Culture Change Case Study
Managing Culture Change in a Manufacturing Company Background Those organizations most often interested in changing their culture are usually those performing poorly, facing a crisis, newly reorganized under a larger entity and those with new missions or new managers. The example organization here is an exception to the general rule. (The company and setting have been disguised in this example) Why change it if it ain’t broken? Gordon Smith was VP of Manufacturing. His worldwide organization included plants, engineering and client support groups in China, Singapore, UK, Norway and USA. Gordon had been in his job for six years and could report that each year he had met his product delivery, inventory and quality objectives. But, it was his performance in cost reduction that had made corporate life pleasant for him– giving him freedom from oversight and the latitude to reward his staff with incentive trips, similar to the way the sales force was treated.. Gordon had inherited a motivated group of professionals, given them lots of headroom and had reduced overall costs by 8-10% in each of his six years. He ascribed much of his success to his personal, maniacal focus on cost, and having drilled the rallying cry [...] Read More