Leadership and Vision, Business Ethics - Assignment Example

Part A: Leadership and Vision

Vision is one important leadership principle that needs to be embraced to ensure that there is flow in the leadership experience of a given organization. In line with the necessity for the vision and the requirements for the management of an organization, Professor Keith Grint, a professor of Public Leadership and Management clearly elaborates the definition and the need for vision in any business setup. In the book The Art of Leadership, the author defines vision as an inherent ability that enables seeing what does not exist. Further, she poses that vision involve defying the constraints of current reality and stretching oneself mentally. Leaders need to always think of the impossible and consequently put requisite plans in place to ensure that the impossible are achieved (TAOL, 2012). Lack of vision denotes past, backwardness and reversed thinking, stuck in a comfort zone where blindness is on the lead.

For proper creation and execution of the plan aimed at ensuring visions are incorporated in leadership, the executives, or rather the managers of a given organization have a sole responsibility. In Why Smart Executive Fail, since they are the leaders of the organizations, their sole mandate is to orient the company in line with the required outcomes (WSEF, 2004). A detailed plan that will enable sort out the issue at place will involve a number of activities. To begin with, identification of the present answer to the needs at hand is very requisite. In this regard, the past experiences in a business setup may not be what the clients are in need of at the moment. Similarly, devising a different game with regards to the current version or realities at hand are very vital. Due to the developments taking place in the business environment, it follows then that new schemes have to be devised. Additionally, the organization must seek to ensure that there is a correct self-image developed to ensure that delivery of the information is up to date. Finally, sufficient and specific account information must be provided to ensure that validity of the visions is accounted for.

In order to ensure that the responsible person, in this case, the executive or the manager of the company, is accountable, the board of management of the specific company should ensure keep track of the person. All the transactions performed by the person must be in line with the measures developed to ensure that the vision of the company is attained and worked in accordance (WSEF, 2004). The success of the project will be measured through the ability of the organization to regain the statuesque it had at point of formation. Increased sales of the company as well as regaining the reputation of the company are measures enough to denote that the company is becoming successful. Similarly, orientation to the vision of the company will serve as requisite means to ensure that success is maintained.

In the course of the implementation process, celebrations can be made when the company has regained the right momentum and the reputation being restored. When the sales of the company regain their normal way and the transaction get back to the normal, the crew in charge with the developmental process of the company can be appreciated through rewarding them as well creation of an event to thank the people involved.

Since the vision of the organization was already in place, the timeline for ensuring that things are in place will not take a long time, but rather a short time. The problem was just pursuing a wrong vision which can be oriented back in at most three months.

Part B: Business Ethics

Ethics in general refer to a set of codes that govern how an individual operates. Ethics are very important as they set an environment that enables transactions to be carried out in one’s life without impediments. In application to business, ethics are defined as the moral codes that guide the behaviors of any business organization. They too incorporate principles which determine the actions of an individual (TAOL, 2012). Business ethics involve making of a right decision based on distinguishing between right and wrong. Identification of unethical practices in a given business environment appears to be easier than identification of ethical, or rather the good business practices. Generally, any business should aim at ensuring that it creates an environment that rightly favors the existence of both its employees as well as external environment such as competitors. As in the cases of Boston Red Sox and Snow Brand Milk in Why Smart Executives Fail, the major ethical issue was going astray with a strategy hence doing a wrong thing in the long run.

The root cause to the leadership scenario was experienced by the two companies was a strategy gone amiss hence changing the focus of the business to a totally different thing from the initial intention of the business (WSEF, 2004). Strategizing is one important phase of leadership aimed at ensuring that the business attains the goals and accomplishes the missions for which it was set. Correctly dealing with employees, clients as well the specific competitors of a given business therefore works well in ensuring that strategy is attained.

In the bid to ensure that the businesses attain their rightful place, creation and execution of an effective plan is therefore essential. In this regard, a team of experts should be formed to ensure that there is correct formulation of strategies aimed at ensuring that the business goes right back to the position it was in the beginning. The team may constitute of both members of the company as well as other people from outside who will ensure that the business picks up effectively.

Creation of a clear plan aimed at solving the problem is therefore an important phase. This phase constitutes of several plans to ensure that the business gets back to normal. Understanding the strategy of the company through understanding the key strategists is therefore the first plan in the array of plans. Similarly, there needs to be a view of the competitors as worthy opponents (WSEF, 2004). Additionally, all the sources of information that can be found to deliberate on the strategy should be analyzed to ensure that the information provided is requisite and up to standard to deal with the needs therein. Over relaying on personal information should however not be advocated for or emphasized since it leads to decreased results considering the outcomes of the deal.

There is a need for a follow up plan in order to ensure that the team is up to standard with the needs required in the recovery of the company. In this regard, the CEO of the Company as well as the board of management should work to ensure that the team is within the standard required in the course of the process. The CEO should therefore be in closer supervision of activities carried out by the group as well as the needs presented to ensure that they fulfilled.

The success of the deal will be measured considering full functionality of the business as well as the come-back of the clients of the company as well as the profits that that were projected. In the course of the success, there will be a need for celebrating the success achieved and among the possible ways for celebrating include congratulating the team that was appointed through appreciating them with gifts (WSEF, 2004). Similarly, there can be a bash organized aimed at ensuring that the workers come together and then discuss a few essential requirements aimed at fulfilling the needs of the company. The entire of the process is projected to take up to three months since the people involved in the operation of the whole event are experts.

