Business Improvement and Creativity - Essay Example

 Business Improvement and Creativity Table of Contents 1. Introduction ………………………………………………………………….......... 3 2. Theory Analysis ……………………………………………………………........... 3 2.1 Kotter’s Model of Organizational Change ................................................ 3 2.2 De Bono’s Six Hat Thinking ...................................................................... 6 3. Case Application .........................................................................................………. 7 3.1 The Case of RIM – BlackBerry ................................................................ 7 3.2 Application of Theories ............................................................................ 8 4. Conclusion and Recommendations ………………………….............……………. 9 Appendix I – Summary of Mobile Phone Sales Volume Around the World ..................... 11 Appendix II – Kotter’s Model of Organizational Change .................................................. 12 Appendix III – Questionning Diagram of De Bono’s Six Hat Thinking ........................... 13 References ………………………………………………………………………………… 14 -16 Chapter 1 – Introduction BlackBerry is a company that is commonly known as the “Research in Motion” (RIM) (BlackBerry, 2013). Basically, RIM is well-known for its ability to innovate new wireless technology. When RIM started to penetrate and focus its business as a manufacturer and designer of unique mobile phone units, the company decided to use the brand name “Blackberry” in selling and marketing its wireless handheld gadgets (BlackBerry, 2013; Lomas, 2013). In general, businesses that are highly dependent in the use of technology is constantly changing. As a common knowledge, the business rivalry within the wireless and mobile industry is highly competitive (Stark, 2013). To maintain the company’s market shares, the top management of RIM is being challenged to constantly improve its business processes and product quality and design. (See Appendix I – Summary of Mobile Phone Sales Volume Around the World on page 11) As part of analyzing the main drivers behind the business improvement of BlackBerry, this study will purposely analyze the theory behind John Kotter’s model of organizational change and DEbono’s six hat thinking. After critically analyzing these two particular business improvement theories, it will be applied in the case of RIM – BlackBerry. Chapter 2 – Theory Analysis According to Nelson and Quick (2008, p. 416), organizational change is inevitable yet manageable. To compete in the market, implementing product innovation and organizational change is necessary (Sabri, Gupta and Beitler, 2007, p. viii). 2.1 Kotter’s Model of Organizational Change Kotter’s eight steps towards organizational change is one of the most famous model that is commonly used in “planning, implementing, and sustaining change” (Sabri, Gupta and Beitler, 2007, p. 176). According to Kottler (1996), the eight steps towards a successful organizational change include: (1) establishing a sense of urgency; (2) creating a guiding coalition; (3) developing a vision and strategy for change; (4) communicating the vision and strategy for change; (5) empowering employees for action; (6) generating short-term wins; (7) consolidating gains and producing more change; and (8) anchoring change in organizational culture [cited in Sabri, Gupta and Beitler, 2007, p. 176]. (See Appendix II – Kotter’s Model of Organizational Change on page 12) The model presented by Kottler is clear and straight-forward. Using the SWOT matrix, this model encourages the managers to reflect on the need to implement organizational change (Kottler, 1996, p. 21). It also encourages the managers to use their leadership skills to effectively communicate the vision and strategy to persuade employees to support organizational change (Sabri, Gupta and Beitler, 2007, p. 176). Basically, there is no problem with regards to the need to develop a vision as it will guide the rest of the team towards a single organizational goal (Thoms, 2004, p. 125). Steps 6 and 7 are interrelated with one another. By generating short-term wins, the managers could use the gains in motivating employees to support the need to implement more change (Sabri, Gupta and Beitler, 2007, p. 176; Kottler, 1996, p. 21). At this stage, rewarding or recognizing employees for their strong support is necessary to keep them motivated throughout the different stages of implementing change. To make employees feel more satisfied at work, employers should reward employees with competitive salary, benefits, a good working environment, opportunity for job promotion, and implement a culture that practice two-way communication line between the top-down management group (Rad and Yarmohammadian, 2006). Organizational culture is all about having “a shared ideas, customs, assumptions, expectations, traditions, values, and understanding” (Osborne and Brown, 2005, p. 75). Since organizational culture can affect how employees will behave in the work environment, anchoring change in