MBA 735 – Reflections on Module 2 Concepts.
Look at your own organization. How has supply and/or demand changed at your organization within the past year?
My company, being in a very mature market, refractories, is not only competitive but ever changing. The customers are changing from the old "kick-back" and "handshake" environment to the modern age of lowest price with all the service. The integrated steel industry has dramatically changed the market. It always has - due to large volume of refractories it takes to make iron. The old time USA mills are bankrupt and/or being bought out by foreigners - Mittal, India - is a the biggest aggressor at the moment. All of this also effects the supply/demand of raw materials, which in turn effect the direction of product lines and their effectiveness in the market. Additionally, as the refractory industry as a whole is staying the same (only due to China and India building their infrastructure) - the monolithic market continues to grow. It is growing at the expense of bricks. This has been going on for decades and will continue. Skilled brick layers are getting more difficult to find and less people are wanting to learn this skill.
What factors impacted or instigated the change?
To continue.... The global market in my company's industry has more of an effect than anything else. As Aluminum engines become more and more popular, coupled with rising energy costs - the cost of aluminium units increases. This creates a competition of alumina for refractories vs the aluminium for metal. A supply/demand that effects every single consumer - even if they do not even know about it of even acknowledge it.
This is further fueled by the growing/developing infrastructures of China, India, and Russia. China has more integrated steel mills than the USA and is producing more tonnes as a result. This has lead China to import scrap metal and iron ore from the USA. This has created issues for mini mills, i.e. Nucor, that only uses scrap metal.
Raw material costs have gone up more than customers will pay for the refractories. The supply is high enough and the competitor are willing enough to lower margins and continue supplying the metal melting manufacturers. My company is branching out into heat containment applications, where demand is growing and competition is waning.
The growing infrastructure of China and India will continually compete for these resources.
Reflecting on your past professional life, briefly describe one mistake you have made in your professional career. What have you learned from that mistake?
Probably the most consistent mistake is my inability to play the office politics and brown nose the "bosses." Never been great at playing this game, sucking up to people just because they can advance me never has been my strong suit. I have learned that working hard and being loyal really only get you so far, but I also sleep well at night.
Time will tell, but all I can be is honest, loyal, be a Christan and practise this every day at work. Having integrity and having people follow me for what I do and how I do it, instead of my title and position of power is enough me. I hope that in the long run operating without hidden agendas, sharing the glory and the failures will result in a challenging position that includes stewardship.
Other mistakes include being overly aggressive and impatient when completing tasks and projects. My sense of urgency is usually greater than most. Through this, I learned to listen actively more and let others do the task with my guidance and mentoring. It is a little more rewarding to guide and teach others how to successfully navigate a project, then just doing it myself.
If factors are changing rapidly, which is common in growth organizations, when do leaders find the time to “reflect” on the mistakes to make corrective action?
Dean your comment is right on, the best time is to reflect the moment you have acknowledged the mistakes. I guess my key point is "when the leader acknowledges the mistake". This reflection needs to diagram exactly how the mistake happened and not just "blame" someone or something. Blame only results in a "band-aid" being placed on the issue, labelling it a "corrective action", which will lead to the mistake occurring over and over. Reflection is to dig deep and acknowledge exactly why the mistake happened and aggressively address it. This is called instituting an immediate corrective action and then follow up with an in depth fix or a preventative action. Preventive actions get to the real root of the problem and best done through immediate reflection of the mistake - not months later.
Monday, February 12, 2007
Wednesday, February 7, 2007
MBA 735 – Reflections on Module 1 Concepts.
MBA 735 – Reflections on Module 1 Concepts.
How do growth characteristics vary depending on the waves of change an organization experiences?
As the waves of change has progressed from Agricultural to Judgment - speed of information and communication channels determine the growth characteristics. The more efficient the communication channels and the greater need for adaptability to market changes is also factor in these characteristics. In more stable and mature markets or even declining markets, typically stuck in the Industrial age, tend to deal with growth slowly and plan more for what may happen, the past - instead of the present and focus on the future.
