for simplicity sake as “CEO”). It is the CEO’s job to ... Top Management Process...

1

Top Management Process Professor Barry Salzberg

Fall 2016 Office: Uris 711

EMBA Syllabus Office Hours: by email appointment

Saturdays [email protected]

Class time varies per class schedule attached

Course Overview

Top Management Process (TMP) is about the job of the Chief Executive Officer

(CEO)/General Manager, the leader of an organization who is ultimately responsible for the

organization (design & success), strategy (development & execution), operations (P&L

responsibility) and results. This job is quite different from an individual producer’s job, such

as a trader, or the head of a function such as marketing or finance, or the head of a business

unit. All the functions report directly or indirectly to the CEO/GM (hereinafter referred to

for simplicity sake as “CEO”). It is the CEO’s job to ensure that these interdependent units

are coordinated and integrated and executing a common strategy that is continually

responsive to a continuously changing market place.

CEOs succeed or fail based upon their ability to develop and articulate a beneficial strategy

and on how well they are able to design organizations, lead people within the organization,

influence parties outside of the organization and make effective business decisions to

operationalize strategy. How are people selected, developed and appraised? How do CEO’s

provide leadership? How are good working relationships promoted? How is strategy actually

decided? And then how is it executed? How are budgets set? How are these decisions made

in a world that is continuously changing, where multiple forces are at work and interacting

with each other, where data is often woefully incomplete, or just plain wrong, and

executives’ prior experience with the issues their organization faces is often limited? The

2

challenges are daunting. The course is one in which you will have a chance to study the

challenges that confront CEOs and to formulate approaches to those challenges so that you

will not be as daunted when you face them.

Good decisions (whether with regard to strategy, organization, operations or people) are

more likely if CEO’s appreciate that everything is connected to, and affects everything else

(“system”). And, people, events, issues and situations evolve and interrelate over time in

complex ways (“process”). In this latter regard, in TMP we will study three kinds of

process: leadership, organizational and group, and how they interact. This diagram below

illustrates how these three interact.

Leadership Process

-actions over time that shape

the work environment and lead

people to create, contribute and

achieve organizational purpose

Organizational Processes

- Decision making - Strategy - Resource allocation - People - Change

Group Process

-ways in which relationships develop

when people interact as they work

on company issues in

groups

CEO

3

Leadership Process: Leadership is a process because it is a series of choices, actions and

decisions over time that shapes the organization in which people work. It is about how

CEO’s bring people together and influence them to align efforts for the collective good of

the organization.

Of particular import is the relationship between a CEO and his/her leadership team because

they are connected in a reciprocal way: they influence each other’s feelings, thoughts and

actions. A hallmark of leadership is the ability of CEO’s to calmly encourage trust,

participation, and collaboration, and maintain good relationships in order to help their

organization work through tough issues and situations.

Organizational Processes: Much of a CEO’s decision-making is accomplished through

organizational processes such as strategic planning, performance reviews, business

development, programming of operations and budgeting. These organizational processes are

sequences of activities and tasks that unfold throughout the year and that are always

interacting with each other and on-going events. Every company uses these organizational

processes to plan what they are going to do, link all the different departments together in,

hopefully, common action, and, monitor progress. They are the principle ways through

which organizations do their work.

Group Process: The CEO’s top team needs to be involved in these organizational

processes. Increasingly, as markets and organizations have become more complex and

dynamic, successful CEO’s work with and through their top team. They have learned that

no one person can possibly possess the experience and expertise needed to create and

implement strategy, lead people and coordinate operations alone. When their team works

well, CEO’s gain diversity of viewpoint and perspective. Realizing these benefits though is

not easy. Group process is about the multitude of ways in which people interact with each

other and the quality of their working relationships when they are working on company

challenges.

4

Getting these three processes right is in fact quite difficult. It’s not just that markets are

difficult to read and unpredictable. Organizations, made up of people, are also

unpredictable. Anxiety is more commonplace in our organizations then we typically like to

think. While anxiety can motivate people, it can lead to stress and impaired functioning.

Work relationships can break down. Inter and intra group conflict can break out.

Information may not get to the right people. Functional and business silos can develop and

impede discussion and coordination. Decision-making deteriorates. The interaction of these

processes, in light of the above, makes leading a complex organization among the most

challenging of callings.

The objective of TMP is to improve your capabilities to lead complex organizations at the

highest levels. The course is organized into six modules, of which the first two focus on

values based leadership, what it “takes” to become a CEO and transition issues; the next

three modules study systemic thinking, “the process mindset” and specific general

management responsibilities and the last provides time for reflection and analysis regarding

your personal values, leadership style, and lessons from the course. In each of the first five

modules we study, simultaneously, the leadership process, the organizational process and the

group process. Our discussions illustrate, however, that organizational processes and group

process can only be as effective as the leadership process and the resulting work

environment that the CEO has created. In other words, leadership process is primary.

Module 1: Values based CEO leadership and desired attributes and experiences to be CEO

Module 2: Making the transition to CEO

Module 3: Systemic thinking and the process mindset

Module 4: Decision-making processes

Module 5: Strategic, resource allocation and people processes

Module 6: Reflections and course takeaways

5

In Module I we will first explore the whole concept of “values” and the importance values

have in becoming a successful CEO. We will explore the use of values to navigate to

success (including the creation of your own values tree hierarchy) and discuss the Man Jit

Singh case. We will then set the stage for the balance of the course and discuss what

organizations are looking for when they select a CEO. We will also spend time on leading

by influence and attributes of the leadership team of the CEO, by exploring the Winslow and

Harsa cases.

