Week_5_-_Topic_1__Initiating_and_Leading_Change_–_Gene_One_Scenario

Week 5 - Topic 1: Initiating and Leading Change – Gene One scenario Gene One is a company that is only eight years old and was started by founder and Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Don Ruiz. Gene One has recently enjoyed innovative success with a discovery that benefits the agricultural farming industry. This gene technology intervenes with the eradication of disease in tomatoes and potatoes. "As a result, farmers no longer needed to use pesticides when growing these plants and consumers were pleased to buy homegrown products untainted by chemicals" (Gene one, 2009). Teri Robertson, Gene One's chief technology officer and research scientist is credited with the discovery in the biotech division of the company. The discovery is acknowledged for helping Gene One to develop from a $2 million dollar company to the current $400 million dollar company of today. Gene One is coming up on an opportunity for their organization with the transition to an initial public offering (IPO). A milestone for any company is the issuance of publicly traded stock. While the motivations for an initial public offering are clear-cut, the means for doing so is complex. The opportunity they have is to develop an effectively performing culture all working towards the same goal. The company is in a transition phase. I believe that Gene One needs transformational leadership to realize the vision of taking the company into the public sector. Transformational leadership requires charisma, motivation, selflessness, and intellectual stimulation.  Research on charismatic and transformational leadership indicates that a clear and compelling vision is useful to guide change in an organization (Yukl, 2006). The key issue in this scenario is their organizational culture. The company consists of individuals who each have a passion in relation to working in the biotech industry. The Board of Directors for Gene One are accustomed to operating on a private level. A difficulty for Gene One is leadership development has not been one of their main priorities For example, Chief Executive Officer Don Ruiz, invested $2 million as well as his extensive biotech knowledge into the company and has engaged his leadership team, as well as an external consulting firm, to develop a sound strategy to ensure that Gene One not only serves the public but leaves a legacy of his work (Gene one, 2009). The biggest challenge for Don Ruiz is transforming Gene One. According to Robbins and Judge, managers are the primary change agents in most organizations. Don Ruiz founder and CEO express his desire to increase the company’s revenue growth by 40% by increasing the number of products their research and development team produces. Mr. Ruiz needs to use his leadership skills to guide the organization through the upcoming challenging times. He needs to provide a mission plan that will convey to his leadership team the organizations corporate vision and his path for success. This plan should include a leadership development program, IPO expertise, a strategic research plan and a marketing strategy. For those who are not on board with the new changes that will be occurring, there will have to be some new leaders added to the leadership team. His responsibility extends to the board of directors and the employees of Gene One. Don Ruiz needs to lead by example and rebuild trust and cohesiveness among leadership. Don Ruiz understands that a first step for Gene One is to build a shared vision. Allowing any employee not on board with the vision to speak their mind is one challenge to building an adaptive culture. They need to be able support the changes that will occur with the transition to an IPO that are going to help the company be successful. A leadership development program must be part of this company. The Human Resources Department will be in charge on creating this program even if it means hiring development professionals to ensure that the program effectively develops the company's leaders from the top down. The complete training will be implemented for all leaders within the organization to improve on all leadership competencies. Due to the decision to go public, the leaders have a fear that many workers will leave the company. Two key original members, Angela Thomas, VP, Technology and Teri Robertson, Chief Technology Officer, have announced their intentions to resign from Gene One on account of doubts about the company’s ability to move into a larger market. With the possibility that these specific individuals will leave, the leaders will have to modify the organization’s employees by hiring more specialized and committed persons. The difficulty for the organization is the research needed to be done and done efficiently and effectively which takes time. They will need to increase the number of viable research projects and need to have it done in a shorter time frame to increase their profits. To improve job satisfaction and behaviors of current employees, leadership development is crucial to a growing company. It is very important for Gene One to keep up on their potential leadership population through development programs and experience in the biotech field. Gene One needs to turn their issues into opportunities and identify those opportunities in order to develop solutions. Opportunities presented for Gene One is the organization has an opportunity to become a successful leader in the Biotech industry by offering IPO's, they have an opportunity to re-establish a leadership team that is on board with the IPO transition, and they have an opportunity to increase their revenue by a minimum of 40% growth yearly. Taking these opportunities and transforming them into solutions, Gene One can develop into a successful publicly traded company; however, making the transition to IPO and solving the above opportunities will surely generate some ethical dilemmas. By implementing the opportunities they have, Gene One faces ethical dilemmas. An ethical dilemma for organizations is one of social responsibility and expressive commitment. Gene One is an ethical organization and as such must exhibit social responsibility. The one common value shared by all stakeholders of Gene One is the organization’s success in the biotechnology industry. All of the members that have been there through the original stages of development and success need to have a renewed and shared vision for Gene One. Each of them needs to agree and have a developed corporate culture that reflects their desire to go public. Organizations do not operate flawlessly. Gene One also needs to have a more state-of-the-art strategic vision and company culture. Discord among the founding leadership will not advance the unity they will need to succeed at IPO. Their minor personality conflicts and differences need to be identified as a barrier to advancing the company. Looking for a professional IPO consultant that will help develop a more appropriate strategic vision and culture is suggested. Clarifying beliefs and assumptions and stating values is essential for establishing a successful and more accurate overall company vision. Organizational development (OD) is a collection of planned change interventions, built on humanistic democratic values, that seeks to improve organizational effectiveness and employee well-being (Robbins & Judge, 2007). Mr. Ruiz next step is a change in the structure of the organization, starting by asking Michelle Houghton, to take on a different role in the organization so that a new CFO with IPO expertise can be brought into the organization. The new CFO's knowledge should explain to the leadership team many of the unknowns which eventually can turn into action plans and results. Mr. Ruiz will need to communicate to Michelle her importance and strong contributions to the organization to avoid the risk of her leaving. Using his personal influence with Michelle will be Mr. Ruiz best alternative to get her to stay. The next step and key to success for Gene One is for Don Ruiz to get the research departments buy in and have them contribute with developing a plan of action for increasing innovations. Risk assessment or risk management is beneficial for securing capital to finance investments, and that greater risk taking behavior is not the primary channel through which risk management affects productivity. Gene one should evaluate the risks of the various situations that the company faces in the industry today. The risks of developing new products and services are positive and negative. The company can increase profits as well as brand image. Establishing a relationship with key partnering customers, other companies who utilize shared technology of Gene One will promote an environment of trust that ensures employee trust and comfort. Gene One has 36 months to become a publicly traded company. The company will be offered as an IPO to obtain the additional capital needed to ensure they not only serve the public but leave a legacy. They have potential to realize an annual growth profit of 40 percent through the process of developing new technologies to increase their customer base by a minimum of 50 percent. The process involves hiring new employees who will contribute to the economy. Gene One, has the opportunity to move into the next phase of their survival and become the number one giant in the biotech industry. Gene One's hope of implementing the decision to become an IPO can be forged with the transitional leadership approach. This will allow them realize their growth targets, establish the organization as a strong contender and show Wall Street that Gene One has the organizational and leadership capabilities to succeed as a public entity. IPO's continue as a way for growing private companies. Reference Robbins, S. P. and Judge, T. A. (2007). Organizational Behavior (12 ed.). (Pearson Education, Inc.) Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice Hall. University of Phoenix.(2009).Web link: Gene One scenario, Retrieved May 7, 2011, suggested readings. Yukl, G. (2006). Leadership in Organizations (6 ed.). (Pearson Education, In.) Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice Hall.