Business Management and Leadership

Introduction

The essay is a plan to help reverse the worrying trend of failing departments within a company. The scenarios at stake are, there are outdated product lines that is loosing market share, adversarial interdivisional communication and very stiff competition for corporate financial support by the existing division.

It has been acknowledged by various scholars that leaders coupled with good management skills have the potential of turning a failing organization, and propel them to the greater height in terms of production, competition among other things (Marino & Ján 2004). Addition the two are responsible for creating a positive culture within an organization, creating safer and conducive working environment, motivating employees, enhance teamwork among other things. Good leaders and managers bring change to organization, is an inevitable thing if organizations need to survive in this competitive business world.

According to Burns, 2008 leadership refer to a process whereby an individual has the ability to influence thoughts, ideas and actions of others in achieving a set of preset goals, tasks, duties and responsibilities. Thus, leadership has very close links with effectiveness of a group or organization.

It has been thought and deemed that leadership and management go hand in hand, and according to Burn, (1978) it is difficult to differentiate the two and he claimed the differences are in behavior and characteristics. Management has been defined as the process of wise use of resources to achieve desired objective and goals of any organization. Planning, leading, controlling, staffing and organizing are done together to enhance achieving the desired goals. Despite the small difference between the two, they are important when it comes for one to taking the front position to showing other the way to go in trying to achieve goals and objectives of an organization as well as rescuing the organization during times of turmoil (Peters & Waterman, 1988).

Out dated product line

My first step to dealing with this kind of company products that are outdated and loss value is to identify the root causes. This I will achieve by enhancing an effective and efficient communication with related persons, for instance, the production manager, the advertising and marketing personnel, the graphic designers, IT head. Having information will then put me at a better place to act accordingly.

Among the action to be taken are; improving quality of the products, assuming that the company deals with food and beverage, the quality in terms of ingredients might be an option. This will help diversify the nutritive value of the old product. Similarly, in conjunction with the production department and all other relevant division, we can come up with a new product. Once this is achieved, the outdated product can be promoted using this new product. This coupled with other strategies will make the market give the product a second thought and this eventually will improve its market value (Robbins & Judge, 2007).

Due to the fact that the product is outdated, this means that even the way it is being manufactured is ancient. To counter this, I will initiate a campaign to embrace technology where applicable in production, packaging, advertisement to delivery. For instance, graphic designers if not within the organization will be outsourced to help in designing attractive and appealing packages.

On the same line, strengthening and enriching the brand for this product is important. Similarly, if it deemed fit by the organization, changing the brand is one strategy if one planned and effectively executed has the greatest potential to help the product recapture it lost market glory.

After all this strategies have been applied satisfactorily, then in conjunction with the marketing team of the organization, we carry out extensive and cost-effective strategies to market and promote the refurbished product. This will help us recapture our long-term loyal and new customers.

Adversarial communication

According to Scott, (2003), poor communication is the greatest cause of job dissatisfaction. To counter poor communication between and among the companies division, I will lead by example by preaching the benefits of sharing information and opening a 360 degree communication channel.

By winning the support of some employees, I will try to instill communication culture that embraces listening to others with compassion, acknowledging people, not taking things personally, looking for the best in people and encourage them. As noted by Murphy, (2009) information is power this will propel the organization to greater height in breaking the jinx of communication.

Competition for internal resources

This always occurs when financial resources are scarce. To be able to tackle this, I will first establish requirement, necessity and priority of each department. According to Birkinshaw, (2001) the first strategy I will is to cut down expenditure in sections that will not immensely and negatively impact to the well-being of the company. If need arise, I will downsize the various divisions and upon consensus probably reduce employees pay for meanwhile instead of firing others, these will help reduce expenditure especially salary payment.

Similarly, merging with other similar organization can help in polling the resources together hence addressing the issue of funds shortage (Bass & Avolio, 1994). The last option is ask for a bank but having in mind the financial capabilities to repay.

Organizational structure

In my opinion an organization structures that suit this organization are, the matrix, divisional and functional structures. This is because it has the following attributes; decentralization, high transparency, rapid 360 response mechanism, permanent monitoring and allows the employees to work freely but at the same time following a standardized manner.

Communication will help me in changing the company. Letting the entire team know the reason and the way we intend to change will help win their support. Training and educating the team will also help in ensuring that change adoption is smooth.

Conclusion

Leadership and management in business are key components in success of any organization. Due to the fact that change is inevitable and a prescription for gallant survival especially for organization that were almost falling on their knees, having great leaders who can turn the events for the better is paramount.