The future will be in industries that information and competition is readily available and growth is also available to the company that addresses the issues quickly and effectively. Judgment wave based companies will only act on the valid opportunities, those which align with the company's vision and mission - but also with the individual values and beliefs.
Uncertainty and disorder is all around, as the Judgment age progresses, the more chaotic the global environment becomes more competitive and decision making becomes more important. The leader must be very adaptive and have the ability to build cross-functional teams and facilitate communication channels.
Have you experienced growth in your current or other employment? What factors led you to believe you did or did not experience growth?
I have been in several experiences that exhibited strong growth as well as slow growth. The most recent example was acquiring the technology of a bankrupt company and translating this technology into the current operation culture. It was growth to the company, but for the purchased brand - a re-emergence of ability to ship product to the customer base. Market share was being captured and seized by the competition and the intent of operations and QA was to establish stability back into the market and to the customers. Being in a relative mature USA market, the refractory market captures market share. The other growth has been global through the building of manufacturing sites in "other companies" - the best example of true company growth is the manufacturing plant in china.
The success in China is due recognizing a fact that molten metal is being produced in China and will not be decreasing at all, but increasing. The corporate vision is to serve the customer by "Being there" and the only way to do this was by building a manufacturing plant to support this vision and also take advantage of the the USA's knowledge base to best service this customer base.
If you were given the new project assignment of managing a fast-growing division/department/segment of your organization, what personal skills would you need to improve upon to be successful in your endeavors?
Personally - would be the effective and efficient means to capture necessary and relevant information. I have never been scared or backed down from engaging a project or making a decision. I would rather make a solid "wrong" decision - based on information at the time, then not doing anything (again decision to do nothing - is a decision). I would suspect being in strong growth, one needs to step back into ones beliefs and values and have that navigate you through the chaos. The more solid ones beliefs and values in morals and ethics - the better ones success during the chaotic growth stage.
A leader must be secure with themselves and their abilities. If the leader knows and understands their weaknesses and limitations, then the greater the ability to deal with and embrace uncertainty exists. As the leader has great success and few failures without the understanding the reasons for each - the greater development of arrogance and infallibility.
How do growth characteristics vary depending on the waves of change an organization experiences?
As the waves of change has progressed from Agricultural to Judgment - speed of information and communication channels determine the growth characteristics. The more efficient the communication channels and the greater need for adaptability to market changes is also factor in these characteristics. In more stable and mature markets or even declining markets, typically stuck in the Industrial age, tend to deal with growth slowly and plan more for what may happen, the past - instead of the present and focus on the future.
The future will be in industries that information and competition is readily available and growth is also available to the company that addresses the issues quickly and effectively. Judgment wave based companies will only act on the valid opportunities, those which align with the company's vision and mission - but also with the individual values and beliefs.
Uncertainty and disorder is all around, as the Judgment age progresses, the more chaotic the global environment becomes more competitive and decision making becomes more important. The leader must be very adaptive and have the ability to build cross-functional teams and facilitate communication channels.
Have you experienced growth in your current or other employment? What factors led you to believe you did or did not experience growth?
I have been in several experiences that exhibited strong growth as well as slow growth. The most recent example was acquiring the technology of a bankrupt company and translating this technology into the current operation culture. It was growth to the company, but for the purchased brand - a re-emergence of ability to ship product to the customer base. Market share was being captured and seized by the competition and the intent of operations and QA was to establish stability back into the market and to the customers. Being in a relative mature USA market, the refractory market captures market share. The other growth has been global through the building of manufacturing sites in "other companies" - the best example of true company growth is the manufacturing plant in china.
The success in China is due recognizing a fact that molten metal is being produced in China and will not be decreasing at all, but increasing. The corporate vision is to serve the customer by "Being there" and the only way to do this was by building a manufacturing plant to support this vision and also take advantage of the the USA's knowledge base to best service this customer base.
