The Impact of Leadership in Top Australian Companies - Essay Example

THE IMPACT OF LEADERSHIP IN TOP AUSTRALIAN COMPANIES Name Course Title Tutor Institution City and State Date Due Outware is a custom mobile software design and applications development company. Outware thrives by conversion of good ideas into great mobile experiences and establishment of robust partnerships with their customer base. Their cutting edge’s creation is through nurturing of the team’s creative and technical skills. It is a vision of the company to become the difference through the creation of mobile experiences that are intuitive, engaging and appealing to their customers [out15]. Melbourne IT Limited are the majority shareholder with 50.2 percent stake as from June 2015. Their key selling point has been product quality. Product design at Outware has the latest software engineering technology to assure premier quality at all production stages [Yol15]. Being a company set up by a group of developers, Outware have a focus on treating each of their projects as a software engineering exercise to provide their clients with top of the range services and application support platforms. On the other hand, Aussie Commerce is a leading e-commerce group in Australia. The organization employs over 250 workers and has a subscriber base of over 6million members. The group is an umbrella housing other companies such as Cudo, brands exclusive, the home, luxury escapes and deals.com among many others. The company also owns Dailydo, which runs in New Zealand. Aussie Commerce has on several occasions received recognition as one of the fastest-growing businesses in the country. Through their combined brands, Aussie Commerce has managed to enter many product markets ranging from consumer services offered on deals.com to holiday destinations offered on luxury escapes. All the founding members came from different service sectors and brought their diverse experiences to form one concrete organization [aus15]. Among the development team at Outware, leaders undergo a “self-selection” process under which the leaders set themselves aside from the other members. For one to get any consideration for leadership posts, they ought to show outright prowess in their customer interaction skills. These abilities are in full manifestation in the types of relationships they establish with the clients as well as the response obtained from their consumers. Further, leaders are also selected on the basis of their communication skills. The element of communication is given focus to ensure that those selected are good ambassadors of the brand and can clearly communicate and take charge of their leadership units. A participative model of leadership has been in enactment at Outware. Eytan Lenko, a director at Outware, stated that his progress as a leader’s measurement is in the quality of conversations he has with other workers. According to Lenko, the interactions should develop from operational to strategic with the development of the team as well as the growth their ability to operate autonomously. The two organizations follow different organizational structures and thus have quite different approaches to leadership. Outware being a singular structure is organized on a functional basis. Under this formation, the junior leadership posts are filled with respect to the tasks carried out by the business unit [And00]. Aussie commerce to the constant is a large multinational company that is also made up of several independent companies. The diversity of the entity has forced it to adopt a matrix organizational formation. In Cummings & Worley (2001), the matrix structure is a hybrid of the functional and divisional organization structures. Here, leaders are appointed to head their specific areas and placed on the same hierarchical level. Under this leadership set up, Aussie commerce is in a position to reap from both functional and divisional leadership structures. All managers of the independent franchises report to the three directors. What is at Outware is hands-on leadership where the directors are in constant contact with their employees rather than being invisible investors. Page (2015) sees this form of leadership to give the directors a deeper understanding of their company, employees, customers and their product market. With the aid of this information, it is simpler for the three directors to formulate, execute and follow up strategies at the company. Further, as opposed to Aussie commerce that is an e-commerce business, Outware deal with real products. This business makes it essential for the leaders to constantly remain aware of the company dynamics for better decision making. The technical capacities for the three Outware directors also play an important part in their leadership of the enterprise. On the other hand, the robust size of the Aussie commerce business makes it impossible for the directors to be in direct control of the activities of their various organizational franchises. This robustness makes it necessary to appoint the managers for each independent unit and monitor the performance through the aid of the manager [Cha07]. The appointed managers possess the technical and business skills and knowledge requisite for leading in their precise fields. These skills and knowledge ensure that they are in a position to make the right decisions for the company and also give the accurate reports and situation