up herself in this ever-changing music industry. For instance, when she started out as an artist in 1982, she depicted herself as a trashy pop star with her release album of "Lucky Star" that target young wannabe girls. Then in 1984, she transformed herself to resemble Marilyn Monroe's glamour image in her release album of "Like a Virgin" to target the more grown up rebellious fan base and keep doing so until 2009. Therefore, the steps and strategy that Madonna taken in her career has made her a visionary music pop icon. She keeps delivering and setting a new standard in the music industry and her fan base keeps growing because they love it.
Therefore, the lessons that we can pick up from Madonna about the strategic leadership from the case study is that she has control of the path she wants to take and follow them throughly and every success she accumulated along the way gives her greater power to influence the audiences and keep them loyal while keeps growing and expanding her fan base in other segment of the music industry. By being able to influence eveyone who listens to her music, Madonna has become not just a name, instead, it has become a brand name that everyone wants to associate themselves when they talk about music.
The major differences between Madonna case study compared to Carrefour and Gerry NHS case study is that the bureaucratic that get involve. Madonna has only herself and probably some advisors to give her the advise where she can implement them straight away whereas big organization like NHS and Carrefour has a complex organization structure where decision and implementations are one big serious issues need to be addresss every now and then. In the case of Gerry NHS, he may have set up an ideal blue print for success but if no one adhere or follow the "ideal" plan, the plan is still a plan and it is not viable or enough to help the organization to cut or reduce waiting time in the NHS. Furthermore, I do not see any major similarity if I have to use Madonna case study to compared with the other 2 case study.
Finally, the lesson I would want to remember from Week 4 is that everyone has the chance to be successful if they possess the attributes such as passion, desire, faith, adaptability and focus as what Madonna displayed in order to achive something in our life. Luck itself is not enough as one needs to reach the end point by having all the attributes and take action on them.
Thursday, 23 February 2012
Reflection for Week 3 - MN3032C
Week 3 reflection is on the case study on Gerry Robinson and the NHS.
From the Gerry Robinson case study, it is noted that Gerry is an assertive and hands on type of leader who goes all the way down to the lowest hierachy of the organisation to find out the challenges and issues faced by the staff and consultant as well as obtaining feedback from everyone in the workplace. By collecting feedback and data, Gerry are able to strategize his next move on how to change and improve the situation faced by the NHS to speed up waiting list by means of persuading Brian, the CEO, the General Manager, Consultants and the other staff to adapt to a new system and change the current settings in the NHS. The most memorable example of effective strategic leadership in the case study is where Gerry being assertive and commanding while conducting the meeting with all the NHS members to discuss issues and find ways to eliminate the waiting list in the NHS. On the other hand, the ineffective strategic leadership in the case study is where Brian, the CEO, is good in talking and giving excuses of why, what and how the NHS has been operating all the years "without a problem" and yet he is totally NOT in control of the situation as he seems to be clinging on his position only.
From the case study, influence is power in an organization. When someone is able to influence others and take on the leadership role, no one will dare to fight back and even the CEO will bow to the influencial figure in the organization. Basically, there are two types of persuasion methods which is the PUSH and PULL style. The PUSH style is further divided into two area which is the persuading and asserting persuasion which I believe is the strongest type of persuasion technique one should use to get what he or she wants. The PULL style is divided into bridging and attracting style which is more gentle and it takes time to accomplish one's demand for something. However, the correct style of persuasion has to be used in order to be effective based on the type of individual and personality that one seeks to influence. There is a saying that "one size does not fits all".
