HP at a Strategic Crossroad Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

HP at a Strategic Crossroad - Assignment Example But, the company was not able to take up the challenge thrown up by the rapid advancements in technologies and some of the competitors. Fiorina had proved herself at AT&T by bringing about a successful spin-off at its equipment and research branch. With such a legacy she joined HP and started her mission to refurbish the image of HP and implementing the requisite changes. For introducing changes in an organization and its functioning, the manager is supposed to take into confidence the team leaders, departmental heads and other support staff. The CEO will be able to plan and execute the strategies effectively if she had fullest support from other managers and the governing board. In this case it appears that Carleton Fiorina didn't believe in collaborative or democratic type of functioning. Instead she took pride in imposing her decision and carrying through her plan irrespective of what others have to say on that particular decision. She gained notoriety for placing her interest ove r the interests of the organization. This is a serious shortcoming for being an able and acceptable leader. To manage an organization, the manager has to manage the human resources, the machinery and the strategies. The leader will be termed as successful, if she is able to take active cooperation of the human resources in managing the machinery and planning & executing the strategies. But in this case Fiorina resorted to 'ambush marketing' from the very beginning. Without caring for the tradition or conventions at HP, she started imposing her plans. It can very well be argued that in this era of cut-throat competition, an organization has to plan out its strategies according to the demand from market, but expecting the change to take place overnight, proves detrimental for the health of the organization. This is exactly what Fiorina did after joining HP. It is said that, companies and organizations are made for people and by the people, and obviously their effectiveness depends on the behavior and performance of the people running these companies. Howard Good (2006), the former president of Highland Central School Board in Highland, NY, says, "Being board president brings power and prestige, but you must inspire and help others to be successful". A team leader therefore plays the central role in making or breaking the team. It is the team leader who can synergize the efforts or just wither away the advantage, with his actions. A team leader is supposed to delegate the powers and responsibilities amongst his/ her team mates, inspire the team members by being an example and motivate his team with appropriate motivating factors. A leader can synergize the efforts by; Eliciting the contribution from all concerned Organizing the team members by assigning them the responsibilities, and Developing an information system for monitoring and coordination activities. It can very well be argued that HP had become a bureaucratic type of an organization and was on the verge of loosing the status of being a leader in innovation. World's first scientific calculator was given to the world by HP way back in 1967. The company has been a market leader in printing and imaging business solutions since 1985. But somehow the company could not keep pace with the changing technology and the competitors like IBM and Dell overtook it. The revenue figures started declining. A dynamic leader

Coursework..'Why has Britain traditionally resisted the idea of the Essay

Coursework..'Why has Britain traditionally resisted the idea of the European Union' Consider the issues full - Essay Example Its most prominent feature has been the importance of the financial sector, the City of London, both economically and politically. The City of London forms with the Treasury and the Bank of England an extremely powerful economic policy community that has normally been successful in shaping the policy of British governments on major economic issues. Priority has generally been given to the interests and perspectives of the City rather than those of manufacturing or the trade unions in determining the national interest (Aspinwall 2004). There was no similar test for manufacturing. The nature of the City as an international financial centre has always led it to favor a policy of openness to the markets of the whole world, not just Europe. "For Britain, therefore, deregulation, whether nationally or the European Union-inspired, has been experienced as deregulation, with the creation of legal procedures, where informal agreements generally held, and the establishment of independent regula tory bodies" (Schmidt 1997, p. 167). Also, the business cycle in the Great Britain has normally been aligned with the US economy rather than the European economy. This provides a practical obstacle to early entry; but, more than that, it symbolizes a different view as to where British economic interests lie. Politically, on Politically, one reason for the hesitation was that the political class in Britain has been much more divided over the euro than the political class in other member states. Popular opposition to joining the single currency has also been strong in Denmark and Sweden, and the Danes voted narrowly in a referendum in September 2000 to stay outside. But the Danish currency is already pegged to the euro, and the Danish economy is more integrated within the Euro-Zone than the British economy is. The political class in Britain has become deeply split, with one of the two major parties, the Conservatives (Giddings & Drewry 2004). The Conservative party was initially the party of Europe, conceiving Europe as an enterprise which was very much in the security and economic interests of the British state, as well as a new external challenge to replace the Empire. It was a Conservative government under Edward Heath that narrowly secured parliamentary approval of the terms of entry in 1971 (Aspinwal l 2004). It was the Labor Party whose leaders were prone to talk of 'a thousand years of history' (Aspinwall 2004, p. 56) and who were immensely distrustful of the Common Market because of the restrictions it imposed on national planning. "The erosion of the greater powers of Parliament have been cause for concern not only for members of Parliament but also for the executive, which given the lesser party discipline and the more vocal" (Schmidt 1997, p. 167). Although a majority of the Labor leadership did eventually support British membership of the European Community, a majority of trade unions and Labor Party members remained opposed because of their commitment to national economic planning. Culturally and nationally, the Great Britain tries to preserve its uniqueness keeping old traditions and social institutions unchanged. For the anti-Europeans, the European Union is a dangerous semi-sovereignty process which forces new states meets its rules and obligations. British attachment to outmoded forms of