Which cultural issues are conducive to the changes you want to make and which cultural issues must be changed and why? Are the right people in the right roles?

Propose your long-term (3 year) vision for your organization. Which cultural issues are conducive to the changes you want to make and which cultural issues must be changed and why? Are the right people in the right roles? Propose and defend your strategic employee positions/roles needed to achieve your short-term profit goals and long-term vision.

My Original Discussion Post 

I will soon assume the position of the CEO of General Motors Company (GM). At GM we are united and driven by a single purpose; to earn customers for life (GM.Com. 2016). Other than our respect to and value of our customers, we have the finest workforce in the automotive world. Our 215,000 employees is comprised of a diverse and dedicated team of professionals across six continents and 23 time zones (GM. Com. 2015). We are a five-star company and we rock. But first, let’s look at our long term (3 year) vision.

Long-Term (3 year) Vision for GM

In three years’ time we want to be able to sell 5 million vehicles annually. This will begin with a new state-of-the-art and up-to-date R&D lab in our headquarters in Detroit. The lab will have innovation centers across all our manufacturing centers all over the world. We shall then set up a new manufacturing plant in China by 2018 to facilitate manufacture of current and future designs hence facilitate the targeted 5 million annual sale. This means our third vision in three years is to increase our world market share by 10% and Asian and African market share by 12%.

Cultural Issues

We have a culture of customer respect and value; and we must keep that culture as it is or do more. Appreciating our customers and fighting every day to earn their loyalty inspires us to make better, safer, higher value cars, trucks and crossovers. We listen to them and make what they need (GM.Com. 2016) Diversity is an integral part of our culture and success; from our team to our customers we remain diverse and open minded. We have built the today’s GM on the strength of a diverse workforce, and we recognize the value of incorporating diverse backgrounds in our global workforce (GM.Com. 2016).

However, there are some cultures that have developed over the years that we must do away with. I have seen some dailies reporting that at the core of GM’s culture is what’s called the “GM salute – arms crossed and pointing fingers at others; avoiding responsibility (GM. Com. 2015).” I must say this is a wrong identity value. My right guess is that this GM Salute means that we do not want our employees to discuss problems. I want to encourage use to discuss and point out problems – today, tomorrow and in the future. We must create a sense of urgency in every situation and abandon the reluctance that we have in raising issues or problems.

Employees

For the moment I want to say that we have the right people in the right roles, and we have no reason for not achieving our goals and our team is prepared, skilled, and ready to drive the company (GM. Com. 2015). We shall create a Senior VP position for innovation to work with executive VP R&D, and will be strictly in charge of the lab and the innovation centers across the world. We shall also create a general manager for creative design to work hand in hand with the VP innovation and help us to achieve our short-term profit goals and long-term vision.

Please reply to the Professor and two students:

Professor

1. A) I guess I am not understanding. If the vision calls for 5M vehicles annually and a new plant in China, how are we currently staffed for this change? Does this mean we are overstaffed right now? How does this change structure? Who reports to whom? How do we handle the language and cultural issues for personnel who might spend time working in China? How do we develop our talent? Maybe I am missing it…just not clear on how we are good on people and yet have significant changes ahead that require staffing. Can you explain further? Thanks…
2. B) What makes China the best option? I have to admit I am a bit hesitate to agree with moving any more production offshore given President Elect Trump’s strict warnings about companies of our caliber doing so. I would hate for us to meet our goals but be burdened with heavy fines or penalties from the Trump Administration. Not to mention Trump’s personal opinion about China and their suspected currency manipulation.

As I have surveyed our factories I have heard and even seen the infamous GM Salute. My first reaction was how our culture has created and even allowed this behavior. You mentioned the need for a revamp of company culture to rid us of things like the GM Salute. I would suggest creating a discuss board that is open to all employees based on their respective department. Leadership could post open ended questions to encourage engagement. We could even open it up for all employees to submit potential questions.

Student 1

I believe a competitive advantage or an economic moat is challenging.  It entails the ‘thinking outside the box’ to take something existing and make it better.  This is what we are doing, we transform a product that has been historically the same, and makes it better, in our case more efficient and sustainable.  We are envisioning something better for the future and take pride that we can take actions.  Therefore, our vision is; to accelerate the advent of sustainable transportation by bringing compelling mass market electric cars to market as soon as possible (About Tesla, 2016).

Aware of our position in the auto industry, we knew that our first product was going to be expensive no matter what it looked like, so we decided to build a sports car.  But we never lost sight on our goal and strategy; we want to build compelling, affordable electric vehicles (About Tesla, 2016).