In Module II, we will discuss the challenges in making the transition from an individual

producer to a CEO. Almost one in two CEO’s fail, usually within the first 18 months. The

major “derailers” are poor working relationships, inability to build and lead a team and

difficulty in adapting to the broad scope of the job. We will explore the challenges of

succeeding as CEO through discussing the experiences of Silvio Napoli-a former corporate

planner in his first assignment as a CEO, and, Paul Levy emphasizing the challenges he

faced in the turnaround situation he found himself in. The focus will be on the challenges,

opportunities and potential pitfalls of making the CEO transition.

In Module III we will introduce systemic thinking and the process mindset and explore how

they can help new CEO’s handle the challenges of their job. Systemic thinking helps CEO’s

start with the total situation and learn all the many factors at work in a situation and how

they might be influencing each other. It lessens the tendency to focus only on an individual

or a single department to understand poor performance. Systemic thinking also helps CEO’s

move from largely a technical orientation to a leadership orientation.

The process mindset facilitates systems thinking. Process is inherently dynamic and

comprehensive-it helps identify interactions, how situations are evolving and the broad

scope of action needed for effective operations. We will discuss the Friendly Fire and

Challenger launch cases.

6

In Module IV, we study decision-making processes. These processes deal with how CEOs

and their top team create and consider alternatives, handle conflict, build on different

viewpoints and decide. Usually, decisions at the level of a CEO, such as future strategy,

people or technology choices, are important and controversial. Members can get over-

invested in their opinions. Anxiety can rise which leads members into protective behavior.

Power struggles can emerge. Top teams can become polarized. “Win-lose” behavior erupts.

Alternatively, particularly if the CEO’s approach to leadership is unilateral, members get

intimidated, refrain from speaking-up and go into a state known as “group think.”

Either way, leaders and members don’t see that their working relationships have in fact

broken down. Their communication with each other is not open, honest and trusting. Their

differences are not explored. They don’t actually understand the situation enough to make a

good decision. What’s worse is that leaders and members are often unaware (or unwilling to

admit to themselves) that their relationships have broken down and impaired their decision-

making.

We will discuss how CEO’s can design and lead decision-making processes so that

relationships within their top team enable open, honest, candid discussion. Topics include

how CEO’s can access the talent in their top team, surface conflict, help members build on

each other’s experience and change attitudes and behaviors, including their own. We will

discuss the the Bay of Pigs/Cuban Missile Crisis, and the Mount Everest case.

In Module V we focus on strategic processes. It’s through these processes that the decisions

are made on the company’s future direction and goals, how it will satisfy customers better

than competitors, how all the functions, geographic units and levels will be aligned to

implement the strategy and how progress will be monitored. We will discuss the design and

leadership of strategic planning processes, scenario planning, crisis management and new

business creation.

7

We will study the challenges in resource allocation processes. Here is where companies

identify and budget specific actions and projects that are needed to execute the strategy.

Budgeting surfaces conflicts which is useful. It can also deteriorate into a zero sum game in

the absence of good relationships and leadership process. We will experience the challenges

of budgeting, and discuss ways of handling them.

We will also discuss the important responsibility of developing people and building

organizational culture. Many strategic and performance failures come from people and

teams not being led in a way that helps to actualize the company’s strategy. Part of our

discussion here will be on the performance management process in helping to build

appropriate organizational capability. We will debate the parameters of an effective review

process for CEOs, and engage in a role play around the Board review and evaluation process

of its company CEO.

In this module we will further discuss The Deloitte University case, the Joyus case, strategic

planning at UPS, engage in a role play around the BCPC Internet strategy, and, and engage

in a role play around and discuss the Chocolate Cordon Rouge case.

Finally, in Module VI, the very last class of the semester, we will focus on your own

leadership values and emphasize what you leverage after this course, and what you need to

rethink, and instill in what you do to improve your qualifications to become CEO. We will

review the journal entries you prepared throughout the course and provide a classroom

opportunity to summarize the most significant course takeaways.

Throughout the course, we will invite guest speakers to share experiences with you on the

topics we are discussing. Most often these Individuals will be CEOs or Board Chairman,

but we might have other titled individuals as well.

8

Course pedagogy

Classroom discussion is the primary pedagogy. So it will be key that you thoroughly

prepare the cases, watch the videos and movies, as appropriate, and engage in frequent and

high quality participation in class discussion. This also means staying off electronic

distractions, participating with enthusiasm in simulations and exercises, and avoiding any

comments or behaviors that take away from the learning environment. Participation will be

judged in each class, and it is quality over quantity that I am looking for. However, there are

three written assignments and you will be using a learning journal to document

contemporaneously some of your learnings.

The graded components of your final grade is as follows:

Class participation 40%

Individual assignment #1 on values 15%

Individual assignment #2-CEO interview 15%

Learning Journal entries 15%

Individual assignment #3 15%

9

Individual Assignment 1

Values, values hierarchy and leadership philosophy

Due 9/17/16… TIMELINESS COUNTS IN DETERMINING YOUR GRADE. ANY

SUBMISSION BEYOND ONE WEEK AFTER THE DUE DATE WILL RECEIVE

ZERO POINTS.

