Running head: CONSULTING PROPOSAL #1
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Consulting Proposal #1
Melissa G. Cooper
Liberty University
BMAL 504 – Leading Organizational Change
CONSULTING PROPOSAL #1 2
Definition of Project
Leading cultural change that facilitates growth, speed and flexibility, and customer focus and
customer orientation is the desired end state for Joseph E. Seagram Sons, Inc. To reach the goal
of becoming the best managed beverage company Seagram must identify any key issues and
create implementation strategies to move forward with the process. In so doing, there should be a
plan that facilitates: an increase profit through global expansion, reengineering, diversification,
and change the culture and work process from within. As this proposal progress the examination
of the “Seagram Values” which were created by CEO and President Edgar Bronfman will be of
focus as well as how these values should be introduced and embraced. The summary provided
will provide an idea of the process of change for the Seagram organization as well as what is
expected to be an outcome through the vast reinvention of the organization.
Diagnosis of current situation
The current situation observed regarding the Seagram organization stems from the decision to
diversify outside of its core business. In the 1960s and 1970s Seagram owned a major oil
company and acquired other organizations including: DuPont, Martell S.A. (cognac), Tropicana,
Dole Food Company Inc, and the entertainment company MCA Inc. According to Todd D. Jick
and Maury A. Peiperl, “Seagram’s success for the late 1990s and beyond would derive from this
very different portfolio of business and a far more global enterprise. And its young, vibrant, and
visionary CEO and visibly taken significant risks and made major new bets for the company.”
(2011, p. 257). Although the diversification process enabled the organization to expand, the
1990s economy resulted in the decrease in liquor sales, an increase in taxes, and tighten
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regulations accompanied by a recession. The need for strategic intervention and redefinition is
imminent.
Recommendations
To become the “best managed” company Seagram is in need of reinventing. In so doing, the
organization brands, products and people needed to be approach differently. According to
Elizabeth Holloway, “...a deficiency in certain knowledge, experiences, or skills needed to take
advantage of opportunities. It prompts us to think about what supplementary training and
experiences can be put in place to help an underrepresented group be more successful.” (2015, p.
42). The recommendation to reinvent Seagram should be geared toward drawing in new
customers and retaining old customers by exploiting the new business products. The above
recommendation can only be achieved if the understanding that a culture change must be
implemented.
Implementation Plan
The first step in the implementation of strategic planning would be to identify future growth
opportunities. Although the goal for Seagram is to be the best managed organization, it is evident
that Seagram is in need of a culture change. “Reengineering” the Seagram organization requires
careful scrutiny in regards to streamline key business processes. Goll (1992) argues, “Business
Process Reengineering (BPR) is an approach for business process transformation and
unconstrained reshaping of all business processes, involved technologies, and related
management systems, as well as the accompanied organizational structure and values, to achieve
considerable advances in performance throughout the business.” (2014, p. 1133). This could be
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done by involving hundreds of employees that could redesign and understand the customer needs
regarding those key business processes.
A behavior change that should lead to an overall culture change for the Seagram organization
would have to include: innovativeness, cooperation, communication, and customer focus. The
missing link from diversification to reengineering would have to be creating common values in
which could serve as common goal for the Seagram organization and employees. According to
Joel Gehman, Linda K. Trevino, and Raghu Garud (2013):
Our research also has implications for the relationship between values work and
organizational governance. Organization theorists have long maintained that values are the
bedrock of organizational governance. The more ambiguous and uncertain the environment, the
more stable and enduring values are said to matter. Paradoxically, top managers are expected to
maintain an organization's values even as they continuously adapt to a changing world. (p. 106).
The implementation of a top-down bottom-up process will enable the organization to be
represented by a cross-sectional of the entire company and receive feedback from a cross-culture
mix of nationalities. The values that best represents the Seagram organization includes: consumer
and customer focus, respect, integrity, teamwork, innovation, and quality. A great way to
introduce these values to the Seagram organization would be to provided tools and resources that
aids this process. For instance employing the communication cascade which enables important
information from the top executives to disseminate through to the lower levels creates a culture
of open communication. This in turn enables 360 degree feedback from all employees to the top
executives which also improves the new found culture for the Seagram organization.
Summary
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In conclusion the Seagram organization has undergone significant changes that has created
the need to redefine, reinvent, and reengineer. Upon identifying and implementing these changes
the need for a culture change would mean developing employees that could support the ongoing
changes of the organization through a unified understanding of what the organization ultimately
would like to achieve. The values introduced above aligns with the internally indirect culture that
caters to the versatile consumer and customer base found within the expanded Seagram
organization. The recommendations and goals established for the organization are tangible and
should increase the audience and sales for the organization in the near future.
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References
Gehman, J., Trevino, L. K., & Garud, R. (2012). Values Work: A Process Study of the Emergence
and
Performance of Organizational Values Practices. Academy of Management Journal,
56(1), 84-112. doi:10.5465/amj.2010.0628
Hollaway, E. (2015). What Works? A Culture Change. ASEE Prism, 24(5), 42.
Huang, S. Y., Lee, C., Chiu, A., & Yen, D. C. (2014). How business process reengineering affects
information technology investment and employee performance under different
performance measurement. Information Systems Frontiers Inf Syst Front, 17(5), 1133-
1144. doi:10.1007/s10796-014-9487-4
Jick, T., & Peiperl, M. (2011). Managing change: Cases and concepts (3rd ed.). New York, NY:
McGraw-Hill.