If you were given the new project assignment of managing a fast-growing division/department/segment of your organization, what personal skills would you need to improve upon to be successful in your endeavors?
Personally - would be the effective and efficient means to capture necessary and relevant information. I have never been scared or backed down from engaging a project or making a decision. I would rather make a solid "wrong" decision - based on information at the time, then not doing anything (again decision to do nothing - is a decision). I would suspect being in strong growth, one needs to step back into ones beliefs and values and have that navigate you through the chaos. The more solid ones beliefs and values in morals and ethics - the better ones success during the chaotic growth stage.
A leader must be secure with themselves and their abilities. If the leader knows and understands their weaknesses and limitations, then the greater the ability to deal with and embrace uncertainty exists. As the leader has great success and few failures without the understanding the reasons for each - the greater development of arrogance and infallibility.
Tuesday, January 23, 2007
Reflections on Module 5 - 5c
Many organizations that use the balanced scorecard approach require different people within different functional areas as well as different levels of the organization to complete a balanced scorecard evaluation. Why would it be important to obtain different evaluations? Would you recommend this approach? Why or why not?
Different evaluations on various levels allow the strategic objectives to "filter down" through the levels. Not all departments or people in a company can directly or even indirectly impact the metrics of the executive balanced scorecard. Allowing and advocating the setting of metrics in all department and ensuring that they align with the mission and vision can be very powerful. All employees feel engaged in the company and feel included in the successes of the company as well. This will lead to increased creativity and innovation throughout the company. This approach is highly recommended and will lead to an agile/responsive company to the changing environment lead by customer demands.
A balanced scorecard would be a very powerful means to not only align the workforce to the company's bottom line, but also ensure that the company does not drift away from the strategic objectives. I would guess that many times subtle changes happen over time "at the ranks" that end up with huge cumulative consequences that had gone unnoticed for too long. Accurate and meaningful metrics at that level would have alerted employees at that level to correct and address those issues. This would result in the problem addressed at the lowest level. If these employees needed help, then they would contact the resources they needed to address the problems. Point is that noticing the changes and issues that cause problems before they get too "out of hand" is key to maximizing success. Allowing problems to get too out of hand lead to a drain on a company's resources and missed opportunities.
Different evaluations on various levels allow the strategic objectives to "filter down" through the levels. Not all departments or people in a company can directly or even indirectly impact the metrics of the executive balanced scorecard. Allowing and advocating the setting of metrics in all department and ensuring that they align with the mission and vision can be very powerful. All employees feel engaged in the company and feel included in the successes of the company as well. This will lead to increased creativity and innovation throughout the company. This approach is highly recommended and will lead to an agile/responsive company to the changing environment lead by customer demands.
A balanced scorecard would be a very powerful means to not only align the workforce to the company's bottom line, but also ensure that the company does not drift away from the strategic objectives. I would guess that many times subtle changes happen over time "at the ranks" that end up with huge cumulative consequences that had gone unnoticed for too long. Accurate and meaningful metrics at that level would have alerted employees at that level to correct and address those issues. This would result in the problem addressed at the lowest level. If these employees needed help, then they would contact the resources they needed to address the problems. Point is that noticing the changes and issues that cause problems before they get too "out of hand" is key to maximizing success. Allowing problems to get too out of hand lead to a drain on a company's resources and missed opportunities.
Reflections on Module 5 - 5b
Does a leader’s lens perspective impact the benchmarks he or she identifies as critical for his or her organization and/or the analysis of such benchmarks? Explain.
The quick answer is yes. Each leader has several benchmarks that are important to them, based on their perspective. If the leader does not use the four-lenses perspective, then too much focus can be placed on one aspect of the company. This can lead to issues being unresolved or addressed in other important/critical areas of the company. It may take years for these issues to finally effect the health of a company - but it will eventually effect the company negatively. The leader should use their preferred benchmarks, but also be open to other benchmarks that measure all of the four-lenses perspectives. Monitoring and evaluating these "other" benchmarks allows the leader to have their hands on the pulse of all the company's activities. This should lead to resources being assigned to where they can maximize profits and sustain long-term growth and stability for the company.
