Lee Scott Lee Was Designated

Lee Scott

Scott Lee was designated as the President and Chief Executive Officer of Wal-Mart since January 2000. It has been widely acknowledged that Scott Lee possessed leadership qualities that were responsible for the rapid growth and improvement of the Wal-Mart business activities. During his period, Wal-Mart was involved in critical plans, and evolved business formats. The President was credited for the evolution of Wal-Mart Discount stores, Supercenters, Neighborhood Markets, Sam's Club and Walmart.com. During his period, Wal-Mart expanded internationally, and substantial growth and profit were achieved through international investment. Scott Lee has old and deep affiliation with the company; he was initially involved in the logistics operations of Wal-Mart, and was then promoted as Assistant Director of Transportation. Scott Lee received promotions on routine basis; he was initially promoted as Director of Transportation, Vice President of Transportation, Vice President of Distribution, and then Senior Vice President of Logistics. Scott Lee was appointed Executive Vice President of Logistics in 1993. It is widely believed that, the leadership qualities of Scott Lee has been responsible for the continuous growth of the distribution network of Wal-Mart, "one of the most technologically advanced and efficient networks in the world" (Ellen, 2007). In 1995, his logistics acumen made him ideal contender for the designation of Vice President of Merchandise. Soon after his appointment, "the merchandise team successfully eliminated excess inventory in the stores and was successful in achieving record sales increases with least increases in inventory levels, a momentous triumph in the retail business." Scott Lee was prominent associate of Wal-Mart, and was later appointed as President and Chief Executive Officer of the Wal-Mart Stores Division after three years. Scott Lee was the promoted as Chief Operating Officer and Vice Chairman of Wal-Mart in 2004. Scott Lee has plenty in his credentials beside operational improvements. The President was widely appreciated and renowned for "people development, including the launch of a corporate diversity initiative." Under his leadership, Wal-Mart launched "an aggressive corporate environmental sustainability initiative, leveraging the global reach of Wal-Mart in three key areas i.e. renewable energy, zero waste, and sustainable products" (Doug, 2002).

The organization was vulnerable to series of problems, the intensity and composition of which is strongly base upon the size and production capacity. The leadership rubble emerged as paramount issue that has been experienced by the multi-national organization; however the impact was nullified soon after the involvement of Lee Scott in the administrative issues of the company. The problem has less to do with the cultural differences, and was much related to the difference of approach and practices in the foreign influenced and local influenced leadership. Previously the employees had the right to make the higher management aware of the dangers, and such practice contributed significantly towards the growth and employment of the industry, however locals are of the opinion that the local employees should themselves put in efforts to combat the problem, and achieve immediate relief (Ellen, 2007). The manufacturing organization was vulnerable to the threats from labor unions, emergence of competitive brand in the local or international market, the revision of the taxation policy and last but not the least, the organization is vulnerable to leadership crisis. It has been realized that labor unions have always created major hurdle towards the development and expansion plan, the labor unions were proactive, and have tried to curtail the production activities of the company on several accounts. The failure of the organization towards the fulfillment of their demands i.e. sufficient increment in the labor wages has generated unexpected consequences. The marked concerns were resolved under the dynamic leadership of Lee Scott.

Steve Ballmer

Soon after the appointment of Steve Ballmer, Microsoft realized that the leadership bench strength, which ensures 'the availability of strong and deep pools of talent, and is able to assume a number of varied leadership roles at various levels', although the issues experienced by Microsoft had technical limitations, however Steve Ballmer initiated the new talent-management practices with proper objectives, which achieved better picture, 'it is not substantial to move forward with a vague sense of improving leadership bench depth, when new practices unfold without a clear sense of what results must be delivered, they become mere activity generators' which has the potential to demoralize the employees, and will demote any practice relevant to the performance enhancement program. As per the recommendation of Steve Ballmer, the company decided to review their annual organization review policy, and has intended to replace it with the system of ongoing dialogue. In contrast, the Wal-Mart, General Electric, IBM, or Citicorp, have adopted different strategy, where 'it is often best to start with a few key practices likely to produce tangible results, geared to the needs of the company' (Harris, 2002), the management of the company has to coordinate with the Human Resource leadership to decide over the 'set of outcomes and targets for the process', such comprehensive and detailed overview will ensure the success of the performance enhancement policies. According to Steve, the annual organizational review system has been considered a failure due to the minor incorporation of the value addition, it has been observed that the review system conducted on the annual basis has offered relieve to the administrations, 'many line managers simply update forms from the previous year to satisfy the task', thus Steve has been credited for major overhaul of the respective departments of Microsoft. Steve has identified the annual occurrence of pasted review system, the procedure has been another highlight which in some of the cases has offered escape to the junior management, and therefore to ensure that the performance enhancement is implemented, as per the recommendations of Steve, the review system shall be continuous instead of discrete.