Celeritas Inc - Leadership Challenges in a Fast-Growth Industry - Case Study Example

Celeritas Inc. - Leadership Challenges in a Fast Growth Industry

Celeritas was a market leader in the field of network optimization and it remained highly competitive in the industry for years. In recent times, the firm has however lost part of its market share and also experienced slump in their previously steady growth. There is a lack of communication and sharing of information among the senior management and they constantly engage in blame game whenever deadlines are not met. Furthermore, the effectiveness of Boyer as a leader is in question because he rarely engages the vice presidents nor seeks their opinions when it comes to making decisions for the firm. It can also be argued that most of the vice presidents have lost trust in Boyer’s leadership.

The key people in Celeritas include Phillip Boyer who is the company’s president and CEO. Boyer makes most of the decisions by himself. He may take some information from his vice presidents but ultimately, their opinions are not considered in decision making. He the most influential individual in Celeritas Inc. because he single headedly makes important decisions for the company and also shares information and data with the board of directors only when he wishes to. He is also the leader of the managers in the firm. Many people including the vice presidents do not consider him an effective leader because he does not include others in important decisions for the firm. Dave Lloyd is another key person in the firm. He is the Senior Vice President in the sales and marketing department and the blame for the firms slowed growth was mainly put on him. This is because there was a lack of cooperation between his department and the R&D department, resulting in the slowed growth. Issues at the company retreat became personal and Lloyd was criticized not only for his management style but also for his personality. A third key person is Carla Reese, a consultant hired for her experience with high tech companies experiencing a fast growth. In due course she realizes that the problems in the organization are as initially explained by the CEO but stem from a lack of coordination as well as relationship issues. The rest of the SVP’s who consist of Shawna Davis, Vishal Arul, Carlos Rivera and Mike Harper are also key people in Celeritas Inc.

The main issues at Celeritas Inc. include a lack of trust and poor communication among the vice presidents, inconsistent decision making, confusion about the organizations goals and priorities and poor coordination among the various divisions. There was lack of trust and communication at Celeritas Inc. because the various divisions in the firm were not sharing information while the SVPs did not trust each other. Because all the other departments were somehow connected and worked together, Lloyd, the head of marketing and sales department was being given the most blame. The other divisions were also connected in that they dealt with numbers while the sales and marketing department deals directly with the clients. A disconnect between the sales and marketing department and the research and design department was causing a drop in sales because most of the promises made on quality to the clients were not being delivered. Managers were not motivated due to the past behavior of their colleagues and they were always expecting the rest of the divisions to miss deadlines. This lack of motivation and always anticipating failure meant that they would not put their best efforts and in the end only blame the other divisions if deadlines were actually missed. In any organization, motivation is important because it has an effect on work output (Frey and Osterloh 149).

Inconsistent decision making can be observed in how individual vice presidents would avoid discussions with their colleagues but instead go to the CEO with new propositions and ideas. From this practice, mistrust is borne and there are no calculations and preparations leading to disappointed clients and also a workforce that is disappointed. Final decisions are taken by an individual and without regard to guidelines and policies set out by the firm. They are therefore inconsistent because the rest of the SVPs are not aware how the decisions were arrived at.

There was confusion about the goals and priorities of the organization because even though each division has its own goals it is striving to achieve, they might sometimes be in conflict with the goals and priorities of another division within the same organization. In instances that this happens, decision making should involve all SVPs as is based on whether the goal is consistent with the organizations ultimate objectives. It is the division’s goal that contributes more to the achievement of organizational objectives that should be prioritized. In addition in cases where goals are communicated in very broad strokes like Celeritas, there is room for misinterpretation and therefore, the CEO should aim to provide specific goals and priorities for each department (Chambers 99).

The issue of poor coordination between the various departments was hurting the company’s overall performance. Divisions were passing on the blame for the lack of coordination. Lloyd was specifically blamed for having a big man mentality over other vice presidents and enforcing unrealistic deadlines on other departments such as the research and design department. When there is lack of coordination between departments, conflicting information and false promises can be made to the clients. Apart from differences in personality and management styles the lack of coordination at Celeritas Inc. can also be attributed to lack of interaction between the various divisions.