My Leadership Philosophy and Values Hierarchy.

This assignment is worth 15% of your grade. The recommended length of the assignment

is 1500-1800 words exclusive of a pictorial representation of your values hierarchy which

is also required as part of this assignment, and which should be familiar to you as part of

the CORE classes you took with Prof. Ingram.

For this assignment, you are to share your own “value tree” and then explain it-in the

context of how you would apply those values in the workplace (the most important part of

the assignment). The explanation is in essence, your leadership philosophy. In writing

your philosophy you should keep in mind that the ultimate audience for it is you, even

though I will grade it. Articulating your leadership philosophy forces you to come to

grips with the realities of your stated values. It is reasonably easy to articulate your values

in the abstract, but much harder when you are forced to explain precisely what applying

those values will likely mean in the workplace.

For this paper:

1. CORE- Who you are is more important than who you think you should be.

2. ASPIRATIONAL- Who you want to be may be unavoidable to discuss. If you do

discuss this, please be honest and talk about the “gaps” from who you are to who you

want to be.

3. Tell stories. Give examples. Do not make this an academic technical paper.

4. Clarify anything you need to with me before you put the first word on the paper.

10

Individual Assignment 2

The CEO interview

Due October 22 (complete the interview as early as possible). TIMELINESS COUNTS IN

DETERMINING YOUR GRADE. ANY SUBMISSION BEYOND ONE WEEK AFTER

THE DUE DATE WILL RECEIVE ZERO POINTS

This assignment is worth 15% of your grade.

The recommended length of the assignment is 1500-1800 words.

This assignment requires that you identify a CEO-past or present- (could be the CEO of your

most recent or soon to be employer), interview the selected CEO, provide a summary of the

interview, and provide a narrative of your reflections from the interview.

The summary of the interview is fairly straightforward. It should, of course, reflect the

conversation you have. This summary could be about 1/4 of the length of the paper. The

other 3/4 should include your reflections of the value you derived from the interview. This

part is not so straightforward. Here, I am asking you to think of the implications of what

you were able to derive from the interview. For some of you, the interview might provide

more understanding of what strategic thinking is. For some, the interview might give you

some insight about the values of the leader, or about the leader’s leadership philosophy

(whether or not the leader even is cognizant of having a philosophy). For still others, the

interview might alert you to the difficulties or rewards of the transition from a functional or

channel leadership role to a general leadership role in a complex organization. All of you

are asked to reflect and convey those reflections using thoughtful, carefully constructed and

presented narrative. Please summarize these reflections at the end of the paper.

Please ensure that the person you are interviewing is in fact a CEO/general manager, as we

are discussing in this course. Avoid interviewing heads of functions such as CFOs, leaders

of HR, IT etc., however superb their leadership practices may be.

How you conduct the interview is up to you. However, consider the following introduction

to the interview.

11

“I am a participant in a course about making the transition to general management-the leader

of an organization with P&L responsibility. The professor of the course, Barry Salzberg,

has asked each of us to interview a CEO to learn about the challenges, opportunities, and

potential pitfalls of making the transition from a functional or specialist’s job to CEO. I’m

interested in learning how you coped with the transition and what makes a CEO’s job

different from previous jobs—particularly if you perceived the intellectual and emotional

challenges to be different.”

As a general rule, you might want to anticipate crafting an interview that will require no

more than 30-45 minutes. Also, please emphasize that, if desired, we will maintain the

CEO’s anonymity. You can advise the CEO that neither you nor Professor Salzberg will

identify the name of the interviewee in the body of the class assignment or while discussing

the interview, if this is important to the CEO.

IF YOU CANNOT ABSOLUTELY IDENTIFY A CEO TO INTERVIEW, please discuss

with me. I will help you find one suitable for the interview.

Some possible questions for you to consider while crafting your interview:

1. At what point in your career did you move from a functional or specialist’s job to CEO?

2. Are you still in transition? How long does the transition process take?

3. Did you-explicitly or implicitly-take into your account your values when you were

making the decision to transition to CEO?

4. How would you describe, briefly, the context in which you became CEO? Prompt with

questions like: How competitive was the market? Were customer requirements changing?

Was technology changing? Was the performance of the organization improving or

declining? What was the state of the morale of the various stakeholders? Was the

organization healthy?

5. What did the people who appointed you reveal to you regarding the challenges or goals

of the organization that was new to you? How accurate were these revelations? What

qualities do you possess that you feel contributed positively to the decision making

process to choose you as CEO?

6. What work and personal challenges did you face as you were making the transition?

12

7. What did you find you had to be sensitive to that you had not had to be sensitive to in

your prior role?

8. How did you have to change your approach to work and to people?

9. What was the most difficult part of the transition?

10. How comfortable are you working in areas where you perceive there to be a high level of

ambiguity and uncertainty?

11. What advice would you offer others about to make a similar transition as you did?

12. What leadership lessons regarding decision-making and/or team effectiveness can you

share?

Assignment 3

Course Reflections

Due December 17, 2016 TIMELINESS COUNTS IN DETERMINING YOUR GRADE.

