Brennemans Leadership Actions on Saving the Continental Airlines - Assignment Example

Case Study Assignment Student Name Professor’s Name Course Date Question One Brenneman’s leadership actions on saving the Continental Airlines achieve the quadrant of the Competing Values Framework. First when Brenneman comes to continental, he was shocked at the kind of management that he found at Continental Airlines. Brenneman (as cited in Harvard Business Review, 1998) says that he had never seen a company that was as dysfunctional as Continental Airlines was. He says there was almost no any strategy that had been put in place. The trend in the company was of presidents coming in each and every year. The company had had a total of ten presidents within ten years. Brenneman’s first action in addressing the Competing Values Framework was addressing the Internal Process Model. Brenneman had first to address the leadership in the company. He and Gordon Bethune together took over the leadership of the company. They had to offer the company the leadership it had lacked. They had to create a communication line where information could flow from the top leadership down to the other workers. Together with Gordon they formed a strategy to the company. The company had lacked a strategy and good documentation that would move it forward. That is what Brenneman gave the company. The second quadrant of the Competing Values Framework that Brenneman’s action achieve is Open System Model. Brenneman had to become visionary and viewed the company succeeding despite that it was headed to becoming bankrupt. Creativity and being an innovative entrepreneur who can take calculated risks to achieve significant gains is what it takes to achieve the Open System Model of the Competing Values Framework (Quinn & Rohrbaugh, 1983). Brenneman had to be creative and innovative and together with Gordon they came up with a strategy that would move Continental Airlines ahead. The two went ahead to renegotiate with creditors to be able to save the company and took the risk of assuming the company will kick back to business so that they could pay the creditors. Brenneman’s actions then achieve the Rational Goal Model of the Competing Values Framework. Achieving this model of the frame work needs to go hard into the market face the competitors and deliver goods or services that the customers need. Brenneman together with Gordon, who had a clear understanding of what the airlines business was, sat down and discussed what need to be done to deliver to the customers. Brenneman in his article says that saving the company they needed to fly to places where people wanted to go, and when they wanted to go, in airplanes that were clean and attractive, serve food at mealtimes and get them where they were going in right time. Brenneman knew what needed to be done to get the customers in the market. After creating the strategy, Brenneman had a goal for the company. They worked with an objective of achieving and never going back. Lastly, the Brenneman’s actions on saving the Continental Airlines achieves the Human Relation theory. For a leader to achieve this model of the frame work he or she must be facilitative and supportive of the other workers (Quinn & Rohrbaugh, 1983). In the article Brenneman acknowledges all the 40,000 workers of the company for having been the reason the company now stands tall. This implies that Brenneman in his leadership he understood the need of involving everyone and keeping everyone in the company working together to achieve the goals of the company. Brenneman’s actions also achieve the primary practices of the 4+2 formula. First Brenneman together with Gordon came up with a strategy. Their strategy aimed at flying the company forward and never coming back. The strategy as Brennen says was called the “Go Forward Plan.” Having a strategy is important in achieving the 4+2 formula. A good strategy is communicated to the organization, and it formed basing on the customers’ needs, partners and investors (Joyce, Nohria and Roberson, 2003). Fine tuning the strategy always is necessary and Brenneman just knew how to do it as he kept the focus of the strategy. Secondly on the primary practices of the 4+2 formula that Brenneman’s action did achieve is the execution. Continental Airlines was failing because it failed to satisfy its customers. It did not have a proper system that was focused on delivering to the market what the customers wanted. The company had failed in making the customers happy which was making it lose the market. Execution calls for being flawless in operations. It needs for eliminating all sorts of wastes and improving productivity (Joyce, Nohria and Roberson, 2003). Brenneman helped in coming up with changes that greatly helped reduce the maintenance cost by a big amount. Thirdly Brenneman’s action achieved the primary practice of the 4+2 formula by coming up with a structure. The Continental Airlines had lacked a good structure of its operation. Brenneman had started giving the customers what they wanted. He aimed at defining a certain quality of services to the customers. The company needed to be organized in a structure that would make things to flow in a productive way. Information flow within the company was to improve, and all the employees had to know their role and play their part. Drucker (1994) says that the assumptions of a company regarding its environment must fit reality. Continental Airlines had not been aware of its customers’ needs and wants until 1993, and, therefore, the assumptions it had been not realistic. For example they had to lose customers to other airlines when they removed business class seating space to fit more seats in the airplanes, they did not consider the values and behaviors of their business