Case: Change Classic: Peter Browning and Continental White Cap

Case: Change Classic: Peter Browning and Continental White Cap

Introduction

According to the case study Peter Browning was a successful manager at the Bonware Division in Continental Group. He was one of the trusted person by the management therefore he was also given the duty of repositioning the continental white cap division (Jick & Maury, 2011). There were different challenges that Peter had to focus on to be successful in what he was tasked to do. The way forward that Peter had planned had its own challenges as Peter wanted to be an agent of change at the company’s division he was tasked to reposition and revitalize. In this paper I would be focusing on the issues that were present that could have hindered the change process and how Peter dealt with these issues. Towards the end of this paper I would discuss the importance of the change process and how it can guide us towards a corporate success.

Critical facts

White cap was an organization that had really deep roots. It was founded by White Brothers in 1962. The area of specialization were closure production and its distribution. White cap also was dealing in designing of caps and its capping machinery. In 1984, the company reported gross sales of $175 million. It had around 1450 employees and 12 sales office in 1984 with 4 operational plants.

The corporate culture at White Caps was of traditional nature. White family were the patterns of the company. The company offered free lunches to its employees. There were also incentives system in plance. Employees could have asked for favors when they needed.

Stated problems and indicators

White cap had to face a price competition in the closure market. Research has indicate that price competition could force companies to take risks in reducing their prices to a level where their profits may become negligible (Wu, Gao, & Gu, 2015). This seemed the case in the closure market as other vendors were offering too much lower prices for their products. There was also a problem of a high overhead leading to low value compared to cost.

In the specific case of Peter Browning there were some challenges that were waiting for him. He had to transform one of the successful group. It required a lot of vigilance on his part to be able to make the transformation process smooth and successful. The company had been unsuccessful in recognizing competition and had incurred losses due to it. Peter’s task was to counter these losses and somehow overcome them to decrease the severity of their negative impact. Peter was in need for a change process that was rapid and powerful. The employees at the company were used to traditional managerial styles. Peter had a challenge ahead of him as he was going to act against the traditional management style and introduce a process of change through change management.

Analysis of issues and the improvement process

To implement the change process Peter needed to first transform the marketing team. The team needed to be technologically adoptive. I mean they had to be capable of adopting to new technologies to dynamically attack the market with marketing campaigns. There was also need to transform the HR department.

Peter was wise enough to make introduce the transformational changes by getting the leadership in board. The fact that leadership is taken into confidence can help the leadership to become an effective part of the transformational process (Zimmerly, 2016). This helped him minimize resistance to change at the high level of the organization. This also helped in changing the attitudes of other employees towards the change process. The adaptation process was gradual and not abrupt.

In the marketing department the change for leadership necessary and Vince was brought in as the leader. Stark was re-designated to the packaging development department. This was a strategy that ensured that the right person is at the right job placement for a maximum output.

There were some initial disappointment with Tommy Green at the human resources but he was left to serve there. Instead he was micromanaged and regular performance evaluation of his work was carried out.

Overall speaking, the system was transformed effectively. A culture of openness was adopted with people becoming more informal and open about their job experience. Specific action driven meetings were held. Customers were reached out for their feedback to influence them about why they should chose the White Cap. The employees were given the due attention they needed by enabling them to be part of engagement and retention training programs. Extra workforce was minimized to the best level possible. The performance of the employees was evaluated and they were rewarded for good performances.

Conclusion

The case study is an indicator of the fact that a clear understanding of the problem can result in an effective way forward in the change process. Peter was able to identify the issues and problems and had the courage to go straight to the organizational leaders and take them into confidence. This helped in carrying out the change process. Peter kept all stakeholders informed about the change process. He was able to bring about the necessary changes so that the employees had an opportunity to adopt to the change process and not left behind.