LEADERSHIP AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP - ICFAI CASE STUDY ASSIGNMENT

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QUESTIONS FOR

CASE STUDY ASSIGNMENT

LEADERSHIP AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP

Licensed for use by the students of the
Executive MBA Program,
The Icfai University.
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QUESTIONS FOR CASE STUDY ASSIGNMENT

Leadership and Entrepreneurship

ANSWER THE QUESTIONS FOR ANY TEN CASE STUDIES

Questions for 18 case studies are given below. Each case study assignment has 2 questions. Students are required to answer questions for any 10 case studies (20 answers). Students are advised to submit answers for all 10 cases in one go, for results to be adjudged in one instance.

01. Leadership: The Indra Nooyi Way

a. With reference to Indra Nooyi’s role at PepsiCo, comment on the leader’s duty to envision a new future for a company and cause a strategic transformation in its businesses.

Answer: She has just rattled off a list of statistics describing the financial performance of PepsiCo PEP 0.06% , the company she has run since late 2006. They show that it has been growing, earning high profit margins, and paying respectable returns to shareholders through dividends and stock buybacks. So, she wonders, what’s the problem? Why on earth has she been taking such an infernal amount of heat from investors, Wall Street analysts, and the media? For she has been, and she clearly resents it.

b. In your opinion, is Indra Nooyi’s leadership style more suited to help the company to tide over the global economic slowdown? If yes, how? If no, why not?

Answer: A bold CEO—who’s tenure hasn’t always been smooth. PepsiCo‘s CEO Indra Nooyi made the right bet on getting her company to produce snacks and drinks with the health-conscious in mind years ago. Her tenure hasn’t always been smooth, however. Fortune’s Jennifer Reingold profiled Nooyi for the new Fortune 500 issue.

Here are seven quotes that illustrate her

02. Jamie Dimon: The Turnaround Specialist

a. Analyze how the leadership traits, skills, and style of Jamie Dimon contributed to his achievements that eventually earned him the reputation of a ‘turnaround specialist’.

Answer: Jamie Dimon is in the middle of a lovefest. In a conference room on the second floor of JPMorgan Chase’s Manhattan headquarters on May 10, the chairman and chief executive officer is fielding questions, town hall-style, from an audience of 300 of the bank’s administrative assistants. Nine hundred more are listening in by

b. “Jamie’s strength is that he’s a leader, not a classic manager.” Explain with reference to the various functions of a leader.

Answer: Spitzer sees Dimon’s manifest skills, those that make allies swoon, as beside the point. “Even if the leader is spectacular, we want checks on power,” he says. “We might accept that Thomas Jefferson was a remarkable president, but that doesn’t mean we repeal checks and balances.” Jefferson, who loathed private banks so much that he called them “more dangerous than standing armies,” might agree.

Neil Barofsky, who served as inspector general of

03. Scott McNealy and the Rise and Decline of Sun Microsystems

a. Sun Microsystems (Sun) grew from a small start-up to one of the major drivers of the Internet economy in a short span of just over a decade. What were the factors that led to Sun’s phenomenal growth? Do you agree that McNealy’s visionary leadership combined with Sun’s innovative product development was the main reason for the company’s success? Justify.

Answer: Sun Microsystems presents a classic case study in the development and exploitation of serial and radical technological innovation. Headquartered in Mountain View, Calif., Sun is global in scope. Sun Microsystems provides products, services, and support solutions for building and maintaining network-computing environments. Sun sells scalable computer systems (including high-performance supercomputers), high-speed microprocessors, and a line of high-performance software. With $18 billion in sales in 2001, this

b. Sun was one of the worst affected IT companies after the dotcom bubble burst. What were the reasons for Sun’s troubles in the early 2000’s? What could McNealy have done differently to avoid the decline?

Answer: Sun Microsystems Inc. was founded in February 1982, based on initial funding from DARPA at Stanford University and subsequent commercialization of the universitybased research through a venture-capital startup. Twenty years later it has approximately 43,000 employees in more than 170 countries. Its self-stated corporate vision is to ensure that network services are available to anyone, anywhere, anytime, using any device. It!sells both hardware and software, such as network servers, data-storage systems,

04. Azim Hasham Premji’s Value-Based Leadership

a. In your opinion, would Wipro have grown bigger and more profitable if Azim Premji had compromised on its core values? Justify.

Answer: Azim Premj, the fourth richest person in India, is credited for diversifying Wipro, which was originally a manufacturer of vegetable and refined oils in Amalner, district Jalgaon in Maharashtra. The 69 year old business tycoon took charge at a young age of 21 and since then has been imparting many of the lessons he

b. Analyze the leadership development culture and practices at Wipro. Suggest improvements to enhance and institutionalize these practices.

Answer: Wipro firmly believes that we can’t build a great business without nurturing talent from within. We are committed to partnering with employees and providing them with opportunities to realize their full potential.