The other point is that as the wave of change enters into the everyday life of a company, past benchmarks may not be great guides in the prediction of the future. This is probably the greatest danger of settling and only using old/past benchmarks. Changes in the global market may have made the benchmarks obsolete. One example is the current ratio. It the current ratio really a good benchmark anymore? It may still have value, but only if you understand the company's business better. Ratios at 1.0 or below may not be bad - but may indicate a market leader, not a laggard. Point is that these old past benchmarks used presently are based on the Industrial Wave mentality - what is there relevance in the Judgment wave? Time will tell!!
The quick answer is yes. Each leader has several benchmarks that are important to them, based on their perspective. If the leader does not use the four-lenses perspective, then too much focus can be placed on one aspect of the company. This can lead to issues being unresolved or addressed in other important/critical areas of the company. It may take years for these issues to finally effect the health of a company - but it will eventually effect the company negatively. The leader should use their preferred benchmarks, but also be open to other benchmarks that measure all of the four-lenses perspectives. Monitoring and evaluating these "other" benchmarks allows the leader to have their hands on the pulse of all the company's activities. This should lead to resources being assigned to where they can maximize profits and sustain long-term growth and stability for the company.
The other point is that as the wave of change enters into the everyday life of a company, past benchmarks may not be great guides in the prediction of the future. This is probably the greatest danger of settling and only using old/past benchmarks. Changes in the global market may have made the benchmarks obsolete. One example is the current ratio. It the current ratio really a good benchmark anymore? It may still have value, but only if you understand the company's business better. Ratios at 1.0 or below may not be bad - but may indicate a market leader, not a laggard. Point is that these old past benchmarks used presently are based on the Industrial Wave mentality - what is there relevance in the Judgment wave? Time will tell!!
Reflections on Module Five - 5a
Why is it important to understand the factors that impact cash flow? How can the factors vary based on the waves of change?
Positive cash flow the lifeblood and the healthy pulse of a company. It is very important to understand what impacts cash flow and how to fully exploit it, how to leverage it many uses in supply chain management, alliances, market channels, and even ICMs. Leaders must understand how to manage positive cash flow and use this advantage to their full advantage. Negative cash flow effects the company in many more perspectives than the obvious ones. Besides the very great potential of going under, the company also will have negative bargaining power and pay higher interest rates, etc - increasing the cost of doing business, thus making the company even less competitive. This list really keeps going.....
The waves of change make these events greater, the multiplier is greater - due to the increase in speed of knowledge and wisdom. Many of the issue with cash flow are due to the factors of business. Supplier want immediate payment and customer want "same as cash" terms for goods purchased. This creates an immediate negative cash flow that must be managed aggressively. As the waves of change progress, the time between collections and receivables start to converge. This brings another "old strategy" that has been overplayed and will stop becoming a piece in a company's ploy to stay alive - losing money, but maintaining positive cash flow - it is possible and is played every day. The waves of change will make this impossible and force companies to be ethically accountable - which globally will be great!
Positive cash flow the lifeblood and the healthy pulse of a company. It is very important to understand what impacts cash flow and how to fully exploit it, how to leverage it many uses in supply chain management, alliances, market channels, and even ICMs. Leaders must understand how to manage positive cash flow and use this advantage to their full advantage. Negative cash flow effects the company in many more perspectives than the obvious ones. Besides the very great potential of going under, the company also will have negative bargaining power and pay higher interest rates, etc - increasing the cost of doing business, thus making the company even less competitive. This list really keeps going.....
The waves of change make these events greater, the multiplier is greater - due to the increase in speed of knowledge and wisdom. Many of the issue with cash flow are due to the factors of business. Supplier want immediate payment and customer want "same as cash" terms for goods purchased. This creates an immediate negative cash flow that must be managed aggressively. As the waves of change progress, the time between collections and receivables start to converge. This brings another "old strategy" that has been overplayed and will stop becoming a piece in a company's ploy to stay alive - losing money, but maintaining positive cash flow - it is possible and is played every day. The waves of change will make this impossible and force companies to be ethically accountable - which globally will be great!
