Introduction
Organizational change is a common the corporate world because every company wants to improve its services, increase productivity and profits. Changing an organizational set up can take various forms depending on the objective of organizational change and the industry or sector that the organization operates. Some of the reasons why most organizations resort to change include; development of new technology, restructuring of products, market repositioning and or to transform leadership within the organization. Therefore, the reason for undertaking change could be motivated by internal factors or external factors. Over the last decade, there are several companies that have undergone internal change in order to achieve their desired objectives. The examples of such organizations include Nokia, Apple and McDonalds. These are major companies in various industries that have resorted to internal organizational change to align themselves so that they can achieve their objectives. These changes have had to be managed carefully to ensure a smooth transition to the new envisioned change.
McDonalds
McDonald’s is the world’s largest fast food player with a presence on all the five continents. The company has always had to use different approaches to penetrate new markets, improve its sales, increase its customer base and raise their revenue. It has undergone internal organizational changes in order to suit the different market, economic conditions.
McDonald’s undertook internal changes with the objective of repositioning the company in its market. The company wanted to rebrand itself and make its products more attractive than before. This was because of increasing competition from small players in the fast food industry. The company was also facing threats from without the industry. Health experts were increasingly referring to its products to be responsible for the high obesity levels among young people. The company had to rebrand itself to ensure it does not lose its market share. In 2006, the company recorded its first ever quarterly loss.
The company undertook repositioning steps under the guidance of CEO John Skinner. The company transformed its culture to give itself a new look. They introduced healthy food items on their menu, espresso drinks and giving their stores a new look. The repositioning was to suit the needs of their clients. The customer focus culture has helped McDonald’s back to profitability.
Apple
Apple has undergone a lot of internal transformation over the last two decades. The company was making massive losses back in 1996 and had the smallest market share. However, when they bought a software from NeXT, they had a turnaround in fortunes. It is the leadership transformation that has changed the company’s reputation, fortunes and market share. Steve Jobs became CEO in 1997 and led the company to its greatest heights. The sales, market share, profitability and reputation boomed. In 2011, Apple was ranked America’s 3rd most valuable company. The new leadership stressed on product line diversification, emphasis on style and proprietary operating systems instead of systems that were licensed by other designers. After the death of Steve Jobs, Apple managed to smoothly undertake a leadership transformation process. The company has maintained its performance despite the leadership change.
Role of leadership
The companies had to undertake the organizational transformation process in an orderly manner. Both McDonald’s and Apple required the experience of their leaders to implement the planned strategies of change. McDonald’s market repositioning process was overseen by the company’s CEO John Skinner. Apple’s internal transformation was overseen by the new CEO who over the last decade implemented a new style of conducting company operations. Jobs’ style of leadership was in itself a reason for improvement in the company.
Therefore, leadership has a central role in the implementation of changes in an organization. The implementation process must be overseen from a central position where other employees around the company can receive the necessary instructions and orders on how to conduct the changes. For Apple’ case, it was the leadership changes that brought about success to the company. It shows that leadership determines the productivity of any given organization. The fact that Steve Jobs introduced important changes within the organization that converted the organization from a loss making organization to one of USA’s top valuable companies proves that leadership counts. Therefore, any change initiatives within an organization should be implemented from the top. This is because the leaders can oversee the change process efficiently as they understand the company well together with its objectives. They also know the needs of the firms hence; their implementation process will be in line with the organizational objectives.
Success of the change initiatives
McDonald’s change initiative has been a great success. Ever since the market repositioning, the opinion of the public has greatly changed. The company managed to change the view of the public by adjusting to suit the needs of their clients. The introduction of healthy foods onto the company’s menu was crucial because it helped the business diversify. It also ensured that there were no negative campaigns against the products. The anti-fast food and junk campaigns stopped since the company was providing healthy foods. The company sales regained and have since then been on the rise. Therefore, the market repositioning process was a successful initiative for McDonald’s.
Apple’s change initiative has also been a success. The two incidents where the company has had a change in leadership there have been positive influences on its performance. Steve Jobs catapulted the company to greatness by defining its unique style and products. After the death of Steve Jobs, the company has smoothly transitioned into a new leadership. It has continued to perform well. It introduced new products into the market which have been a success such as the new IPhone 5. It has also enlarged its market share in USA and increased its presence abroad.
For McDonald’s, leadership was necessary in organizing and implementing the market repositioning process. The whole process was overseen by John Skinner, the company CEO. Therefore, leadership played a major role. In the case of Apple, the whole process was about leadership transformation. The transition from one leadership regime to another was done successfully and smoothly. The impact of the transition was either positive or just smooth. There were no negative impacts. Therefore, at Apple, leadership was 100 percent instrumental in making positive changes in the company.
Conclusion
Therefore, leadership is integral in any company’s transformation. Companies such as McDonald’s and Apple have all implemented different form of organizational change within the company. These whole changes were overseen by the companies’ management and leadership fraternity. For the case of Apple, the change involved the leaders. It is important to note that the leadership led to improved fortunes for the company. Therefore, management of change is a responsibility that should be overseen by a company’s top management because they understand the organization’s objectives and how to align the changes to the objectives.
References
Cawsey, T. f., Deszca, G., & Ingols, C. (2011). Organizational Change: An Action-Oriented Toolkit. New York: SAGE.
Daft, R. L. (2008). The New Era of Management. London: Cengage Learning EMEA.
Weiss, A. (2003). Organizational Consulting: How to Be an Effective Internal Change Agent. New york: John Wiley & Sons.
