Great by Choice: Stryker Corporation - Essay Example

Great by Choice: Stryker Corporation Jim Collins addresses issues of how an organization can grow in an environment wherethe only certainty is that there is uncertainty of the future. The business environment has changed and many businesses have to thrive in an environment that is increasingly uncertain that will bring negative forces that threaten to harm the business. Some of the principles that Jim Collins identifies as the best management practice that managers should apply in order to help heir organizations to thrive despite the bad weather they might have to go through during the bad times include the following; Consistency in growth Jim Collins identifies that good companies don’t wait until the weather clears in order for them to increase their performance. He calls this the 20 mile walk and gives an analogy of two people walking from one city to another separated by a three thousand mile distance. Jim Collins says that the first person goes through a journey of 20 miles per day and makes sure that despite the bad weather or any other challenge, he manages this. This first person also makes sure that even when the weather is good, the person will still only walk the twenty percent and not more. The second person on the other hand walks longer distances during good weather but slips back to rest during the bad weather. Jim Collins shows hwy the first person is likely to reach the second city faster than the second person and also easy that the second person ay never be able to reach the destination. What the author is talking about here is that the first controlled progress is very important and involves setting achievable but significant goals that must be achieved no matter what. This, as the author puts it, means that the firm has to have the ambition to achieve and the discipline to restraint itself. Controlled progress then becomes the best way to steer the firm to the right destination and therefore means t that the firs will be able to grow during the bad weather as well as the good weather. Good versus bad leadership Jim Collins also identifies leadership as a very important factor to determine how the company will grow. According to this book, leadership is very important in determining how the organization will be able to fight through the fog of economic hardship. Good leaders, he argues, will be able to help their followers to achieve better and to achieve growth regardless of the situation the economic condition. Good leaders will help those under them to have the willpower and the motivation to press on even through the bad times. They will also inspire those under them to be able to act in the professional and ethical way. This book identifies that the leaders are most able to go on and make a bi difference in the way the organization will be able to survive in a very harsh marketplace. Jim Collins’ revolves around the role of leadership in determining whether the organization will manage to growth during the bad times and even during the good times. He gives an illustration of how bad leadership can lead the failure of an organization. To do this, the author uses the real life example of two team that set to visit the south pole and gives and account of how the first team, led by Scott was able to arrive at the south pole over a month earlier than the second team and managed to come back safely while the other team perished. Good leadership combined with controlled growth makes organizations to be able to grow evenly regardless of the economic conditions or even regardless of the bad situation they may be going through. Jim Collins lists a number of organizations which can be seen to be able to achieve this kind of growth and those which have failed to achieve this kind of growth. One example of an organization that Jim Collins says has been able to achieve this is the Stryker Corporation which is a medium scale firm that manufactures medical equipment. Stryker Corporation was able to achieve continued growth even during the time when many other firms in America were suffering and unable to make any useful progress. Jim Collins refers to how the CEO of Stryker Corporation, John Brown was able to steer Stryker Corporation through the recession, achieving a 20% annual growth even in a time when the a good number of organizations, good or bad, were suffering and even collapsing. Brown managed to achieve this kind of growth after the by applying the two things already discussed. First, the CEO managed to have a very good standard for growth for everybody in the firm and al the department. The target annual growth was set at 20 percent without giving any excuses. This target was to be achieved regardless of any challenges such as exchange rate problems and no one was allowed to lag being. Any one in the firm who would fail to achieve this 20 percent would receive an award for low performance and therefore everybody worked harder to avoid this award. However, Brown did not just have this growth target set for the employees and an award set for those who would not be able to perform, he also provided the employees with the right leadership. The underperformance award was not just s punishment to those who did not achieve the growth target, but these employees received the direct guidance and mentorship of the CEO in order to help them to go back to their tracks. This kind of leadership combined with controlled growth was able to give the firm continued growth over time. Mr Brown was able to achieve this by being a leader who showed the way to his people and helped them to achieve the corporate