Though still among the top players in the network optimization industry, the firm’s annual growth revenue has taken a major dip since 2008, falling from 50% to 17%. There has been a lack of innovation as its major competitors have launched newer technologies such as the cloud computing technology and from this, they have been experiencing better growth. Most of the stakeholders are not satisfied with how the company is faring and they see it as a company that has failed to effectively implement organizational change. They are still an effective company but in order to survive in a fast growth industry such as network optimization, it is imperative that they address some of their internal problems. In trying to solve the problems they face, a SWOT analysis would be helpful for Celeritas Inc (Bowerman and Van Wart 123).

The company’s strengths lie a good reputation for quality and innovation and an established customer base. It was among the first firms in the market to come up with product enhancements as well as new solutions for accelerating and enhancing existing computer networks. As such, they have established a loyal customer base from all over the world. The company’s major weakness is that it lacks strategic leadership. A look at the issues that afflict the firm reveals that there is a lack of teamwork and communication especially among the top level managers. The company had achieved great success in the years before mainly due to strong teamwork that was present among the three founders as well as the first employees of the company. However the current CEO, Boyer, has been ineffective as a leader as he often side lines the vice presidents in his strategic planning and decision making for the company. Other vice presidents have also lost confidence in their CEO as can be seen in the stinging comments made that he failed to effectively communicate before he embarked on measures to bring organizational change. These comments are an attack on his leadership style.

Opportunities for Celeritas Inc. lie facilitation of cloud computing. This is a new technology in the IT service delivery that since 2001 has enabled companies to have a centralized system of virtual storage from which they can access data as well as applications from anywhere as long as there is high-speed internet connection (Barry and Dick 125). The company however faces threats from other five competitors who have surpassed it in terms of innovation and also annual growth rate. Lo w funding for the research and design department threatens to have the firm lag behind their competitors in coming up with new technologies and this could further worsen the problem of dwindling sales.

It is evident that the company has an ineffective leader in Boyer and this has been the major contributor to the dysfunction currently being experienced at the Celeritas Inc. there are two criteria that can be used to evaluate a leaders leadership abilities and they include their ability to execute change and their development of emotional intelligence (Legier 49). Almost all effective leaders share a common characteristic in that they have a high degree of emotional intelligence. The skills of self-awareness, empathy, motivation, social skills and self-regulation collectively contribute to emotional intelligence (Goleman 37). These skills are vital in balancing an individual into becoming successful as a leader. By being self-aware, a leader knows their strengths and weaknesses and they can therefore recognize how their performance is affected by their feelings. Boyer lacks this quality and can be said to be self-involved as he sees the company as his property where he is entitled to making all final decisions. He does not consider the opinions of the vice presidents in his decision making. He has a weakness in that he does not take up the responsibility to reinforce his decisions (Komives 37). He also fails to explain the decisions he makes to the vice presidents of the company and this leads to a lack of motivation and coordination. Overall, emotional intelligence enables a leader to humanize themselves so that other individuals in the organization can relate to you (Straw et al. 174).

Boyer’s failure to communicate clear goals and priorities for his organization, failure to generate a sense of urgency and failure to identify and eliminate the obstacles to change have all shown that he is unable to execute change. The environment in the network optimization industry has changed and a failure by Boyer to recognize this proves that he is an ineffective leader (Wagner and Ostick 84). Execution of organizational change requires leaders to lead form the front. Boyer has however stuck to his old ways of making vital decisions for the organization on his own. He has also failed to identify the obstacle to change in the organization and it only takes the intervention of a consultant to for him to relieve Lloyd of his duties as the man in charge of the sales and marketing department. Successful organizational change is ineffective if there is no strong leader who is committed to the process because it does not happen overnight but is an ongoing process (Kotter 68). Boyer cannot oversee organizational change because he is weak as a leader as seen in how he is oblivious of the issues in his own organization and also joins in the blame game during the company’s retreat.

In conclusion although the main issues were identified during the retreat, lack of an effective leader still remains the greatest challenge for Celeritas Inc. Though still effective, the firm risks losing more market share and further slowing their growth if the top leadership is not changed. A SWOT analysis reveals that a lack of strategic leadership is the company’s greatest weakness. Use of emotional intelligence and the ability to execute change reveals that Boyer is an effective leader. To remedy this, Boyer should involve all the important people in the organization when he makes decisions and takes actions on behalf of the organization. The senior managers should also improve interpersonal relations while goals and priorities for each division should be made clear to everyone.