Kent Chemicals
The first one was concerning the consumer product line. This area should be conducted based on customers’ needs and because it was a major area of expertise on a regional scale, their marketing programs and other efforts should be managed at a regional level. Secondly, regarding their medical plastics the solution Sterling Partners found was to globally control this area of business. The main reasons for this recommendation were based of the fact that the key success factors for this business were mainly concerned with input, which was only done by two lands worldwide with rigorous controlled quality.
Thus, multinational companies with worldwide operations are the major customers in this area. Last but not least, their Fire Control products should be managed in a middle-ground regional/local and global level. This is because R is important in this area and therefore should be controlled at a global level but because of each countries fire safety regulations a local management is also vital here. Therefore, in this subject a supervision with global coordination and local management should be implemented.
Furthermore, one of the key recommendations from the consultancy company was to implement a Decision Matrix. This tool is of the utmost utility to the organization because it puts emphasis on coordination, puts the decision making process nearer to the knowledge center and is able to potential and realign the communication between internal areas of either the mother company and its worldwide subsidiaries. As exhibit 4 shows, this tool will also allow for better accountability of each process and its subsequent intervention.
Finally, all this will allow for ICP to better blend lobar instructions and local requirement together. 2) Morale is faced with one of the most difficult decisions of his career and it is fundamental that he gets this decision right because he had already failed in two previous occasions. Therefore, what the president of KICK should decide is to implement something that would allow for better common action within the company which can foster a faster and clearer decision making process.
To materialize this thoughts, Morale should recommend to develop a new financial system, which would potential better capital allocation, a problem which had been rising in the company and that the older system wouldn’t be enough to fix. Moreover, to ease the communication process, a kind of Intranet system should be implemented in order to enable ICP and its international subsidiaries to share information and financial and decisions to better coordinate the organization’s procedures. This platform could even allow for a development in the area of R where works could share ideas and projects.
Due to its current muddled organizational hierarchy, which was a result of integrating diverse organizations with different corporate cultures, operation in ICP was a difficult task. Therefore, Morale should recommend to Ben Fischer a kind of organizational structure in which hierarchy supports a well-defined chain of command, accountability, flexibility in decision-making and responsibility according to different levels of authority. All this is possible if ICP embeds its organizational culture in the international subsidiaries, and KICK, and allows them to be empowered in the decision process of the Organization.
Besides this recommendation, Morale should advise Mr.. Fischer to adopt the Decision Matrix proposed by Sterling Partners. His reasons for this advice are that this matrix will break down each party responsibilities and contributions to the decision making process. This matrix enables the organization to bring together employees and managers towards achieving new goals and enhances the information exchange making it more efficient which is one of the paramount steps towards going global as a whole organization.
Finally, putting oneself on the shoes of Father Fischer, one should embrace the changes proposed by Mr.. Morale because they are groundbreaking in terms of company communication, coordination and cooperation. Although this ideas seemed quite bright the decision matrix should be refused mainly due to its high implementation costs, which the company couldn’t bear in a year where results were 30% down to the homologous period and in the prospects of an economic downturn in 2008.
Another disadvantage of opting for the matrix is due to its complexity, which may baffle workers in who they’re reporting to. Moreover, this dual authority and communication problems may cause division among employees and managers. Lastly, father Fischer should maintain his son on the board because having him on the operational side would constrain regional managers and other directors in their decisions leaving a feeling of unnecessary pressure made by the board.
