Facts surrounding the case. 3
Key issue. 4
Alternative courses of action. 5
Evaluation of the courses of action. 6
Talent management. 6
Branding. 7
Information technology. 7
The best course of action. 8
References. 10
Federated Co-operative Limited Change Management.
Facts surrounding the case.
Before 2010, Federated Co-Operatives Limited had several out of date features that influenced its operations by creating weaknesses. One such area was the organizational structure. The organizational structure of Federated Co-Operatives Limited had been hierarchical until the absorption of Scott Banda as the chief executive officer. Other areas of weakness presented in this organization included such processes as Information Technology (IT), people management and marketing (Pohler, 2016). By 2013, the change process was underway, but there were several obstacles that the organization had to overcome in order to record success with these processes. Personally, both CEO and the employees found the pace and magnitude of change to be overwhelming. Another setback was the fact that Federated Co-Operatives Limited had had a long history of the command-and-control culture that required the adoption of direct and open two-way communication between the management and the employees in order to resolve the company’s change management.
Another fact about the case was the long history of FCL that was rooted in the early eras of the 20th century and a complex business model that have been established over that period. FCL was first established as a purchasing association by farmers, but it grew to a complex organization with an interest in feed/crop protection, food, building supplies, energy, and home businesses. By 1970, FCL was a second-tier cooperative with a membership of 210 retail consumer co-operatives from British Columbia, Saskatchewan, Alberta, Manitoba, and Alberta (Pohler, 2016). As a complex business, Federated Co-Operatives Limited also had interests in petroleum business across a large geographical scope within Canada. Another fact is that in 1970s the Federated Co-Operatives Limited followed different principles of organizational management in comparison to its peers. It followed a democratic style of organizational leadership where board members were elected democratically.
Another fact presented in this case is that Federated Cooperatives Limited was 2013’s largest company in Saskatchewan. In 2013, it posted $9.4 billion in terms of sales, the largest sales output by a Saskatchewan-based company in 2013. Besides, the company has maintained a consistent record as one of the 50 largest companies in Canada, and it has been a significant competitor of such large companies as Costco, Esso, Rona, Shell, Cargill, Loblaws, Walmart, Home Hardware, and Sobeys-Safeway (Pohler, 2016). Other facts about the case present the company’s culture as indicate in its statements of mission, vision, values, vision, and aspirational statement. The Federated Co-Operatives Limited’s vision is to set the standard in consumer co-operative excellence in the world. On the other hand, the company’s mission is to benefit the members, employees as well as the Canadian communities by providing support, and responsible as well as innovative leadership to the co-operative retailing system. Moreover, Federated Co-Operated Limited has three values, namely excellence, integrity, and responsibility. On excellence, the value of Federated Co-operatives Limited is to strive to be the best while on integrity the company’s value is, to be honest, and trustworthy. Furthermore, the aspirational statement of FCL recognizes strong co-operative governance as the foundation for pursuing a common purpose of both the company and its retail owners and that working together helps make the company ever vibrant by creating shared value (Pohler, 2016).
Key issue.
The key issue presented in this case is the need to transform Federated Co-Operative Limited was the elevation of the company’s systems in terms of organizational culture, people management, marketing, and information technology processes in order to resolve issues of complex business structure, unfavorable governance structure, and overall performance (Pohler, 2016). The need was driven Scott Banda upon his election as a new CEO in 2010, and there was concern that such a huge magnitude of change might fail as it has always happened to most organizations trying to make such changes across the globe. The organizational culture of Federated Co-Operatives Limited was dominated by democratic philosophies of leadership where the board members were selected through democratic elections by retail members whose votes were dependent on one’s FCL shares. Through democratic processes of the election of board members, the organizational structure of Federated Co-Operatives Limited failed to maintain consistent levels of expertise and experience among its board members. Besides, the democratic system of governance of the company made it difficult to make decisions with ease (Pohler, 2016). On business, the Federated Co-Operatives Limited have been a complex business and as a result making it difficult to adopt to new requirements of such processes as information technology, people, management, and marketing in order to fit the contemporary co-operatives market. As a result, the company had for long been measuring its success based on the financial performance rather than the performance of the whole business system.
Alternative courses of action.
According to the case, Federated Co-Operated Limited could be turned around by focusing on three areas of organizational change, including talent management, information technology and branding (Pohler, 2016). For that matter, talent management processes employed by Federated Co-Operatives Limited needed to pay attention to such areas as leadership development, talent acquisition, and the overall organizational structure. On the other hand, the company can implement a successful change in its information technology processes by migrating from the mainframe legacy application system that it has traditionally used. The mainframe legacy application system that has been traditionally used by Federated Co-Operatives Limited have been a cause of derailment to change because previous attempts to migrate presented a risk of job losses (Pohler, 2016). On branding, Federated Co-Operatives Limited can focus on marketing and communications to improve both the internal and external marketing communications because in 2010 they were highly outdated and characterized by paper-based communication.
