Gene_One_Notes

Attention Senior Leadership Team: I just returned from a Board meeting, and you'll all be pleased to know that we've gotten the go-ahead we need to proceed with the IPO. The Board agreed with us on all counts -- the three-year timetable, the 40% growth targets and the need to raise capital and develop new products. I'm very excited about this; I think the time is right and it's the right thing for Gene One. That said, I realize that, collectively, we have zero experience with IPOs, so I think it's critical that we get ourselves a bit of an education about IPOs and begin outlining the steps we need to take as we move through this process. To that end, I've set up a two-day, off-site meeting that will give us time to determine what we need to do to realize this opportunity, as well as identify any challenges we might foresee. I've attached the Executive Summary from the Board meeting. I'd like you all to take a look at it before the meeting. Generally, it's good to have a rep from our financial institution there, but I don't know if I'll be able to arrange it in time. Hey Greg, do you have a minute' I checked into the SOA requirements and you're right: The Act requires an IPO Board to have at least one member with financial experience as CPA or CFO. Our Board doesn't have one. It also requires that the Board have three committees to represent auditing, compensation and nominating. To my knowledge, our Board doesn't have that either. If we have to recruit new Board members, it could take us a year just to find someone willing to come on now that the word is out about the IPO. I'm also concerned about this compensation shift from equity to cash. That might just force us to re-evaluate all of the Board contracts. How much do you think that will cost us' Have you brought any of this up to Don' No, I haven't spoken to Don about it since the meeting. But I have ordered copies of the SOA, and have been researching the leadership requirements. I'm not sure I'm clear on all of it, though. Do you have any time next week' Maybe we could evaluate the SOA together to figure out what we need. I was also thinking of getting your input and suggestions on a proposal that I plan to give to Don within the next two weeks. Dear Mr. Ruiz: It is with much regret that I tender my resignation, effective two months from today's date. This was not an easy decision for me to make, but I believe it is the right one, given the current state of affairs. My passion centers around doing pure and applied research, not pleasing Wall Street. I just don't have the energy or desire to push myself to deliver new technologies on a schedule; that's not the way breakthrough technologies happen. I am recommending Bill Chang as my replacement. Bill has been with Gene One for the past three years and has been instrumental in the development and marketing of new products. He is self-motivated and passionate about his work. More importantly, he has a desire to develop new products as well as conduct research. I will never forget the day you asked me to join Gene One, Don. It has provided me with tremendous opportunities, including being a part of Teri Robertson's team and conducting some meaningful breakthrough research. I appreciate all that you both have done for me. In closing, I would like to thank you for what may turn out to be the best years of my career, as well as for the opportunities that have earned me recognition in my profession. Sincerely, Angela Angela Thomas VP Technolgy Research Gene One Don, I'm hearing rumors that you're having doubts about some of our team members. But right now, I'm more concerned about what you plan to tell the employees. How are you going to lead this transformation' had a conversation with some of our Board members the other night. If they had their way, I'd be dumping half my team! They just don't seem to get it: We are who we are because of this team. This team has risen to the occasion before and I know it can again. I know we need to address the SEC requirement, but I can't just replace people willy-nilly and expect to run a business. I just have to figure out how to get them on board. I hate to say this, but it sounds like you're letting your personal relationships interfere with your business sense. Am I' Let me think that one over; maybe I'm the one whose not right for this job. Now back to how I'm going to lead this transformation. I'm not sure. Can you meet with me Saturday' You can help me figure out what I need to say to the employees, the financial community and our other stakeholders. I'll make a point to speak with Teri soon. Don, Can we find a few minutes at Jane's birthday party Sunday to talk about Angela's resignation' After our staff meeting, I'm not so sure this is the right place for me either. I want to do research, not keep Wall Street happy. Teri Teri Robertson CTO Gene One GENE ONE: A LOFTY VIEW OF BUSINESS REALITY | BY. THOMAS G. EVERS It's not too often I get invited to the staff meeting of a company that is making headlines on a daily basis. But Gene One is no ordinary company. In the conference room on the top floor of a Phoenix, Arizona office building, CEO Don Ruiz joked that the area's reputation for attracting young technology upstarts has nothing to do with Gene One's presence here. "We're here because it's a great place to test some of our new plants in climates ranging from desert to snow-covered mountains -- all within a two-hour ride," he shared with a smile. "And it's not a bad place to attract some great talent either." CONT. B5 | B5. Maybe Ruiz wasn't kidding. Everything Gene One does appears to be focused on the business. In less than eight years, three young and ambitious leaders have taken Gene One from a $2 million start-up to a thriving $400 million company. They are here to make contributions to their stakeholders and to society. And they do that by using gene research that "creates new and better produce varieties that can change the lives of people around the world." It's not just Gene One's office location that is lofty; the company's vision is as well. The company's business leadership practices, however, appear to be anything but. The agenda for this staff meeting concerned quicker international product introductions. Why' To improve the bottom line by improving cash flow. No lofty marketing plan here. Rather, they identified 10 "quick options," a term coined in that very conference room, and one intended to