Our transparency disclosure is good for the company, its governance, and the shareholders.  We support businesses that want to use our technology in good faith to do so (Musk, 2014).  This allows us to connect with competitors and collaborate to move the technology forward.  It makes it possible to get insight that let us better understand the industry.  We want to keep the pace of innovation high and advance faster than anybody else.  We see such collaborations as critical.  I believe we have to take responsibility to include the community, employees and the environment with values like integrity and honesty.  We continuously challenge ourselves and strive for better, more efficient solutions.  For that reason we do have the following culture features:

• Get people involved:  We offer a very skilled leadership team that aligns with our Board of Directors business philosophy.  Such enthusiasm is infectious and allows us to count on people’s participation and tap into their knowledge and ideas.  It keeps us agile, and flexible (Alexander, 2015).
• Talk about engagement:  At Tesla, we talk about people’s engagement.  Therefore, we talk to teams directly and enhance the communication with other channels.  In our experience, the results are simply stunning.
• Eliminate barriers to participating:  With our transparency disclosure we are forced to live up to the expectations and foster open communication, limit bureaucracy and keep communication flowing.  We want, to be honest, and transparent with our customers as well as our employees.  This builds the foundation that encourages people to innovate and the continuous improvement of the business (Meyer, 2016).

We are an unconventional car manufacturer.  We want to maintain the culture we are proud of; that is closely related to the technology culture know at the Silicon Valley.  We want to stay nimble and retain our appetite for risk.  We are aware that we need to retain and recruit key leaders and A players to strategically important positions.  We want to keep hiring and keep improving our team that aligns with the corporate culture.  We want a team of people that are visibly excited and enthusiastic (Capstone, Week Three, Expert of Practice).  We are clearly looking for outside of the box thinker that are innovative.  Such culture can be a powerful force in bolstering an organization’s ability to transform (Organizational Change and Culture, Week One, Lecture One).  Like everything, this starts at the very top, and therefore with you.  We have focused from the outset on a strong board of directors that supports our business philosophy that I would describe as:

• Move fast:  Speed of innovation and new technology is our advantage.  We rely on an organizational culture that highlights the importance of employee’s capability to rapidly respond to trends and changes in the market.
• Do the impossible:  We keep developing cutting-edge products and technology.  We encourage people to think outside of the box.  We recognize new ideas and solutions, but we also emphasize the benefits of the unconventional (Meyer, 2016).
• Constantly Innovate:  Innovation is at the heart of Tesla and deeply rooted in our corporate culture.  We most continuously innovate and therefore invest in innovation to maintain the competitive advantage (Meyer, 2016).
• Think like owners:  We employ our organizational culture as a tool to support the overarching mindset (Meyer, 2016).  This allows employees to take responsibility and accountability and actively contribute to the performance of the business.
• We are all in:  Our culture unifies employees.  We encourage people to participate in teamwork.  We believe this reduces the risk of conflicts and drives collaboration.

With our mission and goal, ‘to accelerate the advent of sustainable transportation by bringing compelling and increasingly affordable electronic cars to the market’, we are engineering and designing, developing and manufacturing high-quality electric vehicles.  In the pursuit of achieving this goal, Tesla’s compensation, benefit and philosophy are to attract, retain and incentivize talented, qualified, and committed executive officers that share the passion for achieving the goal.  I believe that the incentive program should promote the success of the company and motivate them to pursue the corporate interests and objectives.  The program is clearly structured with easily measured performance goals that closely align the executive officer’s incentives with the long-term interest of the stockholders (“Tesla Proxy Statement,” 2015).

Our compensation program is reflecting the startup origin in that it consists primarily of salary and equity awards in the form of stock options.  Consistent with traditional compensation philosophy, we are not providing the senior executive officers with any cash bonus or severance provisions provided for continued salary or another benefit upon termination of employment (“Tesla Proxy Statement,” 2015).

In the short-term, we need to plan ahead, align people to our mission and vision. We need to keep hiring motivated people that are outside of the box thinker that are going far and beyond.  As we were successful hiring A players for our leadership and management team, our fast growth will make it challenging to keep up.  We will be challenged to maintain our culture that served us up to now.  Training becomes critical; we need to ‘infuse’ our culture but also we need to weed out misfits.

To clarify the role of each person, it would be helpful to create a culture statement that aligns people and gives behavioral guidance.  Important is for us to keep the speed of innovation and progress alive.  Encourage people to take actions that are aligned with our overall strategy.  Collaboration becomes crucial, therefore, we need to hire collaborator.  I’m convicted that we will have a profound impact on the creation of customers and economic value.  Currently, we are in the process of hiring key employees from Apple.  They have a variety of roles from engineering to technology and design.  The focus is more on the Silicon Valley; we believe to have access to a ‘different,’ they are driven, hard charging, and darn to be influential leaders (Higgins, 2015).  To avoid conflicts, we will introduce operating rules.

How will be conflict and disagreement being handled?

How will decisions be made?

How will results be measured?

I believe the long-term vision comes alive with the above steps.  Retaining good people becomes essential.  Those are the individuals who can lead by example and train newly hired employees.  Underlying beliefs reflect a behavioral pattern, workgroup norms and espoused values (Organizational Change and Culture, Week One, Lecture One).  Growth will test teams and culture- that is, how it feels to work at Tesla, how work gets done, and how decisions get made (NBV, Week Ten, Lecture One).  In the future, our talent pool will be young and driven people, full of energy that is infectious with incredible passion.  With aggressive timelines, we put well-placed pressure on the teams to move the process along and keep people busy.  Providing a continuous stream of new development.  Therefore, we are focused on the kind of change that leader instigate and drives forward so as to position the organization for greater effectiveness, relevance and success (Organizational Change and Culture, Week One, Lecture One).  Aware of the increasing complexity, we need to be mindful of the fact that complexity is self-inflicted.

