Ricardo Semler- A Revolutionary Model of Leadership Harvard Case Solution & Analysis

Ricardo Semler- A Revolutionary Model of Leadership Case Solution 

Introduction

 Antio Curt Semler was the father of Ricardo Semler, who came from Austria in hope of making a new life and starting a business in South America. He started his business as a major supplier of marine pumps for shipping industry and exploited the economic advantages of Brazil during 1950 s and 60 s. His vision was to make a business that was long lasting and was a family business.

Ricardo, who was not as good in the academics and has more interest in music, was never praised by his father. However as time passed he became class president and captain of track team, thus he gained leadership skills. Later on, he came Come with some business skills as he started operating a snack shop in school. He made so much revenue from his business skills that he spent it to give his whole class a trip holiday. He then joined his father’s business after realizing he had no future in music, which was his passion.

He was not sincere with the business and his father was worried. After the decline in the business profitability due to the decline of ship building industry, Ricardo suggested diversification in the company’s product which was refused by his father. Later on,his father gave him the opportunity to apply his ideas in the company and to get aside from the company. Ricardo became a business leader and took  major steps towards ways of making the company profitable and efficient.

Ricardo’s initial changes in the organization

Removal of layer of executives

 Soon after becoming the organization’s leader, he removed the top executives from their positions. He then hired new young people as per his needs and worked towards improving the organization to make it profitable and sustainable. He is of the view that executives may be reluctant to new changes to be made and this also delayed the decision making process and implementation of change, thus he fired a significant number of senior management members.

Work procedures and other changes

 He changed many internal policies and rules. He also changed the working methods and extensively used statistical data for executing more effective planning and operations.Moreover, he planned the schedules displayed at the notice boards and madethe information flow openly throughout the organization. Product diversification was achieved with new different products being manufactured and growth was made through many acquisitions.

The Dilemma

 Although all was going very well and in an organized manner but somehow this was coming on the surface that the overall effectiveness and was far lower as tow hat it should have been.There were rigid controls and long working hours which made employees to suffer get demotivated in their work. This decreased the level of their performance as well as this increase the production.An example of this could be that the deliveries were late.

Autocratic leadership style

 Autocratic leadership style also called authoritarian style, in which the leader is a central figure in the organization responsible for all decision making and imposed such decisions on the subordinates. All authority and powers remain with the leader. He has direct control over his subordinates. The followers accept the directions without any question and perceived to be directed by the leader. (Bhatti, 2012)

By the adoption of this style of this leadership,Ricardo has gained a center position in the decision structure of the organization. This also results in quick decision making, however this implies ignorance of innovative ideas and contribution in the decision making by the management and cause loss of talent. Moreover, this also results in low morale among the staff and demotivation as they feel less valued.........................

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