Leadership Change -- the Gene

¶ … Leadership Change -- the Gene One Scenario Gene One is a highly successful private organization that has invested and succeeded in its biotechnological endeavors. The company has been able to reduce the diseases in plants and trees, with the ultimate results of improved quality of fruit and vegetables. The satisfaction of the customers is increased as they now find it more accessible to consume healthy nutrients, without any added chemicals in their composition. The mastermind behind Gene One is Don Ruiz, who has recently passed away.

The managerial team is now facing the extremely difficult task of preparing the organization to go public. Each department head is forwarding the superiority of his division over the other departments. The company has to maintain its ascendant trend and generate sustainable revenues, but it must also prepare for its initial public offering (IPO). Fortunately however, these two goals collide in the meaning that the more successful and reliable the company is, the more chances it will stand for a triumphant IPO.

Given this situation, it is advisable for the current leadership team to focus on a change strategy characterized by the following: (1) Creating a heterogeneous top managerial team. The general perception is that the managerial team at Gene One, or any other economic agent for the matter, has to be united in order for it to be able to impose its views and convince the staff members to follow its visionary agenda.

This is in fact a true belief in the meaning that an organization has no chance of success if its leaders are divided and cannot find means to cooperate. Despite this fact however, it is also advisable for the team to be heterogeneous, rather than homogenous.

The basic concepts refer to the nature of groups in the meaning that a homogenous group is one in which the members are united by similar features, backgrounds and interests, whereas a heterogeneous is characterized by members who come from different backgrounds and seldom see eye-to-eye. Given this understanding, it is recommendable for the managerial team at Gene One to reveal increased levels of heterogeneity as this formation is more successful in attracting investors.

Otherwise put, a heterogeneous top management team is more reliable as it can assess a threat or an opportunity from more different angles, it is constructed on vast expertise from various fields and it possesses vast education on several subjects.

All this point out to the fact that not only will the quality of the managerial act improve, it will also contribute to the process of initial public offering as a company with a heterogeneous top managerial team stands increased chances of attracting larger amounts of capitals than a company with a homogenous managerial team (Zimmerman, 2008). In a more simplistic formulation, it is advisable for the new managerial team at Gene One to assess its professional skills, abilities and education.

Given a finding according to which most of the members have similar backgrounds and professional capacities, they should strive to include more professionally diverse specialists. The final Gene One managerial team should be formed from a financials specialist, a marketing specialist, a human resource specialist, a technology specialist, and a general manager.

(2) Enhancing organizational reputation Once Gene One becomes a publicly traded organization, its share will be traded on both primary and secondary markets, meaning that individual investors and brokers will set the retail price of the stock and its market value. The company will have no ability to control the price of its share (Journal of Accountancy, 1995). Nevertheless, they will have the ability to influence the price based on the perception the investors and the brokers have of the organization.

The means by which the company could enhance its public perception are countless, having however the downside of requesting sustained financial investments. A first means by which the new leading team could implement change and improve the company's perception is that of developing and implementing strong media campaigns. These campaigns would be constructed on the visionary ideas of the late Don Ruiz and would point out the benefits of the healthier products obtained through biotechnology.

These campaigns would have a twofold benefit in the meaning that they would, on the one hand, familiarize the public with the company and improve its reputations, but on the other hand, they would also familiarize the customer base with the products, generating as such increasing levels of demand for the Gene One products and services. The second means by which Gene One could enhance its public perception is that of becoming more involved in the well-being of the communities in which it operates.

Some examples of how the biotechnology firm could gain not only the acceptance, but also the praises, of the community is that of allocating funds to social endeavors. The company could for instance offer sponsorships to local social events such as celebrations or sporting events. They could also offer grants to highly skilled young pupils who do not have the material possibilities to continue their studies. (3) Attention to financials The next change to be implemented is that of an intense focus on the financial characteristics of the business.

This change is to be implemented at two stages. The first stage revolves around a practical application of the concepts of cost efficiency. This basically means that Gene One will have to look at the budgets allocated to each individual department and then assess them in light of the results and importance of the respective department. The general aim is that of reducing costs and increasing the volume of the liquidities, in order for the company to reveal increased abilities to pay its short- and long-term obligations. In order to.