keep meetings moving quickly and efficiently. In an hour's time, the leadership team has evaluated 10 options -- that's one every six minutes -- and chosen their best. Don Ruiz and Marketing Director Charles Jones will make two trips abroad next week, both directed toward finalizing an important plan. I can't share the exact details of their approach, but I can say that it was as brilliant and as well thought-out as their research. In Don Ruiz, Gene One has a CEO with a passion, not only for his business but for his team, a team that clearly looks to him for inspiration that he never fails to deliver. Their business process is focused, quick and skillful. CTO Teri Robertson presents ideas that clearly define technology as a business priority. Her technological talent and ability to attract leading researchers have led to one new technology and product after another. That you know the names of these products -- Tender Tomatoes, Perfect Potatoes, to name two -- is testimony to Charles Jones, a marketing leader who knows how to make things happen. And Michelle Houghton, the CFO, not only knows her numbers, but knows how to look at options both strategically and financially. To an innocent bystander, the meeting seemed almost vitriolic for all the passionate and energetic arguing. The team members hurl ideas at each other at rapid speed until the meeting reaches fever pitch. But amazingly, what results isn't a fistfight: It's a great plan, born of everybody's input, created by a team. Driven and successful, all of them. Divergent, certainly. Yet they never lose sight of one fact: They are first about making a contribution to society. That commonality allows them the synergy and potential to continue growing this business at an amazing rate. Gene One a successful biotech company is planning to increase sales by developing and marketing products that reduce the need for pesticides. The company is focusing on this objective and is in the process of designing an effective IPO. One of the primary concerns is managing change. The company’s goal of introducing breakthrough products call for changes. Leadership plays an important role in achieving success.   Thoughts Regarding the Case 1. The Top Management at Gene One is planning to enter a new arena, but the leadership (the executives and the CEO) are not prepared. There are different issues that have surfaced and the leadership is not able to resolve them. There is also a building tension and conflict between the executives and some of them are not qualified to handle leadership positions. 2. Gene One operates in a highly competitive and fluid industry where creativity, knowledge creation and innovation are important in achieving competitive advantage. The leadership team is made up of different individuals with different skills, knowledge, abilities and experiences. It is important to have a diverse membership in the top management as the company needs people who are creative and talented. 3. The too management needs to change its leadership style in order for the company to succeed. It is evident from the case study that the management employs an authoritative leadership style where in decision making rests only at the top of the organizational hierarchy. This leadership style hinders employee participation and the free flow of creative and innovative ideas.   Recommended Leadership Style             Leadership style according to  (1989) refers to the characteristic pattern exhibited by a leader on the process of decision-making and exercising authority. In order to achieve the goals of the company, the management needs to adopt a new leadership style – participative leadership style. Participative leadership is a leadership style that requires a more contributively group effort. The leader will make the final decision but roles and direction are shared among the group. This allows for a more collaborative group while maintaining direction. Participative leadership is a style that focuses on ensuring participation, listening openly, seeking consensus, building teams and exploring new approaches.   Initiating and Leading Change             In order to change, an organization requires an appraisal of its internal and external environment. Analyzing threats and opportunities, strength and weaknesses, and resources is the cornerstone of strategic management. Leadership is one of the most important facets of any change initiative. It is leadership that will determine how the goals and objectives of the change initiative will be achieved and how people will be managed in order to integrate their efforts. The change process focuses on how leadership will affect the change process. Each phase of the process requires the leader to effectively to visualize, plan, share, communicate, implement and manage. The change process is discussed below.  1. Analyze the Organization and its Need for Change             The manager of change must first have a clear idea of the organization’s current situation. The manager must conduct any one of the following: * A full financial audit of the organization * A structural survey in which different departments and their staff are identified * A skills audit of the organization’s personnel * A marketing analysis of the business within the industry The organization’s operations including the way it functions in its environment, its strengths and weaknesses must be studied before planning for change. 2. Create a Shared Vision and Common Direction             It is important to engage every member of the organization to make the planned change successful. According to (2003), uniting the entire organization behind a central vision is important to the success of the planned change. The vision should reflect the philosophy and values of the organization and should help it to articulate what it hopes to become. A successful vision aims to guide behavior and to aid an organization to achieve goals (cited in2004). 3. Create a Sense of Urgency             The manager must create a sense of urgency and appeal to employees’ self-interests by clearly explaining that their future well-being is at stake. 4. Support a Strong Leader Role             The transformational leader must turn employee compliance to commitment. 5. Craft an Implementation Plan             For change to become successful, the manager must embark on a programmed of involvement precisely at the point where decisions are to be made about what is to happen and how it is to take place. 