Management: People, Performance, Change, Essay Example

As CEO of Alternative Green Technology Laboratory LLC I have learned a lot from applying the information in this course toward my own business. Some of the topics I was comfortable with, others I struggled with, but many I implemented in the course of my work.  The concepts with which I was comfortable follow.  I feel comfortable developing effective arguments and implementing ways to promote collaboration in team environments. The nature of my work has made me keenly aware of the impact of ethical decision making and technology on business. Furthermore, I have com to better understand the techniques used in researching markets and analyzing businesses. Nevertheless, these were not the concepts with which I had a bit of trouble.

The concepts with which I struggled follow. Evaluate alignment of personal values and organizational values were a challenge for me because for much of what I do as CEO there is no differentiation. I had to go to some length to separate my personal values from corporate values. Furthermore, identify channels for business communications seemed to precise for me. In the daily execution of business, you talk to whoever you can whenever you can by whatever means you can to get things done. I wish things were as straightforward as described in our readings. Identifying the wants and needs of various stakeholders was also a major challenge. In the daily course of business, these concepts are not usually in the forefront of my mind. At this stage in the game, the motives of investors and beneficiaries have already been worked out. If anything, it is the motives of the energy companies that are a major concern. Although they know the world needs renewable sources of energy, they often go to some length to disrupt the strategies of companies that threaten their market share. Also, some of the material about managerial accounting and financial accounting was confusing. Initially, I thought of accounting as simple addition and subtraction, but finding that there are so many ways to form the same figures worries me a bit. Identify methods for adapting different types of businesses to changing markets was also a difficult concept, because it is so fluid in both respects. To attempt to predict the outcomes of so many different types of organizations against markets that are in constant flux is the $100 million dollar question so to speak. It is exactly the sort of problems business in general tries to tackle on a daily basis (Gomez-Mejia, Balkin, & Cardy, 2008). To attempt to “understand” it without being directly involved somehow seems like so much busy work to me. Still, I have applied a good portion of what I have learned in this course in my field.

The concepts which I applied to my work follow. Whenever we begin working on a new project, we have to gather immense amounts of information. Unfortunately for us, most of this information becomes unusable in the short-term for various business reasons, and what is left is often not very reliable. As such, I have honed the skill to evaluate the credibility and validity of the sources of the information we gather as one method of determining its reliability. Furthermore, the SWOT analysis is indispensible at this phase of development. Before we can move forward on any project, we have to have at least some idea of the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats associated with it. Likewise, the role of our human resources department in bringing our projects to fruition is paramount. In the end, it is our people that put them together. The impact of economic factors on business has been one of the cornerstones of our companies. As people become more disillusioned with an economy built on non-renewable energy, the more acceptances of our products we find. For me entrepreneurship is what it has all been about. I started as a petroleum engineer for a major oil company, and when I tired of the bureaucracy and double-talk, I found a way to implement my ideas in a way that both helps the environment and frees me from the shackles of the darker side of corporate politics. This can be seen as just one way I have differentiated strategy from tactics (Kotter & Cohen, 2002). Tactics are small scale. In this case, it would have been the task of daily negotiating challenges in hostile environments. Strategy is what I have carried out – the long-term positioning necessary to execute my goals.

References

Gomez-Mejia, L.R.; Balkin, D.B. & Cardy, R.L. (2008). Management: People, Performance, Change. New York: McGraw.

Kotter, J.P. & Cohen, D.S. (2002). The Heart of Change. Boston: Harvard.