References

Young, A. (2015). Tesla Motors 2014 Annual Report. Retrieved from http://www.ibtimes.com/tesla-motors-2014-annual-report-here-are-eight-tesla-motors-most-significant-risks-1831450

Musk, E. (2014). All Our Patent Are Belong To You. Retrieved from https://www.tesla.com/blog/all-our-patent-are-belong-you

Alexander, S. (2015). How Tesla Engages Its Employees. Retrieved from https://www.geteverwise.com/human-resources/how-tesla-engages-its-employees-to-drive-business-results/

Meyer, P. (2016). Tesla Motor’s Organzational Culture. Retrieved from http://panmore.com/tesla-motors-inc-organizational-culture-characteristics-analysis

About Tesla. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.teslamotors.com/about

Tesla Proxy Statement. (2015). Retrieved from http://ir.tesla.com/secfiling.cfm?filingID=1193125-15-142116&CIK=

Jason Wheeler. (2016). Retrieved from https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasonswheeler

Higgins, T. (2015). Want Elon Musk Hire You? Retrieved from https://electrek.co/2015/10/18/elon-musks-quest-to-hire-america-tesla-motors-spacex-and-solarcity-are-on-a-massive-hiring-spree/

Student 2

CVS Health our vision for our organization:

Team, our overall growth in 2015 was respectable in regards to our retail store footprint and the continued success of our pharmacy benefit manager business.  Analysts are currently projecting that our company’s 2015 sales will wind up showing 9.8% growth over 2014 results, with earnings per share growing at an even faster rate of 17%.

Growth Drivers:

Break down our business into two main operating segments:  Retail/Long Term Care and Pharmacy Services.  With 10,000 baby boomers turning 65 each day, both of these segments look poised for significant growth over the coming years.

Thanks to the recent closing of the $1.9 billion acquisition of Target’s pharmacy and clinic businesses, we now count more than 9,500 retail stores in our empire, with more than 1,100 of these stores also offering walk in medical services under the Minute Clinic name.  The Target deal significantly expanded our company’s footprint from the 7,800 retail stores and 900 clinics we owned at the end of 2014, and over the next two years our company plans on adding another 400 Minute Clinics to our network.  Even then, there appears to be plenty of room left for Minute Clinic to expand.

Another promising growth opportunity is our long term care.  We made a big push into this industry in 2015 with our $12.9 billion acquisition of Ominicare, a leading provider of pharmacy services to both the assisted living and long term care facility markets.  The acquisition should prove to be a significant growth opportunity over the years as the graying of the American population continues.

The outlook seem equally rosy for our company’s pharmacy benefit management business.  We added an impressive $11.5 billion worth of net new business to the division during the year.  Better yet, not only have we done a great job of winning our fair share of new business, but we are equally adept at holding on to the customers that are already in our network.

Rewarding Shareholders:

Our huge profitability gives us a lot of capital to work with, and the company has never been shy about sharing our riches with shareholders.  Over the past five years, our company has been very active in the open market repurchasing our shares, even while it has meaningfully increased our dividend.

If our projections prove to be accurate, our investors look poised to have a prosperous year and years to come.  I think this company deserves a spot on every health care focused investor’s radar.

Cultural Changes:

Create new jobs while providing best in class workplace.  With our more than 240,000 colleagues that contribute to our overall success, we must remain committed to supporting them through training and development opportunities, competitive wages and benefits, and best practice health and safety programs.

We must invest in career development opportunities to help our colleagues advance within our business.  We also invest in outreach programs to attract new colleagues from an increasingly diverse talent pool.  And we continue to invest in programs that keep our colleagues safe at work, as well as ensure that they uphold our workplace practices and polices.

Investing in a Future Workforce:

Demand for qualified health care professionals is rising at an unprecedented rate.  Attracting health care professionals to our company is critical to our ongoing success, and we have put programs in place to ensure we remain an employer of choice.

Cultivating New pharmacy Professionals:

We continue to invest in partnerships and programs that help attract youth to careers in pharmacy and health care.  One such program is Pathways to Pharmacy. Since 2006, this program has introduced more than 1 million under served young people to the world of pharmacy, inspiring them to consider careers in our industry by providing training through job shadowing or internships in our Pharmacy stores.

Our registered apprenticeship programs are another example of how we are opening doors to pharmacy careers. We also offer Pharmacy Residency & Fellowship Programs, which are designed to develop the professional and clinical skills of our pharmacists and cultivate their leadership talents.

Our investments in workplace development have helped us meet the need for good jobs in the communities  serve while also meeting our own need for colleagues who can deliver the best customer service in our industry.

References:

Brian Feroldi, 2016.  What to Expect From CVS Health Corporation.  The Motley Fool.

CVS Health Corporation, Copyright 1999-2016.

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