analysis to the directors for better decision making. Organic leader development is a concept in full implementation at Outware. This idea means that the leaders are selected and developed from within the organization [Nei09]. As the director Lenko stated, the employees undergo a process of self-selection within their clusters. In Phillips et al. (2012), leaders set themselves aside from the rest either through work ethic or customer relations. After the identification of potential leaders, the company engages in giving them the requisite exposures and skills for leadership positions within their firm. Internal development of leaders ensures there is the engagement of the employees in a continuous learning process for both personal and organizational growth. Further development enables the employees to get a career sense of direction and even exploit the existing career advancement opportunities. According to Lawson (2008), internal development also ensures there is sufficient supply of skills and talent to lead at the top levels of the organization without alienating the employees or causing the “outsider syndrome” within the firm. Succession planning is also made easier through organic development. Organic development is the opposite of strategic hiring which is practice at Aussie Commerce. The leaders at Aussie have engaged in a business process termed as a strategic acquisition. This method of acquisition of entities that cover one’s current market, experience or competition deficiencies. Through buying of other companies, Aussie can venture into new fields inside and beyond Australia. However, it is not sufficient to just acquire other businesses; it is also prudent to select the best fit leaders to take charge of the new acquisition. The strategic acquisition allows Aussie to hire managers and employees that cover any possible talent, skill or experience deficiencies in their organization. On this basis, leaders are selected solely on grounds of their know-how, skills and expertise in the particular business area. Strategic hiring, however, lacks a long-term angle as it does not have proper succession plans [Ada14]. Further, under strategic recruitment, the organization undertakes marginal internal skill and talent development as the approach takes a more immediate look at the firm, the market, and the present challenges. Adam Schwab, a director at Aussie Commerce, defined some of their basic leadership techniques in an interview with the Sydney Morning Herald. The director stated some important points on their leadership scheme. While leadership requires delegation, for Aussie, they see leading by example as an essential factor for successful leadership. Since the leaders set the company culture, it is important that they stay in the frontline of operation [Ste141]. In this case, the director states there is no job they find too small for them. From talking to customers to investor meetings and even media interviews. Whenever they acquire a company with top officials not performing to the expected standards, they take it upon themselves to make the adjustment by prompt replacement of the manager [Ron02]. Another approach in use by the company is hiring people “smarter” than the leaders. These people work to reduce the workload of the head and also to enable them to concentrate on more pressing company matters. With a competent team, the leaders do not have to get concerned about micromanaging the entities as they trust their best-skilled employees to carry out these duties. At Aussie commerce, the company culture forms an important part of their leadership philosophy. The most valuable asset for Aussie Commerce remains their human resources. The company has adopted an internally lean management system that places distinctive focus on their employees. In their culture, the business only incurs costs if they are beneficial to their customers, employees or to the entity itself. In fact, at the company, junior officers enjoy better pay increments as they have a bigger influence on the performance of their business [Yol14]. All the risks that the leadership at the company takes is calculated to minimize the exposure of their business. The directors only take risks with their corporation when the stakes are highly in their favor. The different styles of leadership in the two entities have worked effectively for their management. Similar for both companies, there are three directors at the top of the organizational hierarchy. The leaders also happen to be the founding members of both companies. The executive wing for both the companies make long-term strategic decisions and have delegated other short-term decisions that do not have an impact on the direction of their organizations to other junior leaders. Factors such as the size and employee base determine the most efficient approach to the business. However, these two companies are not exclusively dissimilar as there are some shared leadership principles in their approaches to management. The common factors in the two groups are; i. Clear direction Both sets of leaders have taken up the role of fixing the direction for their enterprises. Actions in this effect are taken to safeguard the position and interests of their respective companies. Direction setting is present in the deployment of the people with the right skills in their businesses. As such, employee skills are a common factor for directors