PART C: Deming Way Principles

Improvement in the effectiveness of any business or organization is very vital for the development and functionality of the business. Edwards Deming, therefore, in the bid to ensure that an organization follows to the later some the ways to ensure that the effectiveness is heightened, offered some key principles for management to ensure that the business leaders are effectively helped in the course of their administration work. A majority of the principles appear to be philosophical while others are programmatic in nature. In the long run, all the principles serve to achieve transformation of the company since they are transformative in their making. They are a total of 14 principles in general, but for the sake of the assignment, I will mention the first one. There is as need for creation of a constancy of purpose aimed towards improvement of the of both the product as well as the service hence the business achieves a competitive edge in line with the business and consequently providing jobs for the people (TAOL, 2012). In line with the principle, some companies and executives such as Saatchi & Saatchi were involved in a number of mergers and acquisitions which were the primary source of their failure (WSEF, 2004).

The root leadership cause to the problem experienced was improper and insufficient information was considered before and during the process of attaining mergers and acquisitions. In this regard, the principle of inclusivity which entails involving all the people in the organization was violated hence in the bid to ensure that the products and the services were well developed to serve the right purpose, the end was fall (WSEF, 2004). The final objective of the first principle of Deming was therefore not achieved since the people it wrong information was provided. In the bid to ensure that that the company therefore gets back to track with the operations it had before, a team of specialist that are well acquitted with the M&A process are therefore requisite to ensure that the business gets back to full functionality and operation as it was before.

In the bid to ensure that the business rightly gets back to the position where it was before or is engaged in an M&A process effectively, there needs to be a series of plans in place aimed at ensuring that the information is vital. To begin with, there needs to be proper collection of the information that regard the companies in which a given business needs to make a merger with. The cultures of the two companies need therefore to properly merge to ensure that the entire process is successful. Additionally, there needs to be a team of specialists that will be created to ensure that the transition is smooth and professional (WSEF, 2004). These people can either be from the organization or they can be hired in the course of the process. Similarly, documentation is an essential part of the entire process where the documents of can be exchanged in the bid to ensure that the process is legal.

As for many other processes and companies that involve mergers and acquisitions, the CEO and the managing executives of the organization are the people that need to be charged with ensuring that the whole process is functional. In this course, they are responsible with ensuring that the team charged with the transition process is correctly working to ensure that the entire process is done. In the course of the process, the success of the process will be measured through ensuring that the process is effectively maintained and the transition process is smooth. In this regard, the merging of the two cultures will therefore be eased and adaptability to the functions of merger therefore enabled.

For the cake of appreciating and recognizing the efforts put in place by the team, it is requisite that celebrations be considered just to appreciate the team that was charged with the functionality of the entire process. In this regard, a party can be organized to incorporate the two sides that were involved in the entire process. Gifts can similarly be given to the people involved. Six months is considered an ample time to ensure that the entire process is up to date and fully functionality of the merger resumes. The entire process will therefore be complete in the course of the period.

PART D: Effective Discipline

Discipline is a critical element of leadership which involves the ability to act decisively. Some key elements of leadership are therefore followership, where the leader is a follower, first of themselves then of the objectives of the company as well as the leaders as well as the role models. Discipline also entails education, where the leader educates the followers on the essential needs that components and well as the needs of leadership. This results in inspiration of the followers to pursuing the goals of the company (TAOL, 2012). Discipline similarly involves change, where techniques are changed in accordance with the demands and the needs of the situation.

In Why Smart Executives Fail, discipline is considered a critical role since it led to the failure some big companies. The sole leadership cause that was the root for the failure of the organizations was failure to act on vital information presented to the company as a learning opportunity (WSEF, 2004). Tracking down of the lost signals was therefore identified as the sole leadership cause that necessitated the failure of the organizations. Being receptive to the information provided to the companies is therefore essential to ensure that the companies are in tandem with the functionality of the organizations.

The responsibility for the creation and similarly the execution of the plan to heal the business lies with the leadership of the business, where the CEO is the head of that team. Additionally, regarding the activities and functions of the CEO, delegation of the responsibilities aimed at ensure the elements discipline are effected therefore needs to be made to ensure that the CEO is eased of the works (WSEF, 2004). A plan to ensure that the problem is rightly handled includes consideration of undirected information, utilization of the missing communication channels as well as ensuring that missing oversight is correctly handled.

In the case that the CEO is concerned with the implementation, the responsible people that will be involved with ensuring that the process is due are the executive board members of the organization. They will be charged with tracking down the activities of the CEO as well as ensuring that there is correct information passed down to the people. Similarly, if the CEO chooses to delegate the opportunity to a team, the CEO will therefore be in charge with the responsibility to ensure that the effectiveness of the team is upheld (WSEF, 2004). Success of the project will be therefore be measured if adaptability to the proposed schedule is adhered to.

On the success of the entire project, celebrations will be vital to ensure as a way to ensure that the efforts of the people are appreciated. In this regard, it follows then that the celebrations will include rewarding of the people involved in the success of the mission as well as the partying with the employees of the organization to ensure mutuality. The expected completion time for the proposed solution is therefore projected at five months as the steps need to be followed to the later.