The similarity of this case study with the previous, Week 2 case study on Carrefour is that both CEO has failed to rise up to the occassion because both has no total control or influence over the running of the organization. The Carrefour's CEO is under control from the LV Bosses and the NHS's CEO is under control from the Consultants. Therefore, when "a driver has no control over his vehicle, he is bound to crash". On differences, the Carrefour's CEO has to pack his bag and look for a new job while the NHS's CEO still keeping his position as a CEO and plays golf every Sunday. On serious note, the Carrefour's situation is more complex because their operation spans worldwide and Carrefour has to be able to adapt with each country they step a foot in because of the culture and lifestyle differs from one place to another. The policy of one size fits all does not work in this case. Whereas, the NHS is a national agenda where the Government has to pump up more efforts especially financially to help out the misery plaguing the people in need of fast treatments.
Ultimately, Week 3 group discussion is interesting because everyone in the group contributed their ideas on the case study and the role play for the persuasion is one thing I will remember for Week 3 lessons.
Thursday, 16 February 2012
Reflection for Week 2 - MN3032C
In Week 2, we review the case study for Carrefour, the French giant hypermarket.
As I remember, Carrefour used to be the top player in the hypermarket industry when I were still residing in Malaysia. Every states that I have travel in my country, there will be a Carrefour hypermarket where everybody in the community goes to shop and spend their time with family and friends. However, the Carrefour name slowly diminish from my memory as other players such as Giant and Tesco comes into the picture, probably because this new player offer better deals and seems to complement with our lifestyle with their store settings and products offering that makes my family, relatives and friends go to Tesco or Giant for their shopping.
Therefore, I think Carrefour has been obsolete and do not keep up with their customers' preferences while other players such as Tesco and Giant keeps innovate with their stores and being aggresive in their committment to lower price everyday that makes us change our choice of hypermarket. Besides, Carrefour product offerings are quite stagnant with nothing new to look forward and their pricing are high as well where it seems they are not competing with Giant or Tesco in their daily marketing campaign to woo customers.
From what I read in the case study about Carrefour, I think Lars Olofsson, CEO of Carrefour holds a very strong responsibility to revive and turn the company around. From my opinion, I think Lars Olofsson is chosen to deal with Carrefour's problem probably due to his background, previous achievement and is a genius when it comes to retailing. However, as written in the case study Lars Olofsson is under pressure from Bernard Arnault, the boss of LVMH and Colony Capital, a property investment firm. With such great pressure from bosses who are doing so well in selling high end goods where they so used to not giving discounts and doing promotion, I believe the bosses are watching Lars's movement very closely and not giving space to Lars to unleash his true potential. The question I would ask is why are they not reducing prices or making their products cheaper to customers in this highly sensitive pricing industry of hypermarket business when other competitors such as Asda, Giant or Tesco are able to slash their prices almost everyday?
Instead, Carrefour try to come out with an absurd idea of "Carrefour Planet" with even higher product costs, when what customers looking for is cheap and quality products. Does the LV and property investment bosses think this Carrefour is a luxury hypermarket business where their product is not price senstive to customers? They really got it wrong this time and it is Lars Olofsson who is hold accountable for these greedy bosses actions.
In my opinion, Carrefour should have exercise their muscle power when they are leading the industry by cutting out other competitors with their prices. Instead, they are stubborn and arrogant and greedy bosses where other competitors are able to use the price strategy to kill off their market leader. I believe Lars Olofsson will be doing a much better job without intervention or pressure from the bosses. In this case, he is just a scapegoat for Carrefour's failure to revive their name.
As for the group discussion, everything went well as this time around, my other group members are really bursting with ideas and energy when it comes to this discussion. I continued to pour my thoughts and ideass to come out with as many issues or challenges that Carrefour are facing.
Basically, I would like to remember that working with different personality gives you an edge and more ideas to an issue. It is great working with different minds to learn from their thoughts.
As I remember, Carrefour used to be the top player in the hypermarket industry when I were still residing in Malaysia. Every states that I have travel in my country, there will be a Carrefour hypermarket where everybody in the community goes to shop and spend their time with family and friends. However, the Carrefour name slowly diminish from my memory as other players such as Giant and Tesco comes into the picture, probably because this new player offer better deals and seems to complement with our lifestyle with their store settings and products offering that makes my family, relatives and friends go to Tesco or Giant for their shopping.