of the two entities. Further, in the determination of the direction of their business, the leaders have created an environment where there are clarity and consistency in setting the objectives of their organizations [Daf05]. Clear goals ensure the entire teams is working towards the achievement of a common purpose from their different operational levels. Motivational efforts are under implementation to ensure that the workforce remains motivated at all times. Motivational efforts are put to relate the personal objectives of the employees to those of their employers. Engagement platforms have also been set up in the organizations to ensure that there is appropriate and effectiveness in the setting of the goals. ii. Capacity building Outware and Aussie Commerce have taken the establishment of evaluation measures for the teams and also for the leaders. Consistency in performance evaluation has played a significant role in the long-term performance of the businesses. Through the performance evaluation process, the leaders seek and provide constructive feedback that aids in the assessment of the effectiveness of strategies for implementation [Hon86]. Further from the appraisal process, the leaders can assign workers to tasks on the basis of their competence as well as provide clear career advancement paths for the employees. iii. Result orientation Tracking of progress towards set objectives and holding each employee accountable for their duties and outcomes is another common factor for the businesses. After setting of clear objectives, tangible actions must be put in place towards these goals. Goal achievement is a process that involves overcoming several challenges for the entities. The available resources are equitably allocated to projects on the basis of project importance and urgency to ensure success. Result orientation demands there is a regular recognition of achievements. Further, it is important to reach equilibrium between the long term and short term goals for the enterprise. Any identified inconsistencies are changed and put in alignment in a bid to avoid deviation from the desired business positions. iv. Promotion of innovation Aussie Commerce and Outware being technology firms survive by the sole concept of origination. Innovation and creativeness are the factors that play to set the companies aside from their peers. The leaders at both companies encourage mentor, reward and act on new ideas and approaches from their staff members. All proposals are through an evaluation process that allows for only the best ideas to make to the implementation stage. Benchmarking of current practices against superior methods to challenge the staff members to improve and meet expected best standards. Working with a robust team means the leaders are open to divergent perspectives and opinions in a bid to improve their service delivery. Also, the business leaders are always out seeking new ideas and information to gain and protect their market’s competitive advantage. v. Fostering of relationships Enterprises’ foundations are on relationships. For Bianco-Mathis, et al. (2008), organizational relationships are between employees and their employer, employees and the customers and the company and its clients. Though the relationship between all the internal factors and the consumer is the most essential, for these companies the employer-employee relationship is also given equal importance. The employees are the primary focus that they in turn reflect upon their customers. Outware and Aussie Commerce pay particular emphasis to their workforce to promote employee morale and commitment to their business’ course. In the relationship between the companies and their customers, platforms have been set up for efficient communication with their clients. Measures are also established to foster these relationships and convert them into long-term mutually benefitting for the businesses and their customers. In conclusion, leaders choose their approach to their jobs based on analysis of their situation and matching the situation to the expected outcomes as well as the set goals for the organization. Different industries demand different leadership approaches. The head ought to match their techniques with the dynamics of their industry. In the case of Outware and Aussie Commerce, the respective directors have chosen the leadership models for their industries. The achievements of the two companies are primarily attributable to their leaders and the management approach in execution. Aussie Commerce has managed to expand considerably through pivoting and strategic leadership to become a top e-commerce franchise. On the other hand, Outware has grown their customer base and the profit ratios within a short stint of time. The Australian commerce setting is rapidly changing. Emerging companies with skilled leaders are using innovation and technology to take control of the corporate world. These businesses are a vibrant reflection of the critical importance of sound leadership for enterprises to maneuver and manage the competition. References out15: , (outware.com.au, 2015), Yol15: , (Redrup, 2015), aus15: , (aussiecommerce.com.au, 2015), And00: , (DuBrin, 2000), Cha07: , (Chandler & Black, 2007), Nei09: , (Cole, 2009), Ada14: , (Schwab, 2014), Ste141: , (Pell, 2014), Ron02: , (Sims, 2002), Yol14: , (Redrup, 2014), Daf05: , (Daft & Lane, 2005), Hon86: , (Honadle & Howitt, 1986), Read More