Avon Products Management - Case Study Example

Avon Products In an organization, various factors influence the conduction of business and its performance and changes in the normal conditions of the organization triggers other changes in the organization. This means that there are different things that make a company to effect changes in the course of its operation in an environment so that it can remain relevant and profitable in the business. In most cases, companies effect changes so that they can have a competitive advantage over their rivals in the same industries and that they may remain relevant to the economy by being competitive in the economy. Changes may affect different sectors of the organization according to the needs that arise and which the management must attend to so that the company does not continue in its effective state or so that it may come up with better advantage by being more effective than it was before. In order to adapt to the fast changing world that will ensure that it will thrive in business, there are different issues that need to come into consideration so that the company does not struggle unnecessarily to survive (Scheiner, 2008). Changes in an organization depend on differ factors that regulate the different things that cause determine its performance and it may include the nature of business, the change itself and the people that are involved in the change. Various things prompt change and therefore, organizational change can be explained from different perspectives according to different models of change that could be relevant in the organization and its environment. In organization of a company, need for change can develop as a result of increased need change on the environment, increased in the number of workers in an organization or the change of the organization strategy that triggers a change in involvement of different people in the organization to the process of exploitation of the environment. On the other hand, a change in the organization may result from a change in the organizational management team, which may mean introduction of a new member or more than one in it. In Avon Inc, there were changes in the leadership of the company in which the chairman’s post came under another person who had different perspective of the business than the former CEO. This is one cause of the change that happened in the company in which different strategies of operation came up for the company to ensure that it regain its success in the business. This meant that the employees of Avon Company had to adjust to the new ways of organization of the company as could be directed by a new management leader, which would mean that all the systems would feel the effect. The new chairman in Avon Inc bore the responsibility to instill different modes of motivation and commitment to the organizational change in the company so that all of the employees could maximize on their participation and ensure productivity (Bosworth, 2005). Avon experienced stiff competition from other rival companies like the L’Oreal and Revlon who were being better placed in the market and were taking the advantage of the failure of the company. This triggered change in Avon Company because the rise of competitors in the threatened its profitability and created a need to develop a means to address the rising change in the organizational structure. To respond to this issue, people went into the different issues of implementing the changes in the organization so that it can improve the effectiveness and the efficiency of the company’s systems of productions (McCracken, 2006). Another thing that necessitated change in Avon Inc is the withdrawal of the partnering organization that led to reduction to the company’s potential to win its former customers and this made some customers to defect from the company. For example, the withdrawal of Coty from the business with Avon Inc led to a reduction in the shares returns which reduced by more than a quarter. This meant that the company was at a lower competitive advantage as compared to its rivals and therefore, it needed some new strategies to ensure that it would continue to dominate the places it had lost the control in the market. In order to achieve the desired changes in the organization, employees in the Avon Inc had to understand the different issues that were relevant in implementing the changes that resulted. In order to understand the way the changes could be implemented the Kotter’s 8-step Change model could be used to understand the change that had to happen in the Avon Inc and the ways through which the different people adapted to it (Lunenburg & Ornstein, 2012). In the first step of the change is the creation of the urgency to change, which happened because of the different things that caused that cause the influenced of business productivity and profitability. For instance, the company felt the urgency to come up with a change because of the competition from L’Oreal and the Revlon companies that were growing in competitiveness at the failure of Avon Inc. The other part of the change that needed attention of different stakeholders of the organization in which the different people in the organization have to take into consideration the various factors that ought to develop a strategy to curb the failure. The Avon Inc management implemented changes following some consultations with different organization leaders and stakeholders so that they may come up with a strategy that could facilitate the proper performance of the company (McCracken, 2006). After the Avon Company leaders had made consultations, they idealized the change they would need and ensured that they would have a proper strategy and set new goals in operation. This served the purpose of refocusing the mind of the people in the society so that they can have the new expectations in the performance of their duties in the Avon Inc. This involves setting a vision for the change the company ought to have in the process of implementation of the changes they desire to have in the process of alleviating the changes failures they had in the past. The next step involved communicating the different ideas they had in the process of implementation of the changes they had so that they could keep all the stakeholders conscious of the changes they wanted to experiences for the success of the company. To realize the goals of the change, the company had to remove obstacles, creating short-term framework for success, implement the change and build on it until it established the change in the organizational culture of company (Lunenburg & Ornstein, 2012). Kotter’s 8-step Change Model was applicable in this case because it ensures that there is development of a change model that is possible to evaluate according to the different goals it has established in the organizational. In addition, the model ensures that Avon Inc is in a position to have a sustainable system of checking the changes it implemented in the past so as it does not fall short of its goals and targets it has set (Lunenburg & Ornstein, 2012). In order to ensure that the business of the company is in place and it implemented some changes, it relied on the information of the performance of its leaders in their different capacities. This led it have a clear understanding of the knowledge and skills that are essential in running the company through a successful analysis of the weaknesses of the leaders that had led to low productivity and to avoid them in the new plan of work. Another kind of information of the evaluation was the information on the different structures of the organization that could lead to the success of the company by minimizing many bureaucracies that are available in the organization (Scheiner, 2008). With the changes in the management and the increased investment in the organizational systems that could ensure that there are different things that ensure that Avon Inc increases its competitiveness, it would be possible to predict that it would succeed. This is because the changes implemented in the company are flexible and easy to maneuver through in case there are different dynamics of business environment. For instance, if the success of the leaders of the company fail to reach the expectation of the company, it will be possible to have a replacement and still keep the organizational strategy. This is because the organizational strategy is entrenched in the organizational culture of the employees and other stakeholders of the company according to the Kotter’s 8-step change model (Lambert & Supply Chain Management Institute, 2008). In case of adjustment to the changes that are implemented in the Avon Company, it will be easy considering that in the next five years; the organizational culture of the company is well established so that employees and stakeholders have their establishment in the organizational culture. According to this system of change, there will be possibilities of change that can accommodate components of the culture that can be easy to change and that can ensure that all the individual are affected positively. Because of the setting of the short-term wins, the confidence of the stakeholders will be enhanced and they will be able to perform without coercion and therefore, the efficiency of company in productivity will increase (McCracken, 2006). References Bosworth, D. L. (2005). Determinants of enterprise performance. Manchester [u.a.: Manchester University Press. Lambert, D. M., & Supply Chain Management Institute. (2008). Supply chain management: Processes, partnerships, performance. Sarasota: Supply Chain Management Institute. Lunenburg, F. C., & Ornstein, A. C. (2012). Educational administration: Concepts and practices. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth. McCracken, G. D. (2006). Flock and flow: Predicting and managing change in a dynamic marketplace. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. Scheiner, C. W. (2008). Fundamental determinants of entrepreneurial behaviour. Wiesbaden: Gabler. Read More