ANY SUBMISSION BEYOND ONE WEEK AFTER THE DUE DATE WILL RECEIVE

ZERO POINTS

This assignment is worth 15% of your grade.

The recommended length of the assignment is 1500-1800 words.

Recollect your professional experiences and select a situation whereby your firm (or an

organization with which you have some—preferably intimate—familiarity) had to make a

critical decision that involved deliberation of group members (or some type of consultative

decision-making process). The experience might or might not directly involve you.

Describe the context (size of firm, culture, leadership philosophies) and the stakes of the

decision (i.e., what was to be potentially gained or lost based on the decision). This should

be no more than ¼ of the paper’s length.

13

Considering the course learnings, explain also: the method the firm used to make the

decision, the outcome, whether and why you believe the mechanism was excellent, or if not,

how you would improve upon it. In your response, consider the impact of systemic thinking

and process orientation. Refer to some of the key TMP slides we explored during the

semester. Identify at least 5 learnings from our course that are relevant to your discussion.

This should be no less then ½ the paper’s length.

Please explain in detail, whether the process and decisions made paralleled or was contrary

to your values and why.

14

LEARNING JOURNAL

This assignment, which is throughout the course, is 15% of your final grade. I will review

your journal entries twice a year, however, a journal entry is required to be submitted on

canvas for each class session in accordance with the due date identified on canvas for it.

TIMELINESS COUNTS IN DETERMINING YOUR GRADE. My first review will be in

the middle of October and the second will be at the very end of the semester. The first

review will be to provide you feedback on the quality of what you entered so far and

pointers to improve your entries for the balance of the semester. The essence of this

assignment is twofold: to help you reflect upon what you have read and what you heard in

class AND to be a reference book of sorts for you in the future to remind you of some

important leadership concepts. The second review, combined with the first, will be part of

assessing your final grade.

Capture key learning points-and apply them in a way that is abstract from the case/exercise

we discussed in class. For example, record insights about leadership and top management

processes of the leaders we study, not about the specifics of the case itself.

Translate what you learn into a form that works for you. Make them your own so they stick

with you. For example, translate how the learning from a case would translate into the

specific industry or type of company you anticipate joining upon graduation. Tell a story.

I would expect each entry that you make to take no more than 30 minutes. You may use any

method to record in your journal: drawings, written notes—anything that works for you to

maximize your learning, reflections and recall. In grading your journal entries, I will be

looking for demonstration of learnings from the class, quality of insights, and

relevance/customization to you personally.

There will be a total of 12 journal entries required for the semester, one for each week.

Remember each one is due by midnight three days following the class to which it relates.

15

SESSION 1 (First half)

9/10/16

To assist you in Assignment 1, and, in both thinking through the concept of values based

leadership and what a values tree looks like:

Read the article “Living Your Values, Part I ”, and optionally “Part II.” It will

provide you a good and reasonably easy to understand perspective regarding your

values hierarchy and tree. Take a look at the values tree construction slide

provided on canvas, as an example of such a tree and the interaction of values with

goals and operationalizing actions related thereto.

Read the article “Make Your Values Mean Something” by Patrick Lencioni.

2. Readings and Preparation for Session 1

In our first session, we will introduce, and set the context for the course. Following this

discussion we will discuss our first case, Man Jit Singh at Sony Entertainment

Television, Rev. January 2014, 9-414-028. Please read it in its entirety and be prepared

to discuss the case in class. We will discuss this case in the context of the Lencioni article

with the objective of both a) understanding values as a key component of effective

CEO/General Manager leadership and b) assessing the need of integrating core values into

every corporate process.

As you prepare your thinking of the Singh case, please consider the following:

1. What was the culture of the organization before Man Jit Singh arrived as CEO?

2. What was Man Jit Singh’s leadership philosophy? What impact did his relentless

demonstration of that philosophy have?

3. What did Man Jit Singh do to begin the turnaround of the company?

4. How effective was the MC? What was Man Jit’s explanation of that effectiveness and

what did he believe needed to be done to address the issues he saw?

5. Were the corporate “values” introduced by Smriti and Man Jit, organizational core

values or aspirations? How successful would you anticipate this approach to be and

why?

16

6. Do you view the performance management linkage to values as a good thing?

Provocative?

7. Why do you suppose Man Jit didn’t seek to introduce the values weighting in the

performance management system sooner?

8. What do you make of the relative silence by the MC in the reactions to Man Jit’s

proposal?

17

Session 1 (Second Half)

9/10/16

CEO attributes, experiences

Readings:

In Touch With the Board

Making it to the Top

Nine attributes that differentiate CEOs

Russell Reynolds Associates

The Seven Skills You Need to Thrive in the C-Suite

By Boris Groysberg, March 18, 2014, Harvard Business Review

Preparation:

Prior to class, and as an assignment in preparation for class due three days before class,

please identify your top two or three attributes and experiences that you believe should

weigh heavily in selecting a CEO from among highly qualified candidates. As a nudge to

get thinking, please read the above two articles.

18

SESSION 2 (First Half)

9/17/16

Readings:

1. Harsa Industrie AG, by Donald C. Hambrick, 2016 (Penn State Smeal College of

Business)

2. Winslow Stylings (A), by Donald C. Hambrick, 2015 (Penn State Smeal College of

Business)

Assignment:

Please be prepared to discuss both cases (they are very short) during the first half of session

2. In reading through the cases and the questions posed in the cases at the end of each, think

about your work experiences.