Tuesday, January 16, 2007
Reflections on Module 4 Concepts, 4-4c
Integrated Marketing Communications (ICM) systems are typically designed for external audiences. As an effective leader, why would it be important for you to establish an IMC internally within your organization?
Effective and concise internal communication in very important for the leader to understand and for the long-term, consistent success of the company. John Hamm states that there are 5 messages or forms of internal communication a leader must manage and probably master (Hamm, May 2006 - Harvard Business Review, p114-123). An ICM allows the leader to utilize the media outlets to ensure the proper and compelling message gets out to the workforce. Hamm states that the messages important to effectively relay is Organizational Structure and Hierarchy, Finanical results, the leader's role and their sense of their job, Time Management, and Corporate Culture. These messages and effective use of ICM is esstential the more global and decentralized the company departments.
ICM would also acknowledge that different "people" require different means to get the message across. Also engaging the workforce with these compelling messages empower and align the employees toward clear and concise strategic objectives.
Effective and concise internal communication in very important for the leader to understand and for the long-term, consistent success of the company. John Hamm states that there are 5 messages or forms of internal communication a leader must manage and probably master (Hamm, May 2006 - Harvard Business Review, p114-123). An ICM allows the leader to utilize the media outlets to ensure the proper and compelling message gets out to the workforce. Hamm states that the messages important to effectively relay is Organizational Structure and Hierarchy, Finanical results, the leader's role and their sense of their job, Time Management, and Corporate Culture. These messages and effective use of ICM is esstential the more global and decentralized the company departments.
ICM would also acknowledge that different "people" require different means to get the message across. Also engaging the workforce with these compelling messages empower and align the employees toward clear and concise strategic objectives.
Reflections on Module 4 Concepts, 4-4b
How is technology impacting marketing channel operations? How does a leader keep well-informed of what is happening in the marketing channels that may have a direct impact on the business activities?
Marketing channels have changes over the last few decades. For example, Amazon has really changes the available marketing channels and streamlined some of the steps. A leader must be well read and well informed of the transformations of the environments in which they "play in" to risk being left behind. Middle men or intermediate functional companies are probably the biggest at risk. The proactive approach would be for the leader to recognize the trend of emerging technologies impacting their businesses and embracing the technology head on. This allows the leader and the company to control the impact of the technology (the timing, etc.) as well as the industry. This approach would allow the leader to develop this into a core competence, instead of running scared and ignoring the inevitable. Leaders not embracing emerging technology will end up spending monies to fight something that eventually consume them. This is true of marketing channels.
Market channels are becoming more technical and virtual. Advances in communication and relationship will again become important. "What goes around comes around". What built marketing channels of the agricultrual age, relationships and communication, will again become important and a necessity in the judgment age. Advanced technologies will require leaders to form alliances, outsources, etc - requiring superior communication channels.
Marketing channels have changes over the last few decades. For example, Amazon has really changes the available marketing channels and streamlined some of the steps. A leader must be well read and well informed of the transformations of the environments in which they "play in" to risk being left behind. Middle men or intermediate functional companies are probably the biggest at risk. The proactive approach would be for the leader to recognize the trend of emerging technologies impacting their businesses and embracing the technology head on. This allows the leader and the company to control the impact of the technology (the timing, etc.) as well as the industry. This approach would allow the leader to develop this into a core competence, instead of running scared and ignoring the inevitable. Leaders not embracing emerging technology will end up spending monies to fight something that eventually consume them. This is true of marketing channels.
Market channels are becoming more technical and virtual. Advances in communication and relationship will again become important. "What goes around comes around". What built marketing channels of the agricultrual age, relationships and communication, will again become important and a necessity in the judgment age. Advanced technologies will require leaders to form alliances, outsources, etc - requiring superior communication channels.
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