DB response

DB Response prompt ZAK

Chapter 7, Q1.

Customers are expecting more from their service providers. Rather than traditionally accepting boilerplate offerings from service providers, customers desire that service providers cater to their requests. Organizations providing services must keep up with the customer’s demand or risk losing business to others who will. Many service providers have been adopting lean principles to accommodate the needs of their customers in successful attempts to decrease waste, increase efficiency, improve customer service and satisfaction (Daft, 2016, p. 275). From online music providers, customers expect music tracks personalized for their tastes. From airlines, customers can expect preflight seat and meal selections. Amazon.com provides custom personalization to a customers’ home pages by placing personally directed advertisements and products which the customer is more likely to order from the company. Amazon book recommendations are personalized to the specific customer and are provided based upon previous books read. With customers expecting customized and catered experiences, companies need to keep up with this demand and embrace mass customization in order to obtain and retain customers.

Chapter 7, Q2.

While many facets of businesses may involve craft technology, it is still important for business schools to teach management. Some businesses which only expect their leaders to gain knowledge and expertise from experience, may be creating a bureaucratic and restricted model for their business. Companies which rely only on internal training for their leaders can miss opportunities from potential leaders coming in from the outside. Business schools which teach management can provide potential leaders with a foundation to draw from. Teaching management can expose students to issues and opportunities experienced by others, not just ones restricted to one specific company. Teaching management from a textbook is just one method of conveying information. Just as one would not necessarily be proficient in piloting a boat from reading a book, a textbook about doing so would provide the student with underlying concepts which could dramatically increase the success of the student when they move to an actual boat. This textbook based training would be further enhanced with some practical experience.

Chapter 8, Q1.

Technology has progressed allowing real time instant messaging and virtual meetings. High level managers can indeed expect technology to allow them to do their jobs with little face-to-face communication, but they should question if that is something they really want to do. There are currently methods available which could be used effectively to communicate with subordinates, employees and stockholders, such as recorded feeds which would be able to reach every associated individual. These however may not provide a sense of personalization from the managers. Leaders in an organization may resort to using technology and end up building a wall between themselves and their subordinates by becoming detached from the employees of the organization. It would not be unreasonable for an employee in this situation to feel that they are working for a virtual supervisor, much like an automated telephonic voice tree, with no sense of human interaction. In regards to improvements after implementation of lean business projects, “Managers said that one condition needed to keep improving was visible support from board members and senior leadership—without it, frontline workers would believe that the company’s enthusiasm for the effort has waned, and backsliding ensues.” (Holweg, Staats, & Upton, 2018). It could be more challenging for an employee to buy into the organization if they felt they were not valued for their individuality, but rather were merely just a non-personalized component of the organization, thus becoming more and more distanced from the organization.

Chapter 9, Q1.

Two recent examples of companies which are “busting bureaucracy” are Netflix and Take Haier. Netflix, a home video streaming service, started as a mail order DVD rental company which competed with video rental storefronts. It evolved into a personalized subscription video streaming service with traditional offerings, as well as its own movies and series. Netflix has over 75 million subscribers and continues to look to improving the future of the business. In regards to their internal business model, “Netflix leaders…believe that people do their best work when they don’t need to constantly ask for approval. They consider that when people have the freedom to make decisions, they’ll put more effort into making those decisions responsibly” (Wilder, 2018).

Haier is a Chinese based appliance maker which has seen a growth of profits by 23 annually for the past decade. Their CEO, Zhang Ruimin, seeing bureaucracy as a competitive liability, has “…led to an effort to build a company where everyone is directly accountable to customers, employees are energetic entrepreneurs, and an open ecosystem of users, investors, and partners replaces formal hierarchy” (Saelinger, 2018). Haier employees are divided into more than 4,000 microenterprises consisting of just 10 to 15 employees. The microenterprises of marketing and manufacturing platforms follow the standards of the business, but are flexible in their individual operations. They are self-managing, allowing them to make decisions and changes in the best interest of the company without needing approval from the CEO.

Chapter 9, Q2.

A no-growth philosophy of management should be taught in business schools. While it is ideal that businesses constantly grow and experience positive revenue, it is not always the case. Business leaders must be exposed to the concept that the business may experience periods of no-growth for such reasons as either due to the economy, failure to keep up with customer’s demands, or other reasons seemingly out of their control. Business leaders who recognize periods of no-growth before they happen, can be better prepared to deal with slowing in their business. Smaller businesses, such as a corner store, may be quite content operating in a no-growth model. Business schools should provide students with a virtual tool box of resources and information to draw from. Including no-growth management principles should be included in the tool box.

In regards to a biblical worldview of bureaucracy, “If you see the oppression of the poor, and the violent perversion of justice and righteousness in a province, do not marvel at the matter; for high official watches over high official, and higher officials are over them” Ecclesiastes 5:8 (NKJV). This verse is describing bureaucracy and illustrates that layer upon layer of supervision does not result in prosperity for those at the bottom.