1. Come prepared to class to discuss at least one story of where you (or you saw others)

leading by influence and what worked well and what didn't work well in

accomplishing the assigned mission.

2. Come prepared to class to discuss at least one story of where you (or you saw others)

selecting people for leadership roles and to discuss the approach taken and both the

results and impact.

19

SESSION 2 (Second Half)

9/17/16

Silvio Napoli case

Reading: Silvio Napoli at Schindler India (A) 9-303-086; Rev. November, 2006

Preparation:

In preparation for the class be prepared to discuss the following questions about the case:

1. Was Silvio Napoli the right choice for general manager of Schindler’s India

operations?

2. What personal and professional experience’s in Silvio’s earlier life might help or

hinder his successful transition to general management?

3. What is your assessment of Silvio’s attempts to date to transition from a staff position

as his first time as a general manager? Cite some examples to illustrate this

assessment.

4. What do you see in the group process involving Silvio and his senior managers as

they worked on creating this new company that you find helpful and what do you see

that troubles you?

5. Put yourself in Silvio’s place: How would you handle the situation that has arisen

over the order for a nonstandard glass rear wall elevator? How would you deal with

the issues of the revised transfer prices and limited technical cooperation from the

European plants?

6. What does Mr. Schindler mean, “The emotions start when you have to build what you

have written.” (page 11) What emotions, if any, is Silvio experiencing? If you think

he is experiencing them, what is your assessment of how he is handling them?

20


9/24/16

Guest Speaker

SESSION 3 (SECOND HALF)

9/24/16

Paul Levy Taking Charge

Reading: Paul Levy Takes Charge (A) case, Rev. 1/14/2003

Paul Levy Takes Charge CD-ROM, Rev. 4/23/2009, product No. 303-058

(which will be handed out in class in a prior class)

Preparation:

In the aggregate, reading the case (first) and then watching the video, and finally reflecting

upon it, will take about three hours. The video has multiple story lines that are organized in

three ways: chronologically, activity and theme. I recommend that you first concentrate

your preparation on the “calendar of events.” The calendar covers the entire nine month

period allowing you to see what he was doing month by month. Critical activities are listed

on individual, monthly calendars according to the day that they occurred; each is further hot

linked to the relevant video clips, emails, reports and press articles.

21

After getting the time line of his actions in your mind, then select according to your interest

from the topics under “activity threads” and “themes.”

In further preparation for class consider the following questions:

1. How would you describe the situation Levy inherited at the BIDMC? What challenges

did he face? What led previous turnaround efforts to fail?

2. How did Levy get started in his new job? In particular, what were his objectives and

what did he accomplish?

a. Prior to his first day at work?

b. On his first day?

c. During his first week?

3. What, if anything, was distinctive about the way Levy went about formulating,

announcing, and implementing the recovery plan? How did he overcome resistance?

4. How did Levy tackle the problem of the BIDMC’s “curious inability to decide?”

5. How would you compare process in BIDMC before and after Levy’s arrival?

6. In describing his approach to organizational leadership, Levy speaks of the “CEO as

teacher.” What is your view of defining the CEO’s job in this way under these

circumstances?

7. How do you think his transition went? For him? For BIDMC? For the staff?

22


10/8/16

Friendly Fire

Reading: Friendly Fire case, 9-404-083, Rev. June 7, 2004; ABC news video clip

regarding the incident

Preparation:

Read the case first, and then watch the Friendly Fire ABC news clip. Be prepared to discuss

the following questions about the case:

1. How did this tragedy occur?

2. How can CEO’s best think about causality when facing poor performance?

3. If one takes a systemic view where does a CEO best invest his or her time and on

what activities should they focus?

4. How would you describe the Operation Provide Comfort-Combined Task Force

system?

5. What is the organizational process by which the OPC-Combined Task Force is

coordinated and integrated?

6. How would you assess inter-group relations in the OPC-Combined Task Force?

7. How did Brigadier General Pilkington perceive his job as Commander, Combined

Task Force?

8. Brigadier General Pilkington has concluded, “This kind of thing (the shoot-down)

could not be permitted to happen again.” He has resolved to write “tighter

regulations, lots of them.” (Case, page 12). Is he on the right track?

23


10/8/16

Group Process in the Challenger Launch Decision (A)

Reading: Group Process in the Challenger Launch Decision (A), Rev. October 21, 2002,

9-603-068

Preparation:

Consider the following questions to help you get ready for class discussion:

1. How would you characterize the broader context surrounding the January 1986

teleconference? What impact might that have on the group's decision-making process? If

you were a GM leading such a meeting, what would you have to be careful about?

2. The teleconference is scheduled for tonight-the eve of the launch of Challenger. There are

three principle executives in the teleconference-Roger Boisjoly, Member of the Seal Task

Force and O-ring expert, Robert K. Lund, VP Engineering and Boisjoly's boss, both of

whom work for Morton Thiokol and Larry Mulloy, Manager, Solid Rocket Booster Project,

NASA. What issues might each of these three executives be facing?

We will read and watch a video re-enactment of this teleconference.

