A630.7.4.RB - Mastering the Art of Corporate Reinvention

Michael Bonsignore, CEO of Honeywell and Gordon Bethune, CEO of Continental Airlines are two Chief Executives Officers who have stepped up to revive their perspective businesses. Bethune became CEO and was elected chairman of the board of directors in 1996 and engineered the turnaround that moved Continental Airlines from worst to first (The Record, 1996). Fortune named Continental among the 100 Best Companies to Work for in America for six consecutive years.

Honeywell International, Inc. is an American multinational diversified industrial conglomerate company that produces a variety of commercial and consumer products, engineering services, and aerospace systems for a wide variety of customers, from private consumers to major corporations and governments (2014). Honeywell has been selected as one of the “World’s Most Admired Companies” by Fortune magazine for 2014. 

While I agree with his philosophy of compensation and rewards as a way of reinforcing the change process, Michael Bonsignore will have to find an alternative to his theory of punishment for those that do not conform to his vision for blending the new culture. In watching this video, he seems to have all the key components except that he needs to find a more systematic approach for resolving any disparity of those not conforming to best practices of the new corporate culture. Bethune seems to have successfully grasped technological strategies in theory and application, whereas Bonsignore does not seem to be concerned with such theories. Brown (2011) notes, “today, the trend in organizational development is to deal with the total organization through an integration of behavioral, structural, and technical strategies” (P. 178). Bonsignore places more importance on profits.

To establish this credibility, Bonsignore has to have vision and be adaptable to the upcoming changes. He said that if he has no credibility, then he is worthless. He may need to find a way to carry out the structural and behavioral changes, as well as intervention techniques needed to gain the trust of those that have not grasped the new and merging culture. I think that he will be successful, but I think he could be more successful if he finds ways to gain followers naturally, rather than putting fear into those individuals for non-conformance. 

Michael Bonsignore, CEO, faced included: convincing shareholders and Wall Street, workers, customers, managers etc. that the merger and new enterprise would be "healthy", grow and succeed in the future. From a merge perspective, I think there will be challenges between both Bonsignore and Bethune. Although they are both well respected and have similar leadership qualities, there will be conflict between them as time goes on. Bonsignore should consider a fully integrated approach to change management. He should find ways to change attitudes and values rather than force them into the culture. When a leader threatens in any form as to conformance, I feel that there is a problem with leadership’s ability to persuade and influence change. I enjoyed Bethune's statement, “I know people so well because I used to be one” (Mastering the Art of Corporate Reinvention, 2011). Leadership then does not have to spend any energy with the behavioral strategies since it just responds by removing a person due to nonconformance rather than making changes which require a systematic intervention and a little more time and energy of the corporate leaders. 

 Bonsignore stated there were three things to focus on the "pivotal moment":
1. (108) years the company has been around
2. don't take success for granted, i.e., don't be complacent and stubborn
3. "kick in the seat of the pants" to jump start everything (2011).
Bonsignore shares that he has to relate the human resources through communication, his interpersonal skills and his credibility; however, he comes off as more forceful in methodology than a seller of ideas.

Bethune brought Continental's ailing image back in the
late 90s. However, things have changed since
Continental's merge with United in 2010.

Companies have to be adaptable, have credibility and be able to communicate with employees as well as customers. As Brown (2011) points out “the participation of employees in matters that concern them increases the probability that they will find the program acceptable” (p. 156). If a company cannot adapt to changes in technology, product growth will go nowhere. With technological changes comes a disregard of the simple processes such as customer service. Customers want to speak to a human being to get their questions answered. If a company is not concerned with feedback from its customers, it will be difficult to make improvements. Consistent growth is the key to staying ahead. When companies deem themselves successful, they must assure that they continuously grow and stabilize, or they could become unaware of their competitors gaining way (or obvious shortcomings within their products). 

A leader must effectively communicate and involve all members in the change process to keep them motivated and enthused. This exercise has given first hand insight on how important the integration of the strategies is to the successful implementation of organizational development programs. Critiquing from an integration of change strategies perspective, it provides such a different view of leadership as a whole. It was positive to see that both Bethune and Bonsignore understand the importance of mistakes - they will always happen - the best thing to do is to own them, learn from them, and move forward. The best successes usually come from failing at something!

This video showed several key factors to leadership and organizational change. First and foremost, there is no one perfect style of leadership when it comes to addressing major change in an organization. Efficacy in style is determined by a number of factors, including trust of team and management, level of competency in team members, and level of challenges to overcome. Another factor is the ability and desire to tackle change. Because there are so many updates to policy at ERAU, and new concerns for students, we always have to adapt to changes that are happening. It has given me the knowledge of the importance for understanding the complexity of change strategies,

References:

Brown, D. R. (2011). An experiential approach to organization development (8th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall


Honeywell International Inc. (2014). Honeywell Named A 2014 World’s Most Admired Companies By Fortune. Accessed at  http://www.honeywellnow.com/2014/03/03/honeywell-named-a-2014-worlds-most-admired-companies-by-fortune/


Mastering the Art of Corporate Reinvention. (2011). Films on Demand. Accessed at http://digital.films.com/play/GWEU7L

The Record (Bergen County, NJ). (1996). CONTINENTAL CEO IS NOW CHAIRMAN, TOO. Accessed at http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P1-22519369.html