Primary problems
Aaron Levie’s company faces several problems at the current stage of development. Levie realizes the necessity to plan the future development of the company. The first problem refers to the necessity to convince consumers to use their products. This task is challenging taking into consideration high competitiveness of the market. Consequently, the company aims at the reshaping of the traditional cloud and online storage market. This is the second problem of the Box.
The company has to create a strategy for the future development. As far as the strategy should be built for the following ten years, the problem is to choose the right direction and predict (or promote) the development of the market in the particular course. Finally, current CEO has to find experienced leaders for the company. Experienced leaders should not just have appropriate qualifications for the job but share company’s values and become the part of the team and general process. A new leader should be able to motivate others and employ successful leadership strategies. Besides, the company needs experienced sales representatives to collaborate with large business enterprises.
Insights and potential decision
The company has to convince customers to use their products. It is necessary to evaluate consumers’ needs and financial capacities to create the best options. Since 2007, medium-size businesses became the primary target audience of the company. The task of the Box was to define their needs. Thus, the company has found out that such customers need file storage and sharing solutions but they do not need (due to the lack of financial resources) expensive features. Currently, the company aims at offering their products for large businesses. The potential decision for this goal is to modify the product and improve its features.
The second problem of the Box is to reshape a traditional cloud storage technology. Insights from the case predetermine that need as well. Thus, large corporations begin looking for applications that will be able to integrate multiple software vendors. This goal coincides with the Box’s target to some extent — to connect all sources of content and applications within the company. The potential decision of the Box is challenging — to achieve the highest level of integration through the model of openness and flexibility.
The company’s entering in a new sphere of the market causes the need for new leaders. The collaboration with large businesses requires additional training and new visions. However, the company has to retain its initial values and beliefs. The potential decision is to start looking for new sales representatives and leaders who would employ a participative leadership model.
Potential course of action
The course of action to overcome the first problem should start from the analysis of competitors. It is also useful to evaluate advantages and disadvantages of the software used by big companies. Reshaping of the current stage of the cloud-based software refers to the first problem too. Thus, the Box should develop strategies for the potential collaboration with other companies such as Google or Microsoft. The task is to evaluate the condition of the market and readiness of other companies to become open and flexible. Finally, a participative leadership should be prevailing. As far as the company is changing, it is necessary to find a leader who will be able to take opinions of others into consideration and promote a successful teamwork.