Therefore, I think Carrefour has been obsolete and do not keep up with their customers' preferences while other players such as Tesco and Giant keeps innovate with their stores and being aggresive in their committment to lower price everyday that makes us change our choice of hypermarket. Besides, Carrefour product offerings are quite stagnant with nothing new to look forward and their pricing are high as well where it seems they are not competing with Giant or Tesco in their daily marketing campaign to woo customers.
From what I read in the case study about Carrefour, I think Lars Olofsson, CEO of Carrefour holds a very strong responsibility to revive and turn the company around. From my opinion, I think Lars Olofsson is chosen to deal with Carrefour's problem probably due to his background, previous achievement and is a genius when it comes to retailing. However, as written in the case study Lars Olofsson is under pressure from Bernard Arnault, the boss of LVMH and Colony Capital, a property investment firm. With such great pressure from bosses who are doing so well in selling high end goods where they so used to not giving discounts and doing promotion, I believe the bosses are watching Lars's movement very closely and not giving space to Lars to unleash his true potential. The question I would ask is why are they not reducing prices or making their products cheaper to customers in this highly sensitive pricing industry of hypermarket business when other competitors such as Asda, Giant or Tesco are able to slash their prices almost everyday?
Instead, Carrefour try to come out with an absurd idea of "Carrefour Planet" with even higher product costs, when what customers looking for is cheap and quality products. Does the LV and property investment bosses think this Carrefour is a luxury hypermarket business where their product is not price senstive to customers? They really got it wrong this time and it is Lars Olofsson who is hold accountable for these greedy bosses actions.
In my opinion, Carrefour should have exercise their muscle power when they are leading the industry by cutting out other competitors with their prices. Instead, they are stubborn and arrogant and greedy bosses where other competitors are able to use the price strategy to kill off their market leader. I believe Lars Olofsson will be doing a much better job without intervention or pressure from the bosses. In this case, he is just a scapegoat for Carrefour's failure to revive their name.
As for the group discussion, everything went well as this time around, my other group members are really bursting with ideas and energy when it comes to this discussion. I continued to pour my thoughts and ideass to come out with as many issues or challenges that Carrefour are facing.
Basically, I would like to remember that working with different personality gives you an edge and more ideas to an issue. It is great working with different minds to learn from their thoughts.
Wednesday, 8 February 2012
Reflection for What I Have Learn on Week 1
Seated around the corner of the class in this freezy morning lecture for the Strategic Leadership course. We were put in a small group of 4, where 3 of the individual are from different country such as Morocco, Saudi Arabia and Switzerland, ready to share our view on what is Strategic Leadership and Who will be the strategic leader that we will pick to talk about in our short presentation.
After 5 - 8 minutes of talking to each other, we decided to state that Strategic Leadership is a how a leader manage his employees and creates a competitive advantage over its rivals and how a leader adds value, ideas and create a vision for the organization to move ahead for better prospect. We also add that Strategic Leadership is the art of influencing other people in the organization to achieve common goal.
Basically, the ideas that I poured out to the group is how a leader creates vision, ideas and add value to the organization to move forward in their business. Besides, I suggested that Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook would be the ideal candidate for the example of strategic leadership because the young, dynamic and genius chap is listing his company for a $100 billion IPO at such a young age and he is seen as the next Bill Gate in the technological industry. Overall, I'm glad that I get to say what I wanted to say to the group and the discussion is great even though it is a short one.
Of course, for the next lesson and thereafter, I shall continue to pour and contribute my ideas to the group and of course ready to listen to my future group feedback and criticism.
Ultimately, I hope to remember all the students who introduced themselves this morning and this is a great step to know them better in the future as making friends while persuing education is an important part of the study life in the university. Surely, the lecturer advise will be very important as her tips will make me better prepared for the next upcoming lesson in Week 2.
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