Leaders
Essays

The objective of any discovery should be the development of knowledge to improve the general condition of mankind, but now the entire process of discovery, supported through patents seems to be only an exercise for the…

The enterprise software industry is going through a series of disruptive innovations that are disrupting the economics of the industry while also shifting the balance of power away from the Chief Information Officer (CIO) to the line-of-business leaders including the Vice Presidents, General Managers and Directors of Business Units. As this balance of power shifts throughout enterprise software, many long-standing approaches to developing, delivering, monetizing, and supporting software are also changing. One of the most successful companies in the enterprise software industry, specifically in the Aerospace and Defense sector, is Cincom Systems. Cincom has been able to attain a highly profitable business model by creating very customized systems for customers' needs while at the same time creating maintenance agreements that ensuring highly profitable recurring revenue stream over the long-term. This strategy has been largely responsible for the company's ability to withstand the recurring recession globally that has occurred over the last five years. It has also given Cincom Systems, which is privately-held, a strong foundation for investing in new technologies and accelerating their Research & Development (R&D) spending as well. The one significant organizational challenge the company faces today is transitioning from its primarily on-premise platform to a Cloud-based one, specifically on the Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) architecture that the majority of its competitors are using today. The economics of Cloud Computing and SaaS specifically are completely reordering the competitive landscape of the enterprise software market and pose a very significant threat to Cincom over the long-term. There are many challenges that Cincom must overcome to deal with this shift in product strategy, and will also have a corresponding impact on their overall financials and profitability. The intent of this paper is to analyze and explain how Cincom can rely on leadership theories to overcome these challenges and capitalize on them over the long-term.

Staying in step with customer and client needs is more than fulfilling their requests on a periodic basis and meeting their basic expectations, as any company that excels in client management understands. It is the ability to align every aspect of an enterprise to the needs and expectations, experiences and requirements of clients. Often internally-based organizations including those that are given the objective of being client-focused, end up paradoxically being the most myopic and inward-focused, resistant to change. Any organization that is experiencing this is in danger of losing the most valuable relationships and trust they have with customers. As leaders must continually push accountability, ownership and a clear sense of responsibility for results to the front lines of their enterprises, when traditional management and leadership strategies fail to deliver results, change is required. The intent of this analysis is to provide prescriptive guidance on how leaders can manage this level of disruptive change, defining how managing and leading are vastly different. It is often said that a manager is what one does, and a leader is who one is. The CEO attempting to lead this change management effort or strategy will have to contend with powerful political forces internally that managers who believe in command-and-control will use to subvert and force this initiative to fail. Managers who are accustomed to command-and-control will also fight for their political power base in the organization, despite the fact their often authoritarian and transactional leadership styles are highly ineffective in transforming organizations. The wealth of studies completed on change management indicate that a CEO with Emotional Intelligence (EI) and transformational leadership skills is the most powerful change agent there is in any organization or enterprise (Fitzgerald, Schutte, 2010) (Yarberry, 2007). The CEO needs to model the behavior that is needed to assist these managers in moving beyond their often highly charged political agenda of internal power to realize that by becoming more transformational as leaders they significantly open up their own potential professional growth in the process. The best transformational leaders can more focused on the win-win of personal and professional development also benefiting the organization (Lewis, 1996). These factors are all critically important for the leader looking to bring transformative change to their client organization. Implicit in the structural change of the organization is the even more powerful and potentially disruptive political one. For the leader to be effective in making these changes, they will have to exhibit a very high level of EI, transformational leadership and show a compelling vision of the future, all built on a strong foundation of trust (Wilbanks, 2011).

Your example of Shaar Mustaf, founder and leader of the Take Charge Juvenile Diversion Program, Inc. does exemplify the value of programs dedicated to helping at-risk individuals, especially young people, to overcome…

¶ … Franco Bernabe, newly appointed CEO of Eni in Italy, find himself in the midst of a scandal, and what did he do to extract himself from the mess? What was the problem, how could this crisis have been avoided, and…

Critical Review of Stalingrad by Antony Beevor

Leadership Motives personalized charismatic leader is authoritarian and needs to control or have power over people. Often, they have low self-esteem and are quite narcissistic as well.

¶ … Philippa Gregory, the author of "The Other Boleyn Girl" and other novels. Specifically, it will discuss the relevant aspects of the time and place in which the author lived and wrote the novels.

¶ … Anne Hutchinson, as the foundress of a religious sect.

Detert and Burris are seeking to determine ways to better understand employees who will speak up with valuable information in an organization that favors these habits (p. 869).