Leadership Influence on the Market Performance - Aussie CommerceGroup, Though World - Case Study Example

Does Leadership influence market Performance of Organizations? Name: Registration No: Institution: Instructor: Date of Submission: Introduction Organizational leadership has been found to be a significant factor in contributing to the success of a business. This is because when the organizational leader implements the right leadership approached, employees become productive and focused towards the goals set by him. Consequently, a leader that implements a better leadership structure determines the level of performance of the organization concerned. This is because, companies reported in the Business Weekly in the Fast 1100 companies in 2013 shows that leadership structure is a significant factor to determine marketing performance of a company. This paper provides an investigation of the contribution of leadership towards market performance of Thought World that was ranked 6th, Aussie CommerceGroup that was ranked 1st, Fossil energy Services that was ranked 4th and Nutrition Warehouse that was ranked 8th. Case Studies Leadership of Aussie commerceGroup This company was ranked the 1st among the 100 fastest growing companies in Australia with a percentage profit of 276% and a turnover of $43.1 million in the year 2012-2013. The company is managed by Adam Schwab and Jeremy Same as the CEOs. The company is generally involved in advertising, marketing and media activities (Anderson, 2013). The leadership structure of the CEOs of the company is considered to be the main contributing factor to the market performance of the company. The leadership of Schwab has been focused on ensuring customer satisfaction by providing advertising services and products at absolute best price which ensures clients are pleased to work with them (Blazey, 2009). In the advertising activities, the leadership has been focused on engaging the audience by appealing to their interests and desires. This has resulted into the popularity of ads made by the company, thus resulting into a good reputation of the company. Furthermore, his leadership has been focused on increased use of social media to interact with his clients and allow people using online services get access to products and services of the company. The leadership of Schwab has also been focused towards creating a culture of competition among his employees. Thus, most employees of the company have strived to do their best in their areas of specialization. The result is that the quality of advertising services has been efficient and customers have been pleased with the media products of the company. In addition, Schwab has effective marketing skills and has worked in a number of marketing roles. This has enabled him equip his employees with a culture of marketing the products and services of the company (Carter, Ulrich & Goldsmith, 2005). As a result, there has been increased awareness about the products and services of the company and it has been possible to achieve high profitability. Furthermore, the methods of interaction between Schwab and his regular customers have been positive and any customer complaints have been handled with great concern. All customers have been treated well irrespective of their character. This has resulted into a better relationship between the staff of the company and customers, thus promoting business activities and resulting into success of the organization. Schwab has also been an effective financial manager and has been able to provide a guide into areas where finances need to be invested. For instance, he has focused his financial investments in the areas such as EatNow, an online food ordering site that has contributed significantly towards the success of the company (Hanlan, 2004). Another area where Schwab’s effective financial management skills has been demonstrated is during the purchase of TheHome, an interiors deals site that has been successful in provision of interior design products through the internet. Other online food ordering sites that have been bought by the company include Deals.com.au, Ouffer, Pop.com and the fresh food selling company The Meat Merchant. Leadership of Though World Thought World is an Electricity, gas, water and waste services company founded in 2009 and currently under the management of Neil Saligrama as the CEO. The company was successful and was ranked 6th among top 100 fast growing companies in Australia. Their profit in 2013 was $4.99 million, a growth of 123% (Finney, 2008). The success of the company is attributed to organizational leadership style implemented by its CEO. An example of leadership style used by Saligrama to ensure the popularity of Though World in the provision of energy services is innovation. He has ensured the natures of services provided by the company are not simply the basic products and services that were offered during early periods of the start of the company, but include improvements in quality of services offered through innovation (Carver, 2013). This is where various forms of online aggregators were launched that allows SMEs to make a comparison of energy prices. In addition, Saligrama intends to ensure the company diversifies into online space so that diverse streams of income are achieved. Saligrama also intends to chase the fuel card market, an integrated marketing strategy that has been implemented by few businesses. Another leadership strategy that has contributed to the success of Thought world is good relationship with customers, clients and friends of the business. This quality worked for Though World during tough times when the business was undergoing losses, and thus withdrawal of its partners from the partnership (Hanlan, 2004). Due to better relationship with clients, customers and friends, he was able to get financial assistance that resulted into improvement of the performance of the business. In addition, the case of Thought world shows that the success of a business does not depend on going international, but being able to maintain a better relation with the locals. Saligrama admits that the current success of the business has been contributed by his emphasis that the business operates locally and he maintains his call center in Australia so that business longevity in terms of customer retention, customer service and customer longevity can be achieved. The acceptance of diverse groups of people at the work place is a significant factor that leadership has to consider in an organization (Lafley & Martin, 2013). Saligrama explains that he has employed a multilingual staff that have enabled the company communicate with people from other countries such as Italy, Spain, India and mandarin. In addition, the cultural differences of these groups of people have contributed to various ideas in management which when combined have resulted into the success of the business. Leadership of Fossil Energy Services Fossil Energy Services is a construction company that was formed in 2009 and currently managed by Nestor Fernandes as the CEO. In 2013 ranking of Australia’s 100 fast growing companies it was ranked 4th overall with a turnover of $7.13 million and a percentage growth of 173% (McGonigal, 2012). There are various ways in which the CEO contributed to the success of the company in the construction market. One leadership strategy that has contributed to the success of Fossil Energy Services is treatment of staff with respect. This implies providing them with adequate salary that acts as a motivation for them to give their best at work, creating a better working condition for the staff and not