Dear CEO,
As a leading organizational transformation consulting firm, we want to thank you for the opportunity to work with your company.
Recognizing your company’s high value to the industry marketplace and assessing key performance metrics, we have concluded that Syntax is in need of the critical organizational transformation necessary to change identified current challenges. There is no doubt that your company is essential to today’s technology industry, offering customers quality products and services in high demand. However, such an agenda could no longer remain relevant due to the profound structural transformation that has happened to Syntax over the past two years. We do not need to tell you about your predecessor’s decisions that led to significant metamorphoses, some of which had a fatal effect on the company. In particular, in an attempt to inhibit stagnation and set Syntax on a positive course, the previous CEO launched a series of reckless reforms that led to critical problems.
Having analyzed Syntax’s current agenda in-depth, we decide that the central problem is ineffective leadership, which has initiated a series of ill-considered organizational actions without first assessing potential risks. In particular, any company’s presence in a state of stagnation is a highly sensitive phase that requires thoughtful, highly credible decisions from management (FCC, 2019). In this sense, it is a mistake to assume that Syntax’s growth and development could have been catalyzed by a bold initiative that encouraged managers to work in teams and compete with one another. Indeed, at least three areas of development, including sales, human resources, and operational controls, were launched as a result of such practices.
A principal problem of the human resource management department in a company can be characterized as the rapid pace of implementing structural transformations that take into account employees’ opinions. In fact, the desire to hear employees’ needs through an extensive survey is worthy, and therefore the use of this tool should be encouraged (Angshuman, 2021). However, too large a pool of modifications has been implemented over the past 18 months, which could not help but frighten employees. Not surprisingly, as a result of this rush, Syntax came up with a high turnover rate, as employees could not adjust to such drastic changes.
On the other hand, the sales management department, at the request of the top manager, decided to reorient the current agenda from developing long-term customer relationships to achieving short-term, immediate benefits. It is well known that a firm’s loyal customers are an invaluable resource that enhances its reputation and commercial status (Davis, 2020). However, in an attempt to change the focus to making more profit now, realized through the intensification of cross-selling and increased pressure on salespeople, Syntax received not only high turnover but also loss of customers. According to the marketing director, there have been at least six attempts to improve this system over the past two years, but all to no avail. Based on the findings, it is pertinent to state that both the reorientation of values and the attempts to remedy the situation have been untimely and ineffective.
Given all of the above, and in an effort to bring Syntax out of its economic downturn phase, it is appropriate to propose a short route map for effectively implementing transformational processes. First of all, it should be clarified that the company’s evolution can be viewed as a linear chronology, in which the once-thriving and profitable Syntax fell into a stagnation phase four years ago. Two years later, the former CEO rashly implemented proactive changes, and now the critical parameters of the technology company are in a natural decline. To initially remedy this crisis, the first step is to look at the two phases of Syntax: before the changes and after them.
A thorough critical analysis of the two states will allow you to isolate the significant metamorphosis and assess the extent of its impact on the company. For instance, if the focus on short-term benefits versus the former long-term relationship model led to high turnover and customers’ loss, then this transformation is problematic. Looking at this continuation from a different perspective, benchmarking will allow management to build a strategic plan for future organizational change in a way that eliminates identified risks and vulnerabilities ahead of time. Thus, the comparison of two company phases is the right solution for the initial stage of change implementation.
As an effective and promising leader, you are indeed interested in creating an organizational environment in which all internal processes are directed toward the company’s economic well-being. Among others, it is well known that the indispensable resource of any enterprise is its employees, whose opinions, desires, and needs must be heard (Angshuman, 2021). As part of generating recommendations for effective management, we suggest that you begin your remediation work with an extensive social survey of employees, from which you will gather useful information about the current agenda. More specifically, the survey questions should include opinion polls on the phase of ill-considered change, identifying negative factors, and looking for possible ways to grow the organization.
In addition, your actions as the new CEO of Syntax should concentrate on improving current processes. In other words, the focus on constant transformation and modification to meet the demands of a rapidly evolving technological marketplace should be a priority. It is fair to say that such a solution was already discussed during the rash of changes when the Operations Control department hired a consultant who proposed the Kaizen methodology. As professionals, we fully recognize this Asian philosophy and encourage you to implement it within Syntax. In fact, only a culture of innovation and research can be a sufficient driving force for a company’s economic advancement. From your position as the firm’s new CEO, who is expected to make significant, positive changes, it is right to introduce Kaizen as an element of the new corporate culture. Such a decision would create a coherent, self-sustaining system of values and professional ethics, which, in turn, would retain current employees and attract new ones.
In the new change paradigm, you must pay particular attention to the pace at which initiatives are put into practice. As Syntax has shown, a grandiose number of reforms in a record low timeframe is not the right decision, and then it is your responsibility to initiate the creation of a strategic change management plan. Any metamorphosis must be appropriate and timely so as not to cause a negative backlash and be too late for adaptations.
To summarize the above, it is appropriate to summarize the key thoughts and decisions that will allow you to prove yourself as an effective CEO with prospects for a long and distinguished career. The Syntax is currently in an economic downturn, as evidenced by the decline in key metrics. This situation is entirely initiated by the ill-considered decisions of the previous management, which led to the crisis. It is in your hands to change this agenda, and to do so, you must first of all conduct a comparative analysis of the two states of Syntax: was and became.
By identifying the essence of the critical problems, it will be possible to design a working strategic plan that eliminates these vulnerabilities. In addition, for you, as the new CEO, there is a pool of specific expectations of employees. It is in your power to make a qualitative change in corporate culture and to implement Kaizen, which will enable you to retain employees. Recognizing employees as the most valuable core of Syntax, you can also conduct an opinion survey to determine what challenges and perspectives employees see for the once-thriving company.
Sincerely,
Consultancy’ Group.
Reference List
Angshuman, A. (2021) Employee voice: how to listen and its benefits. Web.
Davis, B. (2020) What is the value of a loyal customer? Web.
FCC (2019) 12 ways to tell if your business has stagnated and how to fix it. Web.