travelers. They lost business travelers as a result and faced significant revenue drop (Brenneman, 1998). Brenneman wanted to build Continental’s theory of business regarding the environments reality, like Drucker (1994) describes necessary. Brenneman paid attention in asking the staff the right questions. They carried out a survey on the former and prospect travelers to get to understand what the market wanted. The travelers were asked the right questions, and the information was used to form the company’s theory of business in response to their customers’ needs (Brenneman, 1998). It is then that the Continental Airline became in alignment with the reality of its environment, and it proved to be successful, just as Drucker (1994) assures. Question Two Kouzes & Posner (2007) suggest that leaders have to create an alignment around important values and speak about shared values with confidence and enthusiasm. Brenneman’s leadership demonstrated the five practices that the Kouzes and Posner's theory suggest. First is the model way. Brenneman had to be an example to the others as the leader who wanted to take the company to the next level. He discovered his stand and what he valued. He used this to be able to work enthusiastically at achieving the values as he set an example for the other staff. The other staff shared in his vision as a leader of taking Continental Airlines to the next level. Second is the Inspire shared the vision. Brenneman visualized the future of Continental Airlines and had a picture of what he wanted it to be, and he shared the vision with the staff to comprehend. It is important for a leader to share his vision with the rest of the group so that together they can achieve it. Thirdly the Brenneman’s leadership demonstrated the practice of challenging the process. When Brenneman came into the picture, Continental Airline was in a position that he describes as a patient. He had to be innovative and creative to look for ways of changing things to be able to grow and improve. He was able to learn from mistakes and took constant risks to generate small wins. Small ideas, like serving the customers food at the right time and handling their luggage well, were some of the small things he came up with, but they helped a great deal in leading to success. The fourth practice that Brenneman’s leadership demonstrated was enabling others to act. He did not work alone as a leader. He worked closely with Gordon and all the other 40,000 workers of the company. He builds trust among the staff, and he promoted cooperative goals. The plan of the company of going forward was for everyone and everyone had a role to play in it. Lastly, the leadership style demonstrated encouraging the heart. Brenneman was a leader who showed appreciation for excellence. He celebrates the values and victories of their effort as the company is now among the best airlines in U.S.A. Question Three Indira Nooyi, CEO and chairman of PepsiCo, says that performance with purpose is delivering a financial performance that is top-tier while creating value for the stakeholders that is sustainable. The sentiments by Indira co incur with those of Jack Ma CEO of Alibaba who says that “making money is simple; but making sustainable money – improving the world and meanwhile making money – is very difficult”. The similarity between both statements is that both the two as the CEO’s of the two companies don’t just aim at their companies making a lot of money and profit. The two aim at creating an impact to the stake holders of their companies, both the employees and the customers as they make a profit. The two have an aim of impacting positively on the lives of their customers and not just making huge profits for themselves. Jack believes that in doing business is not about the money, it is about the value you add to the life of the customers. He father says that to be a successful company you have to learn how to solve a problem of the society rather than jumping into making an opportunity. Indira also says similar sentiments as she reflects on the importance of the company focusing on the sustainability of the customers. She says that her company has changed to offer more nutritious products rather than just providing products that would earn the company profit. She also says the company focuses on improving the community by ensuring environmental sustainability. With TaoBao, which is an online shopping platform, Jack Ma says that they sell products to the products at a low cost. By selling the product at a lower cost, they cut the transport and advertising costs that other sellers include in the final cost to the consumer. Doing so they are able to help the customers in saving their money. As well they offer selling opportunities for SMEs to sell their products. The platforms help the SMEs to develop and grow their businesses. Indira has changed the operation of the PepsiCo to be making nutritious product. The company wants to be selling products that are beneficial to the health of the customers and not just selling for the sake of making profits. Indira believes by doing so the company is making sustainable money. References Brenneman, G. 1998, ‘Right Away and All at Once: How We Saved Continental’, Harvard Business Review, Vol. 76, Issue 5, pp162-173. Drucker, P. 1994 ‘The Theory of the Business’ Harvard Business Review, September-October, pp32-41 Kouzes, B. and Posner, J. 2012, The Leadership Challenge, 6th edition, Jossey-Bass, Chapter One: the Five Practices of Exemplary Leadership. Nohria, N. Joyce W. and Robertson, B. 2003, ‘What Really Works?’ Harvard Business Review, July, pp43-52 Quinn, R. Faerman, S. Thompson, M. McGrath, M. St Clair, L. 2015, Becoming a Master Manager, Sixth Edition, John Wiley & Sons, Hoboken NJ 1-21 Read More