This is a critical moment for Great Tunes Music Company (GTMC). Several challenges threaten to pull GTMC apart. These challenges include some very good options without which the company does not even have the hope to survive.
With the recent changes in the leadership, there is a rare opportunity to put these challenges in perspective and to provide the much-needed fresh direction for the company. It is the role of leadership to bring together all the factors in an organization to ensure there is coherence and sustainability.
The challenges the company must deal with are its business strategy, the organizational culture, and its operational structures. The company has a very risky business outlay characterized by 60% dependence on two artists for its income. Despite signing a pool of young artists on contract, the company has not been able to capitalize on their talent.
This means that GTMC’s current positioning limits its capacity to take advantage of the lucrative youth market that represents a sizeable chunk of the music market. In addition, there is the threat of a much lower income from sales because of online piracy.
GTMC suffers from a poor organizational culture. The last two leadership transitions were very jerky, and moved the organization from one extreme of almost no structures, to a very bureaucratic structure leading to disillusion among some members.
The organization therefore lacks the culture that a consistent leadership style makes possible. This explains the poor levels of teamwork among members. All departments have their own priorities and what is sorely lacking is a means to bring all these efforts together into coherent action.
Closely related to lack of an organizational culture is the type of decision making structures applied in the past. The company moved from a laissez-faire approach to decision-making then swung to a very structured format, neither of which is ideal for an organization of this nature. This means that at all times in the past, only a certain kind of people could thrive, making the rest unproductive.
To put the organization on a balanced footing, two things will be indispensible. The first one is the development of a long-term business strategy that will address the business concerns of GTMC while the second one is streamlining of business operations. “An inspired and clearly considered strategy provides the impetus for commercial success, whereas a weak or misunderstood strategy may lead to a company going out of business”.
It appears that GTMC is overdue for a strategic planning process. This process will help it to identify its strategic fit in the current operational environment and will bring to the fore the priority areas that the company must address to grow its profits and sustain its place in the music industry.
Some of the actions may include promotion of younger artists, redesigning the income structure, and identifying emerging markets that the company can serve competitively. The result envisaged is a responsive organization returning profit, and operating sustainably. Secondly, there is need to streamline the business processes and operations by developing clear but flexible rules applicable in the business processes.
These rules should be such that they do not hinder creativity but also they do not create an environment devoid of accountability. By solving the operational problems, GTMC will sort out its greatest challenges as perceived by the new leadership.
Reference list
Kourdi, J. (2009). Business Strategy: A Guide to Taking Your Business Forward. London: Profile Books Limited.