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BUSINESS ACROSS CULTURES We want less of: • disorganization and lack of consistency in policies • not knowing what colleagues are doing • hero type of behavior We discussed the main tensions between both organizations and gave presentations on the most crucial ones. We then worked with teams of senior participants to frame these tensions as a series of principal dilemmas: On the one hand we want more of On the other hand we need to develop and/or to keep the following values and the following values and behaviors for behaviors of our current organization: On the one hand... 1. we need to commit to integrity 2. we need to work in teams 3. we need to be entrepreneurial 4. we need to be able to dissent 5. we need to develop solid products and services supporting our envisioned future and core values: On the other hand... 1. we need to be effective in all cultures in which we work 2. we need to exchange information across teams in other divisions 3. we need to develop economies of scale 4. we need to be loyal to our organization 5. we need to be driven by the needs of the clients Through looking at the tensions developed through the core values of both organizations we had captured at least five of the key strate-gic dilemmas the organization as a whole was facing. Our next step in supporting this client was to conceptualize a renewed mission statement and set of core values. Our dilemma reconciliation meth-odology resulted in the following set of integrated values. 144 CORPORATE CULTURE 1. Integrity through knowledge and respect for other cultures 2. Professionalism through client needs 3. Teamworkthroughexchanginginformationacrossbusinesses 4. Dissenting views through being loyal to the organization 5. Entrepreneurialism through developing the efficiency and effectiveness of the organization Example: current corporate culture: Family; ideal corporate cul-ture: Incubator In a family-owned Spanish department store, we found our method-ology very effective in helping reconcile the dilemmas between retaining the existing Family culture and supporting individual freedom so that neither the respect for traditional values nor the loy-alty of the 700 staff were lost. Reinventing a department store In 1972 Juan Valdez opened his first department store in Barce-lona. His customers consisted of the elite of Barcelona in search of the latest quality gifts. Juan traveled twice a year to the USA in order to develop new ideas in this very quickly changing and innovative market sector. These trips were followed by two trips to Asia where he found relatively cheap manufactur-ers who could produce the many articles he wanted to launch in Spain. Sometimes he combined his manufacturing efforts – ranging from natural stone gadgets to silk scarves – with the dominant department stores in Europe such as Galleries Lafay-ette. 145 BUSINESS ACROSS CULTURES Within five years six new department stores were opened in major Spanish cities. Juan’s creative mind found very good outlets in the variety of stores, and economies of scale resulted in solid profits. In the late eighties the major stores in Barce-lona, Madrid, Valencia and Seville were managed by his wife and three of his sons. The twenty smaller outlets were man-aged by the best sales people from the four largest stores, with at least five years of experience. Within 20 years Juan had built an empire of 700 people and six large department stores that included products like fragrances, men’s and women’s gifts and the latest fashion items in a variety of fields, including clothes. The 15 smaller outlets were focused on the original gift market. Juan, his eldest son Junior, and his wife Maria made up the management team. Juan was responsible for purchasing, Junior was CFO and Maria was responsible for sales. They were known as “the golden trio” in the Barcelona jet set – until Juan was killed in a plane crash while on business in Asia. The new management team was extended with Juan and Maria’s two youngest sons. Although the shops were still very profitable they were increasingly coming under serious com-petition from the larger department stores in Spain and lost market share quite quickly. With the passing away of the cre-ative and egalitarian Juan, more and more politics was introduced by the family. Although they were very good to their staff, and lifetime employment had been the rule, more turnover of staff resulted. Exit interviews all pointed to the lack of perceived new challenges and products and to the increas-ingly patriarchal attitude of the management team. Junior was concerned with this feedback and asked us to look at the situa-tion. 146 CORPORATE CULTURE He told us about his personal worries. “I think our organiza-tion is going through a cultural crisis after my father’s fatal accident. Our turnover and profitability in business is quite OK, although we are losing market share. Turnover of person-nel worries me, since we think we know the reason. Our family traditions have brought us great fortune with the combination of people’s loyalty and my father’s refreshing views and prod-ucts. He brought in the new ideas and our people could sell them as a natural thing. Now we seem to just ride on the waves of tradition, but in this business we need renewal. Can you help us?” Our analysis revealed a sound but deteriorating financial structure. Managers at the level of the department stores were stretched since they were held responsible for all activities except purchasing, which was traditionally done centrally. They felt limited in their autonomy because “Barcelona” was pulling the strings despite regional differences in taste. Moreover, consistent complaints were voiced about the lack of visibility of the Valdez family. In contrast with their father, it seemed the sons were watching computers more than people. Everyone agreed that the main problem was one deriv-ing from issues of corporate culture. Again we followed our approach of eliciting dilemmas from our web-based tools. We asked participants to list the positives and neg-atives for both current and ideal organizational cultures. It was quite clear that they had a balanced view for both organizational typologies. 147 BUSINESS ACROSS CULTURES Family Incubator positive loyalty lifetime employment knowing people negative slow decisions autocracy centralized positive fast decisions autonomy risk-taking negative lack of long-term commitment neurotic carelessness long-term vision “old boy” network visible leadership broad knowledge With our help, they formulated the following dilemmas: On the one hand… 1. we have an organization where we can trust the management 2. management is educated broadly and have an overview of the business 3. seniority is rewarded 4. we need to be innovative in our product choice On the other hand… 1. we are not given enough autonomy to make decisions quickly 2. we are in a type of business where we need to react quickly to the client’s specialized and segmented needs 3. we need people who want to take risks 4. we need to be consistent in our image One area was related to leadership style. On the one hand leaders were seen as visionary long-term thinkers, but detached. On the other hand, the product range and this type of business asked for quick decisions and a hands-on type of leader. Again, these types of dilemmas are best reconciled under the servant leader model. The main business dilemma was the need for autonomy and spe-cialisation around the variety of businesses and the need for synergy between them. This type of department store asked for innovative and trend-setting behavior in their broad product portfolio, ranging from gifts, fragrances, fashion, shoes, and other fashionable accesso- 148 ... - tailieumienphi.vn
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