25

SESSION 5 First Half

10/15/16

GUEST SPEAKER

SESSION 5 Second Half/Session 6 First

Half

10/15/16, 10/22/16

Thousand Days and Thirteen Days

Readings:

Thousand Days (excerpts)

Thirteen Days (excerpts)

Short briefing on the movie timeline

Thirteen Days movie

Preparation:

1. Using these first hand reports of two major crises faced by the Kennedy

administration, please compare the way that the Bay of Pigs and Cuban Missile Crisis

task forces operated. In particular, what distinguishes:

a. The two task forces’ procedures for decision-making (especially to problem

solving, exchanging information, and handling conflict)?

b. “Below the surface” issues in the two task forces?

c. Kennedy’s leadership of the Bay of Pigs group and the Cuban Missile Crisis

ExCom group? What parts of JFK do we see in action in the Bay of Pigs group

and the Cuban Missile group?

26

d. Systemic forces such as in the two contexts, the predispositions and values of

the members of the two groups and how they might have influenced the group

process?

2. Can you think of a phrase that describes for you the Bay of Pigs group and their

approach to decision-making?

3. What are the implications of your analysis for leading problem solving and decision-

making groups?

It is important that you identify any past events, experiences, and relationships listed in the

“briefing” document or from your own or family experiences of these times (it’s possible

that your parents might recall school practices about what to do in the case of a nuclear

attack-crouch under their school desks!) that you think could influence how President

Kennedy will conduct himself in leading the ExCom BEFORE you watch the movie. What

do you think might be going on above and below the surface? What pressures are on

President Kennedy?

Then think about what you want to observe in a group’s micro-behavior (mode of

communication within the group, relationships among the participants, body language, facial

expressions, phrasing, tone, etc.) and what you want to observe in JFK’s behavior (his

overall stance-think where he is on a continuum running from authoritative to catalyst at

different points as the movie unfolds, how he handles differences, his emotional state, to

what extent is he affected by the ExCom group and so forth).

DURING the movie:

Take notes during the movie about scenes that you think are particularly meaningful and

also note your own feelings at different points in the movie. Your senses, your feelings IN

THE MOMENT can be very good indicators of what might be going on in a group meeting.

Questions to consider:

1. What was going on systemically, inside and outside the President and his ExCom

group? Did you detect any thoughts or expressions of feelings that indicated to you

that there were powerful forces at work below the surface?

27

2. What are your speculations about the pressures on President Kennedy as he faces

decisions about the USSR missiles in Cuba?

3. To what extent do you speculate that President Kennedy understood the system that

he was in? How do you think President Kennedy perceived his role within that

system?

4. What conclusions can you make about how President Kennedy was thinking and how

this thinking guided him through the Cuban Missile experience? To what extent did

events, people, and relationships influence his thinking and his actions in his past?

5. Focus on President Kennedy’s micro-behavior:

a. What do you see him doing? Make a note of specific actions that caught your

attention.

b. To what extent is he differentiated from the “below the surface” issues in the

ExCom and to what extent does he get hooked by them? In your opinion, is he

aware of when he has been hooked or an attempt has been made to hook him?

c. How would you characterize his question asking? More specifically, please

bring to class an example of a closed question and an example of an open

question and please bring an example of a systems question.

d. To what extent does he listen and how would you characterize his listening?

e. How and when does he express his views? Are his statements declarative or

hypothetical?

f. What do you estimate is President Kennedy’s balance between leadership

process (focusing on how the decision will be made) and content (focusing on

what the decision should be)?

6. How, if at all, was President Kennedy aware of his own behavior and his impact on

the ExCom’s group process?

7. Can you think of a phrase that describes for you the ExCom group and another phrase

that captures President Kennedy’s approach to leadership?

Examples of micro behaviors in the movie:

JFK, Bobby Kennedy and Kenny O’Donnell on the patio outside the White House

setting up the group membership and process

Bobby Kennedy to Kenny O’Donnell: “All agree, the diplomatic option wont work.”

JFK “…something immoral about abandoning your own judgment”

JFK “…is this the Jt. Chief’s recommendation?”

RFK “give it to me, no matter how crazy”

JFK to General LeMay, “What will the Soviets do when we attack?”

KO’D “I’ve got a bad feeling,” JFK “I’m taking charge”

JFK “Do not second guess me into WWIII”

JFK “I’m not taking that bait”

28

JFK and RFK conversation on Jupiter missiles in Turkey after asking KO’D to leave

the oval office.

R. McNamara: “new language”

29


10/22/16

Mount Everest 1996

Reading:

Mount Everest -1996 case, Rev. 1/6/2003, 9-303-061.

It is also recommended that you view the Miramax movie, Everest, filmed during the 1996

tragedy. David Breashears, the #1 mountaineer/cinematographer in the world, directs the

movie, Liam Neeson narrates…. and the soundtrack is good! And/or view last year’s movie

remake of the Everest disaster.

Preparation:

Please be prepared to answer the following questions:

1. What led to this tragedy?

2. How did Fischer and Hall perceive their roles?

3. What is your evaluation of Fischer & Hall as leaders of organizations? Identify their

strengths and weaknesses, in your opinion. What is their theory of being a general

manager?