Evaluation of the courses of action.
Talent management.
According to the case, Federated Co-Operatives Limited suffers a significant limitation in decision-making practices because of the influence of the democratic election of board members. As a result, change of leadership is necessary in order to create a positive impact on the overall human resource performance. Talent management includes a set of human resource practices that are developed in order to recruit, develop, retain, engage, and motivate employees in order to increase their productivity as well as the sustainability of the organization. Federated Cooperatives Limited can implement effective talent management in four basic steps. One of the steps is setting clear expectations as well as aligning organizational goals (Puckett, 2013). This step involves presenting the standard expectations of the team members in task performance to ensure that employees are aware of and agree with the business goals of the company. The second step is the discussion as well as the appraisal of performance. In this step, the management needs to review the historical performance of the organization as well as project its future performance. The third step of implementing positive change in talent management that can be applied by Federated Co-Operatives Limited is the provision of professional develops met opportunities that align with the company’s performance goals. Such opportunities build capacity for the accomplishment of business goals of the company. The last step is the assessment of the impact of the talent management practices in business (Puckett, 2013). By changing the talent management practices, Federated Co-Operatives Limited could improve leadership that is necessary explore other areas of organizational performance.
Branding.
Federated Cooperatives Limited needs to improve its branding by improving both the internal and the external marketing communications. In this case, the company could adopt a new marketing and branding strategy. Improvement of the brand as part of the overall organizational change is an important determinant of the company’s sales, market share, customer relations, and the overall growth (Davis, 2015). Federated Cooperatives Limited can improve its brand through three actions. One of the actions is content management in order to bring an emotional connection with the target audience. Such content should resonate with the audience in order to command important following from the market. Another action is the development of branding practices based on value and led by purpose. Such efforts can help with developing a company as well as a brand whose customers have complementary characteristics, and thus build sustainability. The third action by creating customer obsession. By doing this, the company can establish effective platforms of contacting the customer all the time.
Information technology.
The third option is the improvement of IT to replace the outdated systems with new, more relevant ones. According to the case, Federated Cooperatives Limited was using outdated information technology systems that made it difficult to manage employees (Pohler, 2016). Changing the information technology of a company is an important factor in redefining the organizational culture of a company. For this purpose, different information technology factors need to be considered to improve communication, information management and use of IT tools to improve the performance of the company. For Federated Cooperatives Limited to recording success with information technology changes, it is necessary to push all related initiatives in the same direction (Pohler, 2016).
The best course of action.
Out of the three options available, talent management is recommendable as the priority. Effective talent management can set the stage for an effective change of the overall organizational change because of four reasons. One of the reasons that make talent management a priority in Federated Cooperatives Limited’s process of organizational change is that effective talent management helps retain the top talent (Cheese, Thomas and Craig, 2008). Top talents are required for all aspects of business processes as they provide the necessary leadership guidance in today’s dynamic era. By improving the talent management practices, Federated Cooperatives Limited can be able to implement other changes in other areas because of access to top talent to lead such changes. Another reason is that talent management could make Federated Cooperatives Limited more competitive. Talent management helps with the improvement of human resources leading to higher productivity that is shown through better products and services relative to competitors’. The third reason for implementing talent management as a priority it places the right person in the right job (Cheese, Thomas and Craig, 2008). Application of effective talent management practices allows an organization to ascertain the employees’ skills and strengths and subsequently align the human resource department with the strategic agenda. In the end, implementing talent management as a priority could allow the company to implement other changes more efficiently.
References.
Cheese, P., Thomas, R. J., and Craig, E. (2008). The talent powered organization: Strategies for globalization, talent management, and high performance. London: Kogan Page.
Davis, S. (2015). 6 Brand-Building Best Practices from Hall of Famers: Nike, Patagonia, Aaker and Lazaru. Retrieved July 16, 2016, from http://www.forbes.com/sites/scottdavis/2015/05/26/6-best-practices-for-the-future-of- branding-from-hall-of-famers-nike-patagonia-aaker-lazarus/#6ae2558b48f7
Pohler, D. (2016). Federated Co-Operatives Limited: Change Management:. London, Ontario, Canada: Ivey Publishing.
Puckett, J. (2013). 4 Best Practices for Effective Talent Management. Retrieved July 16, 2016, from http://blog.hirerabbit.com/4-best-practices-for-effective-talent-management/
