mea_u10rpl.docx

Submission:

In your response to two peers, address the following:
· Compare and contrast your views on successful organizations and how they have changed.
· Do you agree with the factors and trends your peers want to focus on for building successful teams and organizations?

Peer 1:

Looking back at my Module 1 discussion, some of the aspects I identified as part of a successful company included large amounts of customers and a controlling market share, as well as high financial performance.  I definitely still agree that these are an important factor of high-performing companies, but through this course I was able to learn that there is even more involved that can have an impact on the success of a business. For example, the four lenses we used to analyze KPIs included financial and customer performance, but also internal processes and learning as well.  Internal processes are a really important factor I now feel for the success of a business, because inefficient operation systems can cause inconveniences for customers and well as waste the time of employees.  We saw this throughout the course on our final project, with the outdated reservation and ticketing systems.  Keeping these systems up to date cause give huge time savings to a company, as well as contribute to positive customer feedback, both of which attribute to the overall success of the company.
As a leader myself, some qualities I would want to see for a high-performing team include motivation and efficiency.  I would want an organization to have strong and specific strategic objectives, so everyone is working together on a clear common purpose.  Another important factor to me is the internal culture of a company.  I would want my team to hold strong values in respect and inclusion among employees and leadership.  This can help employees feel important and valued in their role and motivate them to perform their highest.  A company is only as good as its employees, so it is important to treat them fairly and encourage growth and development of top performers to stay and grow within the company, and eventually become leaders themselves.  According to an article from Investopedia, “If a company has above-average management—people who have experience and have been with the company for a long time—there’s a good chance that the company will be a success” (Schmidt, 2018).
References:
Schmidt, M. (2018, February 13). 3 Secrets of Successful Companies. Retrieved from Investopedia: https://www.investopedia.com/articles/stocks/08/secrets-success-company-stock.asp

Peer 2:

After going through this course I do think my parameters for identifying high-performing organizations have changed. Before this, I was tempted to judge companies based on their financials, primarily revenue and sales history and stock value, rather than digging deeper. When you peel back the layers, which takes a tremendous amount of time and research, you can better understand and assess all the elements that make a company successful, or not. These include financial and internal processes, customer relationships and perceptions, and learning capabilities. All these aspects of the balanced scorecard are essential to seeing what is in store for organizations. When you are going into a potential merger situation it is essential to look at potential risks in all these areas but also how organizations are set up to mitigate or prevent risks (Stein, 2011). This is one of the major reasons many major companies fail to complete mergers and acquisitions because, at the end of the process, they find there is too much risk for the parent company to engage with any potential partner (Ten Brug, 2018).
As a leader, this course has changed my views and priorities as I evaluate my team’s performance and potential. I have been focused in the past purely on the product and service we provide. Although these are essential in generating sales and building a strong customer base, it is not the most important thing. Many companies out there had great products and loyal customers yet still failed, like Kodak, Blackberry, Nokia, Xerox, and even airlines such as Mafatlal and Kingfisher (Banerjee, 2019). Some of these companies made various mistakes such as compromising quality for cost, bad leadership, fraud, unmanageable debt, etc. but they also all have something in common. They all failed to adapt and innovate when the market needed them to. We live in a dramatically changing world with advancements in technology, abilities to quire knowledge fast, and operational capabilities. This means that even more important than having the best product and service today, companies should be always thinking about if they will still have it tomorrow. This course has forced me to ensure my team is ready to adapt and change as needed and open to continuously changing for the better.

References

Banerjee. R. (2019). Who Blunders and How : The Dumb Side of the Corporate World. Sage Publications Pvt. Ltd.
Steinberg, R. M. (2011). Why Some Companies Fail and Others Succeed. Compliance Week, 8(91), 46–47. (risks)
Ten Brug, H. (2018). Abandoned deals: the merger and acquisition process in the electricity and gas industry. Energy Policy, 123, 230–239. https://doi-org.ezproxy.snhu.edu/10.1016/j.enpol.2018.08.042 (why so many don’t merge)