4. What are the lessons from this case for general managers in businesses?

30

Session 7 (First Half)

10/29/16 BCPC Internet Strategy Team

Reading:

1. BCPC Internet Strategy Team case, October, 2003,

9-604035

2. Your individual role description. Roles are selected randomly, and will be distributed

to you in advance of class to give you time to prepare. Please do not share

information about your role with other role players.

Preparation:

Read the case as well as your individual role description that is meant to familiarize you

with the views and experiences of your character. There are 6 executive roles- each of

whom is a participant in a simulated, senior management, multi-functional group involved in

developing recommendations for a new service (which will occur in class):

1. VP Business Development and leader of the Internet Strategy Team, Chris Berkowitz

2. Director of Operations Management, Leslie Rhee

3. VP Finance, Dana Jones

4. VP Marketing, Kim Wilson

5. Senior Project Director of Information Services, Jan Trow

6. Director of Human Resources, Terry Maneri

When teams meet there will also be an observer (7).

Think carefully about what your recommendation might be and how you will play your role

during the classroom simulation.

31


10/29/16

Guest Speaker


11/5/16

CEO Interview Discussion

Preparation:

Review your notes and paper submitted prior to our first class. Be familiar with the

content and prepare to discuss elements of the interview, your “aha” moments from

the interview and your personal reflections.

Please consider the following to stimulate our class discussion:

o How does “your” CEO/General Manager compare to the leaders we have

discussed thus far? What are the similarities? What were the approaches taken

by him and how do they compare to these leaders?

o How do you think they made the transition from content to process? From

individual producer to a systemic thinker?

o If you were able to provide the CEO/GM advice before transition, knowing

what you know today, what would you say?

o What role if any did “values” play in connection with “your” CEO/GM’s

transition? What two or three values resonated in what your CEO/GM did in

transition?

32


11/5/16

Building a Developmental Culture: The Birth of Deloitte University

Readings: Building a Developmental Culture: The Birth of Deloitte University, N9-123-

456, June 4, 2010

Preparation: Please read the Deloitte University case. As I am in essence the

protagonist in the case, it’ll be an interesting read, and class discussion!!!

For class discussion, please come prepared having considered the following questions:

What defines culture in a firm like Deloitte? Where do cultures come from in

organizations?

If you were me, would you have made the call to build DU? Why? What are pros and

cons of doing so under the facts of the case?

What were the unique external environmental factors at work throughout the period

that did affect or could have affected the decision-making? How do you factor such

external consequences into the decision-making?

What were the internal obstacles to getting to a yes? After identifying the obstacles,

what alternatives do you see for overcoming them?

With the various external and internal factors coming together, with imperfect facts,

CEO decision-making becomes very complex. Have you ever faced a challenge like

this in your career? What did you do?

What were some of the approaches taken to drive cultural change...during the decision

making process and afterwards?

After the decision to go ahead, what do you think were the key steps that were needed

in order to drive an effective execution?

How would you measure the effectiveness of the decision/ROI?

33


11/12/16

Performance Management as a Top Management Process

Readings:

1. Formal Performance Appraisal: Improving Results through Feedback; Excerpted

from Performance Management: Measure and Improve the effectiveness of your

employees, HBS Press; Harvard Business School Press, 2006; ISBN-10: 1-4221-

0745-0 ISBN-13: 978-1-4221-0745-4; 7454BC

2. HBR article: Reinventing Performance Management

Marcus Buckingham and Ashley Goodall, April 2015, Reprint R1504B

3. Kelley School of Business, BH 548, Business Horizons (2013) 56, 503-512; Avoiding

a “me” versus “we” dilemma: Using performance Management to turn teams into a

source of competitive advantage, Aguinis, Gottfredon, Joo

4. In big move, Accenture will get rid of annual performance reviews and rankings; By

Lillian Cunningham; Washington Post July 21, 2015

5. Accenture too drops bell-curve appraisals; By TNN | 27 Jul, 2015

6. ‘An excuse not to have a discussion at all’: Ernst & Young pushes back on plans to

dump performance reviews; 19 August 2015, Agnes

Preparation:

During class we will engage in one “great debate”. Four students will form a team. Prior to

class we will identify 2 teams to engage in the debate in class. The debate will focus on two

topics, generally:

I. One will be on the subject of goal setting of the CEO/General Manager. The

specific debate should focus on what should be included in the goals of the

34

CEO/General Manager (how many, how broad or narrow, prioritization of them,

individual vs. team performance, financial vs intangible performance criteria,

among others as identified by the team).

II. One will be on the subject of choosing the proper process for the performance

management activities of an organization. The specific debate should focus on

whether bell shaped curves should be used; whether performance management

systems if deployed should be forward looking only; and, on whether feedback

only systems should be employed.

The instructions for each debate will be distributed to the debating teams one week prior to

class to insure appropriate preparation time.


11/12/16

ZIOTICS CASE

36

Session 10 (first Half)

11/19/16

Guest Speakers-- Panel


11/19/16

BUILDING AN ORGANIZATION STRUCTURE FOR SCALE

Readings:

Joyus-building an organizational structure for scale. IVEY publishing, W16005/9B16M003,

Version 2016-01-28

Assignment:

Please read the case in its entirety and be prepared to discuss the following, in class. No

written submission is required.