GROW is our vision, an all-encompassing

05. Sourav Ganguly (A): A Case Study in Leadership

a. What were the functions that Sourav Ganguly was expected to perform as the leader of the Indian cricket team? In your opinion, how well did he perform each of these functions during his tenure? Explain.

Answer: In 2000, after the match fixing scandal by some of the players of the team, Ganguly was named the Captain of the Indian cricket team. The decision was spurred due to Tendulkar stepping down from the position for his health, and Ganguly being the vice-captain at that time. He began well as a captain, leading India to a series win over South Africa in the five-match one day series and led the Indian team to the finals of the 2000 ICC KnockOut Trophy. He scored two centuries, including one in the final; however, New

b. Did Sourav Ganguly demonstrate the various attributes and skills required of an effective leader? In your opinion, in what areas should he have been better or different?

Answer: The Sourav Ganguly issue makes me more acutely aware of my identity than any other thing simply because anti-Gangulyism is strongly followed by and often driven by anti-Bengalism—-a surprisingly powerful and undeniably perceptible sentiment I have felt more than once in my life in the company of fellow Indians.

06. James McNerney and 3M: Making a Good Company Better

a. Despite introducing several changes, some of which were quite radical in light of 3M’s culture, McNerney was quite a popular leader at the company. What could be the reasons for this popularity?

Answer: 3M was a company known for its innovativeness. In the nearly 100 years of its existence, the company had launched several innovative breakthrough products. However, 3M's culture of innovation had started weakening in the 1990s, and its financial performance had become lacklustre. James McNerney, who was the first outsider to become the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of 3M, joined the company in 2001. He was expected to be a change agent who would provide the impetus for 3M's renewed growth. This case discusses the steps taken by McNerney to restore 3M's growth.

Among other things, McNerney:

b. What are the pros and cons of choosing people from outside the company for top leadership positions? Do you think an effective leadership training program and succession planning system can eliminate the need to look outside for leaders?

Answer: McNerney was the first outsider to lead the insular St. Paul (Minn.) company in its 100-year history. He had barely stepped off the plane before he announced he would change the DNA of the place. His playbook was vintage GE. McNerney axed 8,000 workers (about 11% of the workforce), intensified the performance-review process, and tightened the purse strings at a company that had become a profligate spender. He also imported GE's vaunted Six Sigma program—a series of management techniques

07. Carlos Ghosn: The Turnaround Specialist

a. Analysts felt that Ghosn’s strong leadership was responsible for turning around Nissan. According to you, which leadership quality of Ghosn contributed the most in turning Nissan around, and why?

Answer: After seven years losses, Nissan assigned Carlos Ghosn as the Chief Operating Officer of Nissan. His main task was going to turn Nissan around two to three years; otherwise the company would go out of business. In order to achieve this goal, Ghosn applied several approaches to rescue Nissan from this worst time. This article is to evaluate Carlos Ghosn‘s approaches to turning Nissan around.

Situation statement

b. Some analysts attributed the success of Ghosn to his multicultural upbringing. Discuss the influence of culture on Ghosn’s managerial and leadership style.

Answer: In order to give a thorough in-depth evaluation of Carlos Ghosn's approach to turning Nissan around I have chosen to apply John Kotter's 8-step model to strategic change implementation (Kotter J. P., 1996) displayed below. Kotter is regarded as an authority within the field of organization and change management and I find his model helps securing a comprehensive evaluation. The model is usually used

08. Andrea Jung and the Turnaround of Avon Products

a. Avon showed tremendous improvement under Jung’s leadership. Discuss the various elements of Jung’s turnaround strategy and tactics at Avon.

Answer: Jung was a retail industry veteran, who joined Avon as the head of US marketing in 1994. She was reportedly attracted to Avon's women-oriented culture. She grew rapidly within the company and was eventually made the CEO. When she became the CEO of Avon in 1999, the company was in a bad condition. Jung then took a head-on approach to reviving the company's businesses. This case details Jung's game plan for

b. What challenges do women business leaders face in their rise to the top? Comment on Jung’s attitude toward mentoring of women by other women in senior positions.

Answer: Under Andrea Jung’s direction, Avon is focusing on developing nations especially China. Many developing countries are more receptive to direct selling by women since jobs with Avon are opportunities for women who want to be independent in the male dominated cultures. Avon has also recognized that the demographics has changed and recruiting younger women to sell to the younger customer base.

Competitive pressures stemming from

09. HP’s Strategy and Operations under Carly Fiorina and Mark Hurd

a. What were the differences in the leadership styles of Fiorina and Hurd? Do you think these differences have an impact on the effectiveness of the leader?