organizational culture is important (Sabri, Gupta and Beitler, 2007, p. 176; Kottler, 1996, p. 21). Empowering employees for action is all about removing all barriers behind a successful change implementation (Kottler, 1996, p. 21). However, this model is too broad to tell how how we can effectively remove all barriers to a successful change. In line with this, Stragalas (2010, p. 35) argued that managers who “seek to implement a strategic change intiative based on this original information could become frustrated with the gaps in explanation”. Therefore, Kotter’s eight steps towards organizational change should be considered as a framework for change instead of a “step-by-step action plan” (Stragalas, 2010, p. 35). For example, when implementing change, managers should effectively manage problems related to resistance-to-change (Pieterse, Caniels and Homan, 2012; Erwin and Garman, 2010). Unfortunately, the need to solve this particular problem was not tackled in detail. Therefore, when using this particular model alone, managers are most likely to left out being confused and anxious on what to do next in order for them to get things done properly. Another point-of-argument is that this particular model gave too much emphasis on the use of top-down implementation of change (Whiteley, 1995). Likewise, this particular model does not clearly tells us how the managers should create a new “vision, mission, and strategy” to support the need for change (Rothwell et al., 2010, p. 68). 2.2 De Bono’s Six Hat Thinking De Bono’s six hat thinking highlighted the importance of incorporating creativity when solving business-related problems or important decision-making (Leonard, 2002, p. 220). Basically, De bono’s six hat thinking represent his theory behind the six (6) different modes of thinking known as the White Hat (blank sheet), Red Hat (fire), Yellow Hat (Sun), Black Hat (judge’s robe), Green Hat (plant), and the Blue Hat (Sky) (Kratzer et al., 2007, p. 57). (See Table I – Summary of De Bono’s Six Thinking Hat below) Table I – Summary of De Bono’s Six Hat Thinking Color Description White Pure facts, figures and information Red Feeling, emotions and intuition Black ‘Devil’s advocate’, negative judgement, what can go wrong? Yellow Brightness and optimism, positive constructive comments Green Creative, provocative, lateral thinking Blue Overview, summarising, what to take forward. Source: Winstanley, 2005, p. 63 Aside from increasing organizational productivity, the metaphor used by De Bono was purposely created to “avoid argument and adversarial situation” (Runco, 2007, p. 347). By making it a habit to wear one hat at a time, adversarial situations can be prevented since these hats can be used in “forcing everyone to think in parallel” (Sloane, 2010, p. 31). De Bono’s six hat thinking is similar to a brainstorming model in the sense that this metaphor can be used in coming up with relevant questions which can help solve business-related problems (Runco, 2007, p. 347; Winstanley, 2005, p. 63). Despite the strengths of De Bono’s six hat thinking, this model has been subject to a lot of critism. Aside from the risk wherein employees could feel overwhelmed with excessive data, Li et al. (2008, p. 7) mentioned that one of the limitations of using this tool in problem-solving is that the use of this model can lead to “a more passive, low-energy approach to the activity”. (See Appendix III – Questionning Diagram of De Bono’s Six Hat Thinking on page 13) Chapter 3 – Case Application 3.3 The Case of RIM – BlackBerry The case of RIM – BlackBerry is quite unique. Based on the company history, RIM has been very successful for its innovation on wireless technology. In 1999, RIM launched its BlackBerry 850 pager in the market (Buckland, 2013a; Ziegler, 2009). To avoid being technically outdated, RIM launched its BlackBerry smartphones with touch screen, camera, and MP3 players in 2008 (Buckland, 2013b). RIM’s biggest target market is the U.S. government. Therefore, this company did not entertain the need to incorporate digital camera and MP3 player on its smartphones (Buckland, 2013b). Since the market competition within the mobile industry is getting tight, RIM was being challenge to implement necessary changes. In 2011, RIM started launching its PlayBook to compete with other well-known tablet brands (i.e. Apple’s iPad, Samsung’s Galaxy Tab, etc.) (Buckland, 2013c). Becoming the market leader is one of the most important marketing strategies that will enable a company grab the biggest market shares in mobile phone gadgets (Buckland, 2013c). Over the last decade, RIM has been left behind its close competitors. To avoid losing the value of its market shares, RIM should take it as a challenge to find ways on how this company will become the future market leader in technology. 