1. Describe the scale opportunity and challenge facing Joyus.

2. Imagine you are Sukhinder Singh Cassidy. Thinking about your organization’s

strategy, what are you looking for in your senior management team?

a. What skills, abilities and experiences do you thin k are most relevant?

b. What positions do you think your team requires? Why?

37

3. Describe and evaluate Joyus’s culture and value system.

4. Thinking about Singh Cassidy as CEO:

a. How should she think about her own role in the firm and what she should focus

on?

b. How do you think her personality fits into the equation?

c. Knowing her background, what can she do to make Joyus more successful as

the organization scales?


12/3/16

Strategic Planning at UPS

Readings:

Strategic Planning at UPS case, June 19, 2006, 9-306-002

A Note on Scenario Planning, Rev. July 3, 2006, 9-306-003

Read the case and the note and be prepared to answer the following questions during class

discussion:

Preparation:

Questions to consider:

1. What are the strengths and weaknesses of scenario planning?

2. What is your evaluation of UPS’s 1997 scenario planning exercise? The Horizon 2017

planning exercise? How do the two efforts compare?

3. What are the other key elements of UPS’s approach to strategic planning? In

particular, what is your evaluation of:

a. The UPS charter?

38

b. The Centennial plan?

c. The Strategy Roadmap?

4. What led CEO Mike Eskew to put John McDevitt in charge of “strategic integration”?

Should he remain in that role?

5. How does UPS’s strategic planning process compare with the approach at other

organizations you might be familiar with?

6. What’s a Black Swan? How does it compare to scenario planning?

39


12/3/16

Chocolat Cordon Rouge: A Capital Budgeting Review

Reading:

Chocolat Cordon Rouge:

A Capital Budgeting Review, March, 2014 Columbia Caseworks ID#140301

Roles are selected randomly, and will be distributed directly to you in a prior class. Please

do not share information about your role with any others; the information in the role

description is considered confidential.

Preparation:

Read the case as well as your individual role description, which is meant to familiarize you

with the views and experiences of your character. There are 6 executives who are members

of the top management team and one team observer. Each member is expected to participate

in a capital budgeting meeting PRIOR to class (budget 90 Minutes) to analyze each of seven

proposed investment possibilities and to select the one that is most advantageous for

Chocolat Cordon Rouge. As you familiarize yourself with the issues facing Chocolat Cordon

Rouge, you may discuss company matters with others playing the same role or people in

your group playing other roles. You have to decide what you want to share, if anything.

Simply, behave before the meeting, and during the meeting, in a way that seems useful to

you.

40

SESSION 12

12/10/16

1. Prior to class, review and reflect upon your learning journal, notes, assignments, guest

speakers, and any other material that will help you recollect or recognize the key

course takeaways: that the Top Management Processes course provided.

2. In class, we will break out into small groups and each student will be asked to explain

briefly to the other group members what he or she found to be most beneficial or most

important regarding the material presented throughout the course. The group will

then designate one (and only one) spokesperson to provide a narrative to the whole

class---with no visual aides—that encapsulates what the group thinks are the most

significant messages to convey to the entire class.

41

Top Management Process-EMBA

Fall 2016

Class Scheduling

Class time varies

Date Subject of Class and comments

9/10/16 (1) 1/2: Intro; values based leadership; Singh case

12:30-3:30 pm 2/2: Attributes and Experiences of becoming CEO

9/17/16 (2) 1/2: Discuss both Winslow and Harsa cases

8:30-11:30 am 2/2: Transition to CEO-NAPOLI case

9/24/16 (3) 1/2: Jim Smith-Guest speaker

3:45-6:45 pm 2/2: Transition to CEO-LEVY case

10/8/16 (4) 1/2: Discuss the FRIENDLY FIRE case

12:30-3:30 pm 2/2: Discuss the CHALLENGER LAUNCH case

10/15/16 (5) 1/2: Matt Salzberg-Guest speaker

8:30-11:30 am 2/2: Discuss THOUSAND DAYS and THIRTEEN DAYS

10/22/16 (6) 1/2: Discuss THOUSAND DAYS AND THIRTEEN DAYS

3:45-6:45 pm 2/2: Discuss MT EVEREST case

10/29/16 (7) 1/2: Discuss the BCPC Internet Strategy

12:30-3:30 pm 2/2: Clarence Otis, Guest Speaker

42

11/5/16 (8) 1/2: Discuss the CEO interview completed before class

8:30-11:30 am 2/2: Discuss the DELOITTE UNIVERSITY case

11/12/16 (9) 1/2: Discuss performance management-classroom debate Guest

8:30-11:30am 2/2: Discuss Ziotics case and role play

11/19/16 (10) 1/2: Not For Profit Panel of CEOs (Sharon Greenberger, Keith Frome, Brian Gallagher)

12:30-3:30 pm 2/2: Discuss Joyus case

12/3/16 (11) 1/2: Discuss the UPS case

8:30-11:30 am 2/2: Discuss the Chocolate Cordon Rouge case

12/10/16 (12) 1/2: Self Reflection; review of journal entries, course closing

3:45-5:15 pm

for simplicity sake as “CEO”). It is the CEO’s job to ... Top Management Process...

Documents

Transcript of for simplicity sake as “CEO”). It is the CEO’s job to ... Top Management Process...