Answer: A few months after she took over as the CEO of Hewlett-Packard HPQ 1.00% last September, Meg Whitman held one in a series of get-to-know-you meetings with employees. To say the audience, a group of software engineers and managers, was sullen would be an understatement. As Whitman spoke, many of them glared at her. Others weren’t making eye contact with their new boss. Their heads

b. Some analysts criticized Hurd for not having a vision or a long-term strategy for HP. They opined that Hurd was an ‘operational CEO’ who might not be successful in reviving HP as an ‘innovative company’. Comment.

Answer: All of this has impeded the company from tackling the fundamental problem it faces: Simply put, Hewlett-Packard has lost its way. The company is in the midst of an existential crisis. It remains a behemoth, No. 10 on the Fortune 500, with $127 billion in sales last year and $7 billion in earnings. But the trajectory is ominous. Those profits, for example, were 19% lower in 2011 than in the previous year. HP’s business is under siege on almost every front, losing market share and facing declining margins.

10. Home Depot’s Cultural Evolution: A Comparison of the Company’s Culture under its Founders and Bob Nardelli

a. Compare and contrast the key features of Home Depot’s culture under its founders with the new culture that developed under Nardelli.

Answer: Home Depot was the biggest retailer of home improvement products in the US in the early 2000s. The company was also well known for its entrepreneurial and laissez-faire culture, a culture fostered by co-founders Bernie Marcus and Arthur Blank, who led the company from 1978 to 2000. In late 2000 however, the board appointed Robert Nardelli, a GE veteran, as CEO. Nardelli was given the task of solving the

b. What difficulties did Nardelli face in leading Home Depot toward a culture that was more appropriate for an industry leader? Also, do you think that the criticisms against him were justified?

Answer: In fairness to Nardelli, he had his work cut out for him when he joined Home Depot, according to Wharton management professor Lawrence Hrebiniak. “Nardelli came into a very tough situation. The original entrepreneurs had built an amazing business” that had shown tremendous growth. Nardelli was under intense pressure “to continue that growth.”

In addition to cutting costs, Nardelli decided

11. Apple Inc.’s Corporate Culture: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

a. Discuss the pros and cons of the leadership style of Steve Jobs at Apple. Also, do you think Apple could have come out with so many path-breaking products if his style had been different? Explain.

b. What is your expectation of Apple’s future after the tenure of Steve Jobs as its leader?

12. M.S. Oberoi and His Legacy

a. Critically analyze the personal characteristics and traits of M. S. Oberoi that contributed to his success as an entrepreneur.

b. Evaluate the succession management practices at the Oberoi group. Give your recommendations on how it could have been handled better.

13. The Rise and Fall of Ramalinga Raju

a. Compare and contrast the performance of ‘Ramalinga Raju – the entrepreneur’ with that of ‘Ramalinga Raju – the leader’.

b. In your opinion, was Ramalinga Raju successful in introducing ‘a radical leadership model in Satyam, which aimed to empower people, distribute leadership, and break down the traditional hierarchical system’? Give reasons in support of your answer.

14. Virgin Galactic: Serial Entrepreneur Richard Branson's Space Travel Venture

a. Critically analyze Richard Branson’s space tourism venture. Do you think he will succeed in making this a profit-making venture?

b. "If it is a success, we want to move into orbital flights and then, possibly, even get a hotel up there." Will Branson's dream come true? Give reasons to support your answer.

15. Katrina Markoff and Vosges Haut-Chocolat

a. ‘An entrepreneur undertakes the entrepreneurial process, which involves identification of a business opportunity, establishing a vision for the organization, developing a business plan, gathering the required resources that include financial resources, establishing the new business and managing its growth, and adapting to change.’ Using this framework, analyze the entrepreneurial process that led to the formation and success of Vosges Haut-Chocolat.

b. With the slogan “One Love, One Chocolate,” Katrina Markoff claimed that Vosges Haut-Chocolat contributed to world peace through chocolate. Critically comment and express your point of view.

16. James Dyson: The Engineer Entrepreneur

a. What entrepreneurial qualities enabled James Dyson to convert engineering innovations into profitable businesses?

b. ‘James Dyson was an entrepreneur who had good mastery over marketing and management.’ Critically discuss.

17. Ping Fu: Inspiring Entrepreneurship

a. Discuss the characteristics that contributed to Ping Fu’s success as an entrepreneur, and comment on her management style.

b. What are the entrepreneurial challenges for Ping Fu and Raindrop Geomagic in the future?

18. Isaac Tigrett: A Maverick Entrepreneur

a. Tigrett’s experiences during his teenage years helped shape his value system. Comment on the experiences that Tigrett had during his formative years, and how they moulded his beliefs and value systems that influenced his entrepreneurial success.

b. Discuss the challenges that Tigrett faced as a leader while trying to bring about the “Love All, Serve All” and “Help Ever, Hurt Never” philosophy into the workplaces at Hard Rock Cafe and House of Blues. What leadership skills and tactics could have helped him face these challenges in the best possible manner?