using them as machines for making profits. For instance, leadership has motivated the employees to provide effective customer service which has contributed to efficient market performance of the company. In addition, the leadership of Fenandes if focusing on diversifying the range of products offered to the market. For instance, the company is focusing on provision of shale gas with the focus on attaining global competitiveness in provision of these products (Ries, 2011). Due to diversity of products and services of the company, it has been possible to become competitive in the global market due to variation in the nature of products offered to consumers. As a result of visionary leadership of Fernandes, the company has been able to maintain a high competitiveness in the gas industry and is currently approaching international standards. This is based on his ability to understand the performance of gas industry and design a marketing strategy that ensures high competitiveness is achieved. Another leadership approach that ensured the success of Fossil Energy Services is the Fernandez’s culture of being a self-starter. Despite being employed in a consultancy company, he observed that he could start a similar business and ensure the success of the business. This quality is demonstrated when he contributed to a huge success of Fossil Energy Services in 2013. This is because, he was able to come up with ideas that propelled the business to high profitability and output (Scott, 2014). As a result of his ability to come up with fresh ideas, the business was able to strategies on how to overcome competition from similar companies both locally and internationally. The ability of Fernandez to organize the activities of Fossil Energy Services was also a contributing factor to its success. This can be observed by the manner in which he organized the sales and distribution of the gas products to respective consumers and ensuring time is not wasted in meeting customer demands. As a result of organization of activities of the company, it was possible to operate both locally and internationally with greater efficiency thus resulting into profitability. Leadership of Nutrition Warehouse Nutrition Warehouse is another Australian company that showed great success in 2013, being ranked 8th overall with a turnover of $16.94 and a percentage profitability of 120%. The company is managed by Grant Mayo as the CEO. His leadership style contributed to the success of the company in a number of ways. Self –discipline has been a significant factor in ensuring Gayo successes as the CEO of the body building services Retail Company (Sosik, 2004). He has ensured the right activity is done without compromising the demands of customers. This has created a culture of trust and customers have developed loyalty to the company, thus propelling its profitability. Ability to take risk in an area that is stigmatized is another factor that contributed to the success of Nutrition Warehouse (Bérard, 2013). This is because the CEO was a risk taker with the focus on achieving profitability in a manner that was possible. The profession in which he had invested was stigmatized and very few people opted to operate similar businesses. Little did they know that the idea taken by Gayo would lead him to become a leader in entrepreneurship. Ability to diversify into dietetics and nutrition despite the success of body building services and products was also another factor that contributed to success of Nutrition Warehouse. Mr. Gayo observed that there was the need to ensure a variety of related products were provided to his clients such as nutrition advices and services. This is because when customers get a variety of products and services from a single supplier, they develop trust 8in the supplier and become loyal. As a result of the loyalty of these customers, it was possible to have a great number of customers who created high demand for its products and services. This resulted into a better performance of the company. Customer focused model, warehouse design and aplenty of stocks which has made the company tap into the amateur market and improve its performance in the country. A customer service has been designed with the focus on achieving customer satisfaction (Brase & Brase, 2012). Mr. Gayo has encouraged his staff to consider customer demand to be the first priority in performing their tasks and ensure customer complaints are heard and a corrective action take. Mr. Gayo himself has been pleasant to his customers and his employees have developed a similar culture of being friendly to customers. In response to efficient customer service, customers have liked the products of the company and high sales volumes have been obtained. This has been replicated in the profitability of the company. Discussion and Conclusion This paper shows that leadership is a determining factor whether an organization can perform well in the market or not based on the leadership style used by top management such as the CEOs to manage the operations of a company. However, it shows that there are particular leadership styles that can contribute to a high chance of success of a business if implemented in organizational leadership. For instance, it shows that most leaders who lead their organizations to success are risk takers by investing into areas where they have a vision of success and also focusing their efforts and resources to ensure these visions are realized. This paper also shows that another leadership strategy that ensures a company is successful and able to perform well in the market is customer service where focus is put on customer satisfaction through provision of quality products while maintaining a positive communication with customers. It also involves listening to customer complaints and designing products and services so that customer demands are achieved. Furthermore, the act of diversifying the products and services of a company is a major contributing factor to the success of an enterprise. This is because this activity results into the ability of the business to compete favorably in various aspects of the market such as the sales of a variety of products and services. In addition, innovative leadership is observed to have resulted into the success of most businesses in the case studies where the managers have demonstrated continued innovation in their management systems. This has been achieved through continuous improvement of the existing products or introducing other products into the business. Finally, this paper has shown that when the employer treats his employees with respect, they are able to contribute significantly to the organization by providing efficient services. Most organizations where success stories have been heard in this paper have resulted from effective customer service as a result of the concern for the welfare of employees. This leads to the recommendation that any organization that intends to improve its performance in the market must design its leadership structure in a relevant manner to the designs explained in this paper. References Anderson, D. R. (2013). Quantitative methods for business. Bérard, J. (2013). Accelerating leadership development: Practical solutions for building your organization's potential. Blazey, M. L. (2009). Insights to performance excellence, 2009-2010: An inside look at the 2009-2010 Baldrige Award criteria. Milwaukee: Asq Quality Press. Brase, C. H., & Brase, C. P. (2012). Understanding basic statistics. Pacific Grove, Calif: Brooks/Cole. Carter, L., Ulrich, D., & Goldsmith, M. 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