Projects One, Two, and Three

Questions One Through Three

Project One

The current pandemic has changed the perspective of value-based leadership, from a leadership system that is hard and sophisticated to that which is straightforward and critical. Before the pandemic value-based leadership seems hard and difficult to implement, especially in the competitive market, since leaders must jeep on falling back to some values. That is, leaders have principles and standards that guide their thinking and are motivated to appraise things that are important to them and others. Due to the competitiveness in the markets across industries, value-based leadership may not be the best since organizations must consider factors outside their principles and standards, to even the demands and changes in the markets. Nevertheless, Covid-19 pandemic has necessitated leaders to shed their zeal for performance, and lead others through standards and principles that guarantee safety for themselves, their teams, and customers. That is, they must abide by values that are for the beneficence of others and themselves, which is essentially value-based leadership.

It is possible to satisfy all internal stakeholders despite the variety of opinions concerning the pandemic. Firstly, leaders should appreciate the differences in opinions, since they give stakeholders a room to table their opinions. This helps in obtaining all background information, to access the root of the potential root of a conflict (Overton & Lowry, 2013). Then a leader may organize for the stakeholders to talk about their different opinions and be neutral to lead the team in reaching a consensus. According to Overton & Lowry (2013), leaders who foster collaborative solution finding, and are open to other people’s ideas have better conflict resolution strategies. Thus, these approaches enable satisfaction to stakeholders with different opinions about the pandemic.

Project Two

According to Tsai (2011), a corporate culture entails the beliefs and values that have been adopted by the organization’s stakeholders for a long time. Therefore, organizations that have an ideal corporate culture have all stakeholders bearing the same values.  They follow principles and standards which have been agreed upon as favorable for all stakeholders. That is, each one of them is satisfied with the organization’s standards and principles. In retrospect, if stakeholders are satisfied with the organization’s standards and principles, they have similar beliefs and values, thus enhance corporate culture.

As noted, creating a corporate culture requires aligning everyone to accept the values of the organization. Through effective communication, leaders (managers) may establish the culture by developing acceptable mission, vision, and values of the organization.

In case an organization is built-to-last, leaders must ensure the mission, vision, and values adopted satisfy north short term and long-term needs. In such a case, a classical visionary approach is critical, as leaders visualize the organization is its far future, and create a blueprint through which they shall model the present situation into an advantage (Reeves, Love & Tillmanns, 2012). However, focusing on both the current and futuristic performance may be resource consuming. That is why strategic alignment is critical, to save on time and resources while keeping stakeholders motivated and satisfied.

A corporate vision explains where the organization ought to be in the future. Mission explains how it will get there, and values explain the standards and principles of an organization. Therefore, both mission, vision, and values keep stakeholders focused on the goals, which increase performance. Besides, since the three enhance corporate culture, employees work together to achieve higher profits. Both excellent performance and increased profits expose the business to the local or external markets.

Project Three

First, I understand the time value of money. Before the course, I had heard people say that investing as early as now is better than later since one gets more value. It is through the course that I understand why. I have also learned the differences and use of qualitative and quantitative studies. Also, I have learned the differences and forms of businesses, especially organic growth and business combinations. I am also aware of the details concerning foreign currencies. Lastly, I have enhanced my understanding of companies, particularly regarding mergers.

In regard to my Marketing and Strategy Business Plan, I will apply the research, marketing, and management skills learned in the course. According to my plan – Business Strategy for Amazon, I ought to assess the M&A strategy, R&D activities, and customer appeal to Amazon web services, among other things. Therefore, the knowledge gained from the course will help in assessing the performance of Amazon Inc. and deriving recommendations. Besides, I will conduct my research in confidence, utilizing different types of data sets to come up with valuable results.

In the future, I look forward to applying some of the concepts learned as a board member of the organization. I will help the organization in measuring its performance, and the KPI for employees by creating financial models that project weekly, monthly, quarterly, and yearly performance. This will require the research skills that I have learned so that I can collect data for both qualitative and quantitative analysis. That way, I will be useful for the organization in identifying and explaining predictors or valuable recommendations.

References

Overton, A., & Lowry, A. (2013). Conflict Management: Difficult Conversations with Difficult People. Clinics In Colon And Rectal Surgery, 26(04), 259-264. doi: 10.1055/s-0033-1356728

Reeves, M., Love, C., & Tillmanns, P. (2012). Your Strategy Needs a Strategy. Retrieved 30 August 2020, from https://hbr.org/2012/09/your-strategy-needs-a-strategy

Tsai, Y. (2011). Relationship between Organizational Culture, Leadership Behavior and Job Satisfaction. BMC Health Services Research, 11(1). doi: 10.1186/1472-6963-11-98