6. Communicate and Involve People             Real Communication requires a dialogue among the different change roles. By listening and responding to concerns, resistance and feedback from all levels, implementers gain a broader understanding of what the change means to different parts of the organization and how it will affect them. 7. Reinforce and Institutionalize Change             Throughout the pursuit of change, managers and leaders should make it a top priority to prove their commitment to the transformation process, to reward risk taking and to incorporate new behaviors into the day-to-day operations of the organization. By reinforcing the new culture, they affirm its importance and hasten its acceptance.   The Roles of the Leader in Initiating and Leading Change             The success of an organizational change rests in the hands of the leader. People in the organization look up to the change leader and expects him to plan, to communicate, to implement and to guide in order for the change initiative to be successful. There are different roles and responsibilities that the leader must take ( 2005). Visionary             Leaders create and share visions. They make their visions the visions of the people that they lead. One responsibility of a leader is the challenge the status quo. Leaders look of opportunities and for challenges. They actively search for ways to change. The status quo represents complacency, mediocrity, and eventual decline – conditions that are unacceptable to most leaders. Leaders as visionaries imagine the future. Leaders have the ability to craft a mental picture of a state that does not exist yet. A vision of change portrays a vivid picture of the future. Leaders also develop a stewardship philosophy within the organization. True leaders put the welfare of their organizations and their members above their own. Lastly, as visionaries, leaders align the change with organizational vision, mission, strategy, and individual goals. Organizational vision should drive mission, which should drive strategy, which should drive division and individual goals. Thus, the appropriate change initiatives support goals, strategy, mission and vision ( 2005). Leadership during change also entails that the leader identify innovative and creative ideas from the people in the organization. An effective leaders always finds a way to change how things are done or develop the organization’s products and services (2004). Inspirer             One of the most commonly cited traits of leaders is their ability to inspire others. Change leaders motivate and energize their constituents by meeting their needs – making the change personally beneficial in some meaningful way. Leaders sell change. Actively selling change involves identifying specific benefits valuable to each employee while concurrently minimizing potential losses or risks. Leaders also involve others in the change process. Involving employees at all levels of the organization proves powerfully motivating. Joint diagnosis of problems, potential solutions, and opportunities enables individuals to feel ownership of the change along with feeling like worthy contributors to an important effort. Successful leaders live and model the change – they not only talk about the change, they can enact it. They are the first to modify their behaviors, practice new ways, and advocate the benefits of change ( 2005). Supporter             Enabling change involves communicating often, providing adequate resources and training, anticipating a learning curve, allowing for mistakes, rewarding individual and group change efforts, continually monitoring the process and its progress, making adjustments to the change effort as necessary, and celebrating milestones. Change leaders create a culture of change. Organizational culture reflects the shared beliefs, assumptions, and behaviors acquired over time by members of the firm. Involving others – treating them like partners – conveys the sense that ‘our success depends on this change’. Change leaders understand that individuals support what they help create. Since change involves engaging in something new, encouraging entrepreneurship, creativity, and innovation proves logical. In the supporter role, change leaders perfect the art of communication by interacting with employees at all levels and meeting their information and feedback needs ( 2005). Problem Solver             Effective change leaders analyze the situation and identify the problems. They also create creative solutions for those problems. Change leaders rely on their own investigation as well as their network of connected organizational members for data, insights, and feedback regarding the state of the environment surrounding the change (2005). Change Manager             Change management, by virtue of its complex nature, must be carefully monitored, lest the initiative get out of control. The traditional definition of management is planning, directing, organizing and controlling ( 2005).                         The company is now in the process of creating an IPO, a big leap for the company that if done successfully will propel its growth and increase its earnings. However, the top management needs to commit itself to the change process. The change process requires restructuring of the company’s strategies, processes, operation, leadership, and employment practices. There are different areas that the company needs to focus on. Michelle Houghton, CFO - participative leader - strong sense of ownership and emotional attachment to Gene One - cautious and problem solving attitude - logical and strategic - concerned about the timing of IPO registration - releasing financial statements to public too early while not finalized - concerned that investors are cautious in biotech industry because of the human genome sequencing scandal Charles Jones, Marketing Officer - participative leadership - known for his calculated risk taking - connections in biotech industry - self-confident and moral - he thinks in big pictures and does not focus on details Greg Thoman, HR - people-oriented leadership behavior - dynamic and very productive - more concentrated on existing problems instead of developing future strategies - did not have time to recruit new talents or create a corporate culture for future business growth - checks effect on organizational culture before taking any action - wants... 1. No comments