Change at Faslane - Essay Example

Change at Faslane Faslane is the United Kingdom’s home for nuclear submarines that carries systematic Trident weapons measuring 148 meters long. Faslane is Naval Base Clyde of the Ministry of Defense but managed by an independent company called Babcock Marine. The work of Babcock Marine is to monitor or oversee all the activities around the naval base. This naval base is in the West of Glasgow thirty miles from the town where processing and loading of warheads takes place under very tight security. In order for Faslane to ensure comprehensive survival, it required bits of touches regarding change of its ways of operations to better its position as well as its services. First, Faslane was entirely operating under the watch of the Ministry of Defense and the Royal Navy. Due to need for minimizing its expenditure and cut costs, but retain its at the top of the base’s interest, Faslane introduced strategic change that witnessed the company decide to establish a partnering program with an independent entity that would help reduce the cost of expenditure and at the same time provide the most effective services to their client. As a matter of course, Faslane collaborated with Babcock, a subsidiary branch of Babcock International (The Great Britain, 2006:28). The UK’s Ministry of Defense signed a five-year contract with Babcock Marine in 2002. This evolutional change came in the face of John Howie’s charge that had to make sure that Babcock meets the set targets and delivers a total savings cost of $76 million without negatively affecting any activities or services provided to the UK Navy. The strategic change that Faslane incorporated measures that managed their strategies with absolute efficiency since it was necessary for Babcock to cut costs as the cut costs would come to them in form of profits. Furthermore, introduction of Babcock Marine would positively transform Faslnane because Babcock would make sure delivery of their services was effective and of high quality at a lower cost. In addition, Faslane is a huge firm with a large number of employees depicting that the cost of running its operations and the cost of maintaining its staff is always high. Therefore, when Babcock Marine Company came on board, Faslane relieved part of its expenditure in view of cutting costs by seconding to Babcock close to 300 Royal Navy personnel together with over 1’700 civil servants posts (The Stationery Office, 2010:7). It also left the remaining number of civil servants within the site, the police, Royal Marines, and sailors under the management of Babcock Marine. With reduced number of employees, Faslane had transformed and approached an easier system of managing the company operations at a cost effective procedure. Furthermore, the strategy Faslane used to manage change was competent since its transformation styles resulted in the company’s transition of mindset under John Howie’s directive leadership model. This is because; collaborating with Babcock would ensure that Babcock changed the mindset of all the previous employees present at the site. As elaborated, these employees were mostly civilians who worked at the site for quite a long time and had established empires. This deterred them from seeing the importance of delivering service to the Royal Navy, which is their customer (Gapes, 2010:114). Hence, for Babcock to achieve its set goals and objectives, it was necessary to change the mindset of these employees who guarded the submarines as well as the ships. Changing the mindset would incorporate means of delivering service at the lowest possible expenditure. This means that, even if Babcock did not wish to renew its contract upon expiry, Faslane employees would still have the knowhow of cutting costs and ensuring effectiveness at the same time. Thus, strategic management of change at Faslane is long-term figurative due to John Howie’s educating and coaching system. Previously, if there were any changes at Faslane, they would take 56 days for them to reach approval. This was due to strings attached by government officials such as politicians. Therefore, to some extent, Faslane had its hands tied up by unscrupulous and lengthy procedures. Nevertheless, after Faslane introduced a strategic management change that witnessed the establishment of a partnership between them and Babcock, Babcock brought about levers of change that reversed those lengthy procedures turning them to be ‘a short while’. Prior entry of Babcock, if Faslane employees were to change or amend any company protocol they were to make a draft and present it to all the company stages. Every stage had a maximum of fourteen days to review the draft hence it would take fifty-six days to complete the process. This was absolutely too long for Babcock. On taking charge, Babcock presented a drive of change that reduced the draft review process up to two days at each stage re-engineering a fifty-six day process within only six days (The Great Britain, 2009:96). This tremendous change came to Faslane as a flexible transformation that ensured quality service provision within a very short time. Faslane knew that there was need for change within the company. It therefore only took into consideration the rest of the aspects of the company without thinking or attempting to restructure its managerial team. This reveals that, it did not come to Faslane’s attention that restructuring its management team could possibly bring tremendous change. Babcock brought about transformational levers of change that would amend the existing management team and reduce its layers together with the number of managing staff. With intensive restructure of management personnel, Babcock reappointed all jobs. Babcock restructured Faslane’s system by implementing the restructuring of management staff with urgency (Hunter, 2007:56). After some time, this change witnessed Faslane, through Babcock, reduce the number of managing staff from 250 to half of that. Moreover, Faslane took into consideration measures that made things favorable for everyone. With the help of Babcock, Faslane’s commodore was in the forefront to ensure a heart throbbing relationship between Faslane’s board of directors and the wider Ministry of Defense. This contemplated keeping the best interest of the company at heart within all the stakeholders. Further, driven by need for proficient survival as a lever of change, Faslane ensured that it had a purpose of giving back to the surrounding community members so it started working hand in hand with the local councils. The company also provided extensive and better terms of employment since 9.5 percent of the company’s employees were members of the surrounding community (Frazer, 2006:212). This change at Faslane strategized the company’s operations by making the community members comfortable through provision of employment, a change style brought in by Craig Lockhart. On the other side, the wider officials from the Ministry of Defense did not encounter or hear of incompetence on the side Faslane making the effectiveness of change program extra-ordinary. In conclusion, the changes that Babcock came up with at Faslane worked towards the achievement of greater good. For instance, the company was able to cut costs effectively and provide effective services to their customers at the same time. Faslane was also able to meet set targets of finances without affecting the company’s operations. Financially, the company was able to attain savings of fourteen million Euros up against a set target of three million Euros within the first year after collaborating with Babcock (Schank, 2005:17). Reduction of cost of operations went on well without any failure in terms of maintenance. Additionally, Faslane’s employees recommended the services brought about by programmatic change of collaborating with Babcock. They praised Faslane’s efforts for bringing in Babcock as a program that initiated change within Faslane terming the current services as better with respect to communication, attitude, as well as responsiveness. Bibliography Hunter, A.P., 2007. Breaking the Mould True Stories About Ordinary People Becoming Powerful. Delhi: Sterling Publishers Pvt. Ltd. Frazer, J. G., 2006. The Golden Bough. Sydney: NuVision Publications, LLC. Gapes, M., 2010. Global security: UK-US relations, sixth report of session 2009-10, report, together with formal minutes, oral and written evidence. Norwich: The Stationery Office. Schank, J. F. et al., 2005. Ministry of Defence roles and required technical resources, Volume 1. California: Rand Corporation. The Great Britain, et al., 2006. The future of the UK's strategic nuclear deterrent: the manufacturing and skills base, fourth report of session 2006-07, report, together with formal minutes, oral and written evidence. Norwich: The Stationery Office. The Great Britain, et al., 2009. Engineering: Oral and written evidence. Norwich: The Stationery Office. The Stationery Office, 2010. Managing the Defence Budget and Estate. Norwich: The Stationery Office. Read More