Leading PPF Response
As Stephen Oswald and his team assume the presidency of PPF Corporation, there are various key challenges facing him. One of the key challenges facing Oswald and his team is stopping the decline that is being witnessed at PPF in terms of sales, cash flow, and earnings. Considering that this decline in sales, cash flow, and earnings has been mainly caused by factors that are beyond the control of the organization, it is very challenging for Oswald. This decline has been fuelled by the September 11, 2001 incident, a downturn in the overall business cycle, and market share challenges that have been existent in the North American industrial segment for years now (Sturgeon, 2002). It will be very interesting to find out how Oswald, who has never held such a position again, will deal with this challenge.
Another key challenge facing Oswald is the internal problem of employee dissatisfaction. The satisfaction in the organization stands at 54% meaning that nearly half of the employees in the organization are not happy with the organization. The change from scheduled four-day to a five-day workweek has also seen an increase in employee dissatisfaction and therefore, hourly employees are not in good terms with the management. On top of that, because the position of president at PPF has been vacant for a long time, there is lack of effective communication in the management team and it will take some efforts to bring back effective communication in the team (Liedtka, 2012).
The union-organizing campaign that has been in existent for months now, is another challenge that Oswald and his team must handle. PPF has never had a trade union but there have eight earlier union drives with one of them being defeated by just a single vote. Oswald must convince the employees that a union is not good for the interest of both the employees and the company. Oswald must try as much as possible to avoid a union election since the current state of affairs at the organization means that most of them might vote for the union. It will take a lot of skills and expertise for Oswald and his team to handle these challenges but since he accepted the position, it will be interesting to see how he solves these challenges.
References
Liedtka, J.(2012). Leading Change at Ppf Corporation (B).
Sturgeon, T. J. (2002). Modular production networks: a new American model of industrial organization. Industrial and corporate change, 11(3), 451-496.