goals. Good leaders, like Mr. Brown are able to understand that those they lead are people with their own lives and wisdom and that what they need is the guidance. They don’t overarch the intelligence of their followers but instead help those following them to make their own decision. This is very applicable where ethical leadership is concerned. Because ethics is usually a matter of persona choices, the leader will not be able to define how his junior officers will act ethically. Instead, his own behaviour will act as the manual and he guide for those under him or her in the organizational ladder. This can be seen in Stryker Corporation where the CEO and other senior officers were able to help the younger people in the organization to know how to achieve personal and corporate growth without acting unethically. Ethic al leadership begins with the realization of what the corporate values are and then striving to achieve them at whatever cost. The CEO of Stryker Corporation seems to have understood this very well and his goals were aligned with the corporate goals of Stryker Corporation. Like any other leader who applies ethical standards in his management, Brown realised that getting the best people and then developing them was not a choice if he had to grow his business. To help them grow, he coma up with his famous award for the underperformers, not as a way to humiliate those who did not achieve the gaols but as a way to make spur them to greater heights. To prove that the awards as not geared towards humiliation but encouragement for staff to works harder, the CEO offered to be giving direct attentions and guidance to those who did not manage to achieve the set growth target of 20% annually. Leadership is not just having a title and being the boss. It is about motivating people t give the desired result. Motivating people is a leadership trait hat not every person may have. A good leader is able to motivate his people to go beyond the mark and cover the extra mile and beyond. In a dynamic market condition like one described by Jim Collins where uncertainty is the norm if the day and negative forces keep hurtling at the business, being able to motivate people to walk past the extra mile is the key to success. It is achieved by raising the bar of excellence beyond the normal and then creating an environment where reaching this level of excellence is promoted by the corporate culture. This seems to be what was happening in Stryker Corporation as the CEO set standards that were to be met by all the employees. Looking at this kind of management style, one may be tempted to think that is an unfair management style. One would be forgiven to think so because the same was applied in places like the famous and fallen Enron and it failed so badly. But a closer look brings a realisation that the kind of management style that the CEO of Stryker Corporation applied was not exactly like that applied in Enron. While Stryker Corporation used an award given to those who did not manage to achieve the corporate goals set for them, it was different from Enron in a number of ways. For instance, while Enron used to humiliate those who did not achieve, Stryker Corporation only offered to help them be able to achieve the goal the and come out of the place where they were stuck. More importantly, unlike Enron, Stryker Corporation did not sack those who did not perform and the performance appraisal was not done by fellow employees as was the case with the fallen Enron. The CEO of Stryker Corporation came up with a model of leadership that helped those who did not perform to be able to understand their weaknesses and overcome them rather than feel defeated and humiliated. This kind of leadership is one that can help an organizations achieve its growth target even then the market conditions are not on its side. Good leaders also realise the need for organizational change. Applying the right organizational change by helping the individuals understands the need for change and involving them in the change process will help the organization to achieve positive change whenever and wherever it is needed. This can be seen in Stryker Corporation since the CEO Mr Brown joined the organization in 1997. After joining the corporation, he realized that he needed to change the attitude of the organization and that he needed to make sure that the people were motivated to do the right things and to look forward to achieve personal as well as corporate growth. His nee form of management was able to bring the needed change because of a number of reasons. One, he developed his leadership around the need to grow and develop individual talents of the employees. Secondly, he allowed for autonomy and left no room for excuses for non performance. Good leaders like the CEO of Stryker Corporation understand that leadership is not about taking over the willpower of the individuals being led but that it is important to leave them with the autonomy they need to be able to productive. He also realised that this kind of autonomy will increase creative solutions developed by the employees. By giving them the autonomy they needed and thus the ability to be creative in creating solution, he was not able to require that not reason or excuse, however genuine, should affect anyone’s performance. Even the currency wars of the 2008 were not accepted as good explanations for poor performance. This kind of management process made brought about by the new management was able to make the employees more resource and the organization managed to record a steady growth even as the other firms were suffering and even closing down. Read More