•	From the case study, take a position on whether Tropicana did or did not make a major mistake in changing its product packaging. Next, suggest the next two (2) steps that you believe Tropicana should take in its branding strategy in order to counteract the initial negative response to the new product packaging. Provide a rationale for your response and do not duplicate your classmates’ responses. 
•	* From the scenario, prioritize the attributes of Golds Reling’s brand from the brand map presented in the scenario according to the attributes that you believe would be most important to the new tablet’s target market. Provide support for your response.

Assignment # 1, Stories of Change

By

IYA WASE BESINGA

April 25, 2014
Strayer University
HRM560: Managing Organizational Change
Dr. Geraldine Puleo

Using Kotter’s model, identify the three (3) most significant errors made out of all of the change stories presented and describe the ramifications of those mistakes.
John Kotter is the Head of Research at Kotter International, a firm that helps leaders accelerate strategy implementation in their organizations. He is also the Konosuke Matsushita Professor of Leadership, Emeritus at Harvard Business School. Kotter International works with large-scale organizations to help them move faster, with less chaos and more efficiency, enabling success no matter the obstacles. To this effect, he came up with a model in which he explained the eight (8) errors people make in terms of management. Among these eight (8) errors, the three (3) most significant are presented as follows;
ERROR #1: Allowing too much complacency. “By far the biggest mistake people make when trying to change organizations is to plunge ahead without establishing a high enough sense of urgency in fellow managers and employees,” This error is fatal because transformations always fail to achieve their objectives when complacency levels are high. 
ERROR #2: Failing to create a sufficiently powerful guiding coalition. “In the most successful cases, the coalition is always powerful–in terms of formal titles, information and expertise, reputations and relationships, and the capacity for leadership. Individuals alone, no matter how competent or charismatic, never have all the assets needed to overcome tradition and inertia, except in very small organizations.” 
ERROR #3: Underestimating the power of vision. “Urgency and a strong guiding team are necessary but insufficient conditions for major change. Of the remaining elements that are always found in successful transformations, none is more important than a sensible vision.” A critical distinction that Kotter makes about this error is that “in many failed transformations, you find plans and programs trying to play the role of vision.”  When change is stalled, the bottom line is that “budgets are then squeezed, people are laid off, and those who remain are put under great stress. The impact on families and communities are very devastating.” www.leadershipdevelopment.com/html/magazine2.php?page_id=5. 
Make at least one (1) recommendation for each change story that would have improved the effectiveness of the change process and explain why that recommendation would have altered the outcome of the change process
Successful change leaders find a problem or a solution to a problem and then show people using engaging and compelling situations to change behavior. They recommend a people-driven approach that helps people to see the reason for change. They argue that people change when they are shown the truth because this influences their feelings. To that effect, below are some recommendations to the errors discussed above.
Increase Urgency; people should start telling each other, “Let’s go, we need to change things for the better.
Build the Guiding Team; a group powerful enough to guide a big change should be formed and they should start up together well and work together for a common interest.
Get the Vision Right; the guiding team should develop the right vision and strategy for the change effort. 
If these recommendations among other things are considered, then the organization will experience a remarkable increase in its outcome (Steward & Brown, 2012).
Attribute a change image to the leading managers or directors in each change story and provide an explanation as to why that change image label is appropriate.
Walter Hewlett: Is attributed as opposition to change. This is noticed when on March 19, 2002, Hewlett-Packard’s CEO Carly Fiorina and CFO Bob Wayman were on the phone to Deutsche Bank trying to make one last ditch effort to convince them to vote yes. The vote, scheduled for later that morning, was an important one. It would determine the future of the proposed Hewlett-Packard (HP) and Compaq Computer Corp. merger and the future of HP as a major player in the technology industry. The months preceding the vote had been tumultuous. After the announcement of the proposed merger had taken place in September 2001, Walter Hewlett, the son of the co-founder of HP, had publicly opposed the proposition, which required shareholder approval.
Fiorina: She is good at forming powerful guiding coalition. She joined the organization with aspirations, and external pressures, to change how it functioned. In her view, the culture of HP could be changed by “going back to the roots of the place.”  One of the ways she set out to achieve this was by working with a local ad agency and the head of Human Resources to create a set of “Rules from the Garage” that outlined what she hoped the culture at HP would become. 
Grossman and Patrick: The change image attributed to them is communicating the vision.  Grossman in particular took on the mammoth task of convincing their superiors and co-workers 
at IBM that the Internet was even worth looking at. Their subsequent actions helped to 
revolutionize Big Blue and drastically change its path into the future. They were able to give a clear description of the benefits of the internet.
Samuel Polmisano; The change image attributed to him is teamwork and collaboration. Being a lifetime IBMer, he took over leadership of the company from Gerstner. Palmisano focused changed to emphasize teamwork and collaboration. One of his first steps in demonstrating his new management style, to investors and employees alike, was a readjustment in executive compensation.
David A. Carp: Investor by downsizing is his image. This is seen when they had to reduce the square footage of Kodak facilities worldwide by consolidating current operations and divesting unnecessary assets. Second, Kodak intended to reduce employment worldwide with up to 15,000 jobs to be cut by 2007.
Antonio Perez: He is an acquisitioner. He engaged in a process of acquisitions in order to grow new businesses—with some concern from the financial community about the amount of debt that the company is accumulating
James Cantalupo: By his image, he considered as a reviver. In 2003 Cantalupo was brought in to rectify the declining state of the organization. He previously held the position of vice chairman and headed McDonald’s international expansion. His vision for the organization’s future was in a “back to basics” 88 approach with organizational changes to refocus the organization on core values of quality and service (Palmer & Akin, 2009).
Recommend a different strategy for managing change in each of the one change stories presented and provide a justification for your recommended strategy.
As a recommendation to error one, we should not allow too much of complacency. We have to avoid being contented with our ideas and what we have or know so far. For error number two (2), we should always try to construct a sufficiently powerful guideline. In the most successful cases, the coalition is always powerful–in terms of formal titles, information and expertise, reputations and relationships, and the capacity for leadership. Individuals alone, no matter how competent or charismatic, never have all the assets needed to overcome tradition and inertia, except in very small organizations.” 
(3) The stake holders should never underestimate the power of vision. “Urgency and a strong guiding team are necessary but insufficient conditions for major change. (4) Increase the level of communication. Communicating the vision will cause major developments to take place. (5) Avoid by all means, the obstacles that may block the new vision. The employees may embrace a new vision but if that vision is blocked by an obstacle, then the initiative will also be blocked.
(6) Another strategy is to create short-term wins. Without short- term wins, too many employees give up or actively join the resistance, establish goals in the yearly planning system, achieve these objectives, and reward the people involved with recognition, promotions, or money.” As a correction to error number seven (7) is that you should never declare a victory too soon. Declaring victory too soon is like stumbling into a sinkhole on the road to change. And the last correctional strategy is that never neglect to anchor changes firmly in the corporate culture 
(http://www.aboutmcdonalds.com/mcd/our_company/mission_and_values.html).

References

Greg L. Stewart & Kenneth G. Brown. (2012).“Human Resource Management” (2nd ed.) Quad/Graphics. 

Palmer, I., Dunford, R., & Akin, G. (2009).  Managing organizational change:  A multiple perspectives approach (2nd ed.).  New York:  McGraw-Hill.

http://www.aboutmcdonalds.com/mcd/our_company/mission_and_values.html

www.leadershipdevelopment.com/html/magazine2.php?page_id=5