3.4 Application of Theories RIM seems to have a cultural practice of becoming late in launching its product innovation (Buckland, 2013c). This is one of the main problem why RIM is losing its potential market to other gadget manufacturers such as Apple and Samsung. To overcome this problem, the CEO of RIM should adopt the use of Kotter’s eight steps towards organizational change. For example, the CEO should immediately establish a sense of urgency to become the market leader in technology innovation (Sabri, Gupta and Beitler, 2007, p. 176; Kottler, 1996, p. 21). To do so, the CEO should first establish a clear set of vision and strategies that will enable RIM to reach its goal. Using the vision, the CEO should communicate and convince its employees to support the vision (Sabri, Gupta and Beitler, 2007, p. 176; Thoms, 2004, p. 125). As soon as RIM employees are clear with the new vision, the CEO should focus more on empowering its employees for action (Sabri, Gupta and Beitler, 2007, p. 176; Kottler, 1996, p. 21). Employee empowerment is the best way to motivate employees in reaching organizational goal (Swarnalatha and Prasanna, 2013). For example, to make its employee feel appreciated, the CEO of RIM should give each employee the opportunity to voice out their individual suggestions on how the company can become the market leader in technology innovation. During the brain-storming stage, the CEO of RIM can make use of De Bono’s six hat thinking (Runco, 2007, p. 347). Using this technique, the CEO of RIM can facilitate a group discussion wihtout causing too much arguments. For example, using the White Hat, the CEO can present pure facts, figures, and information to a group of employees as a way to convince them about the need for a change (Winstanley, 2005, p. 63). To learn more about employees’ feelings about the proposed change, the CEO should use the Red Hat (Winstanley, 2005, p. 63). It means that the CEO will allow each employee to freely and openly express their own opinion about the change. At this point, the CEO will have a sense of idea whether or not the RIM employees would support or not support the new corporate vision. To generate short-term wins, the CEO should make it a practice to give recognition or rewards to RIM employees. By verbally thanking the group of employees, the workers would feel more appreciated, motivated, and more eager to support the company’s new vision. Other than giving verbal praises, the CEO can throw a thanks-giving party to RIM employees. To generate a long-term support from RIM employees, the CEO should be able to anchor change in its organizational culture (Sabri, Gupta and Beitler, 2007, p. 176; Kottler, 1996, p. 21). Chapter 4 – Conclusion and Recommendations (244) Since the early 2000s, RIM has been too slow in manufacturing and selling top of the line communication gadgets. Despite RIM’s success in innovating wireless technology, other similar companies such as the case of Apple and Samsung has become more successful in terms of grabbing the biggest market shares in the mobile industry. One of the most obvious reasons why RIM had a culture of slow to adapt to the manufacturing and selling of wireless mobile phone gadgets is because of the fact that this particular company has been mostly manufacturing and selling mobile phone gadgets particularly for the use of the government officials in the United States. Therefore, its employees are not too keen on designing and manufacturing mobile phone gadgets or tablets that could capture the interest of the public consumers. To help the company regain its strength and ability to capture a bigger market share, this study highly recommends the need to convince the CEO of RIM to use Kotter’s eight steps towards organizational change and De Bono’s six hat thinking in facilitating and managing change within this company. Using the Kotter’s eight steps towards organizational change as a framework, the CEO of RIM can immediately create an action plan for this company. Using De Bono’s six hat thinking, it would be easier for the CEO to brainstorm with RIM employees. By making it a habit to use one hat at a time, adversarial situations can be prevented since these hats can be used in “forcing everyone to think in parallel” (Sloane, 2010, p. 31). Appendix I – Summary of Mobile Phone Sales Volume Around the World Source: Data Monitor, 2010, p. 12 Appendix II – Kotter’s Model of Organizational Change Source: Kottler, 1996, p. 21; Sabri, Gupta and Beitler, 2007, p. 176 Appendix III – Questionning Diagram of De Bono’s Six Hat Thinking Source: Google, 2013 References BlackBerry. (2013). Research In Motion is now BlackBerry. [Online] Available at: http://us.blackberry.com/company.html [Accessed 27 February 2013]. Buckland, J. (2013a). The history of Research In Motion. The BlackBerry cometh. msn. [Online] Available at: http://tech.ca.msn.com/photogallery.aspx?cp-documentid=29682116&page=4 [Accessed 27 February 2013]. Buckland, J. (2013b). The history of Research In Motion. The first touch screen. msn. [Online] Available at: http://tech.ca.msn.com/photogallery.aspx?cp-documentid=29682116&page=6 [Accessed 27 February 2013]. Buckland, J. (2013c). The history of Research In Motion. The PlayBook, and the descent. msn. 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