Quietly Brilliant: Transformational Change at HTC Case Solution And Analysis, HBR Case Study Solution & Analysis of Harvard Case Studies

Quietly Brilliant: Transformational Change at HTC

Introduction

It has been observed in the past that companies could not survive for long and those companies that welcomed change are billion dollar industry. Organizations as well as human are supposed to welcome change when necessary. To bring change in an organization is a very difficult job. It’s a part of the strategic management.

Organizations bring change to in the company’s current culture. Companies want to change the attitude and behavior of their employees. It has never been easy to bring change. Many challenges are faced by companies when they implement the plan. Sometimes, plans look good on paper but are unrealistic to implement in reality. Change plan are not made to change organizations but it is designed to change the people. Organizations are changed when people change.

About HTC

HTC was a Taiwan base company. It was founded in 1997 by Wang, Chou and Liu. There were only 10 employees when it was founded. Within seven years, number of employees increased from 10 to 3,000. HTC was in Personal Digital Assistance (PDA) and then it shifted to the Smartphone business. Some f the best employees worked at HTC, who were called from well known multinational companies. HTC was known for its innovative products. HTC sold around 24 million Smartphone in 2010 and it was known for its highly innovative products.

HTC was among those companies that introduced Smartphone. HTC had state of the art of wireless technology. The 3G and 4G phone were introduced by HTC.. Although, HTC was not a global company, but it had strategic relations with world’s well known companies. HTC had strategic alliance with Microsoft. Customized Smartphone was produced by HTC. In 2004, HTC built a lab named “MAGIC”. Magic lab was the place where innovative work was done. In 2008, HTC introduced the first HTC Smartphone. In 2009, HTC introduced Quietly Brilliant to make HTC a global brand.

Company was growing rapidly and HTC had entered into many new markets. Sales were growing at a significant rate. Demand of HTC products were also growing. It was the time when HTC decided to make HTC a brand. HTC wanted to change itself from ODM to brand manufacturer. HTC used a tagline “Quietly Brilliant” for its organizational change. HTC turned itself from Taiwan base company to a global company.

Problem Statement

Changes become necessary when company grows and HTC had the same situation because its sales were increasing. They have started their operation in different regions of the world. It was necessary to adopt a change at HTC. Corporate change had been used to improve productivity. In 1992, Gerry Johnson and Kevan Scholes formulated a framework, which helps organizations to analyze its current corporate culture as well as make new strategies by using that model. We will use Johnson and Scholes model to analyze the change at HTC.

The Cultural Web

The cultural web has six components to discuss (See Fig. 1). We will analyze HTC’s cultural change by using those six components. Cultural web defines the culture of an organization and it depends on other organizational subsystems. These subsystems include: stories, control system, organizational structure, rituals, routines and symbols. These elements are also known as paradigm of cultural web.

The cultural web can be used to analyze the culture of an organization. On the basis of this analysis, changes can be recommended but we have to make sure that changes should align with company’s workforce. Employees are the main factor that resists change. There can be two conditions in that case. Firs case to motivate them to adopt those changes and if they don’t accept those changes, then change will be brought forcefully. Companies can use influencer and devil advocator. Organization should find a person who has an influential personality. Then, that person should be told the whole story. It must be mentioned why this change is necessary and then the influencer should be permitted to work. He will motivate other co-workers; so the resistance will be minimized. Another option is to use devil advocator. Resistance can be minimized by using devil advocator too. These elements are described below with the help of example from the case.

Language

Language also plays a very important role in any organization’s culture. Language is a way to communicate with others. If a company operates in a country, there should be no issue of language. Everybody in that country will be using the same language. Problem arises when a company have its operations in more than one country as there will be a language issue. Companies won’t be able to communicate with those colleagues who work in other country. Companies are supposed to create a culture where people use particular language to communicate with their colleagues irrespective of where they are.

Examples from the Case

When HTC decided to become a global brand........................

This is just a sample partial case solution. Please place the order on the website to order your own originally done case solution.

The case considers the 2006 decision smartphone manufacturer HTC to become a branded company. The case focuses on the cultural and organizational changes were successful HTC make the transition from ODM, founded in 1997, the leading branded manufacturers (7% of the smartphone market in 2010), with the adoption of the slogan, "Quietly Brilliant». Significant problems are considered in the case include: the transition HTC from Taiwan to a global company, development and maintenance of the global structure, building sales and marketing force, and finding the right balance between the eastern and western cultural features "Hide
by Michael L. Tushman, Kerry Herman Source: Harvard Business School 31 pages. Publication Date: May 28, 2012. Prod. #: 412070-PDF-ENG