Overall Change in Company Culture
There was a complete overhaul of company culture when Dennis Hightower took charge as the transactional manager. Such change in company culture was manifested in key approaches such as the crafting of a European strategy for the case of licensing children’s music, magazines, books, and merchandise (Burke, 2017, p. 29). It is through such changes in culture publishing was taken beyond publishing. Further, such changes in culture necessitated the integration of European operations. The overall change in company culture was also demonstrated in terms of the company’s pan-European licenses and worldwide operations as well as the subsequent management approach adopted by Hightower. Through such approaches, the country operations were knitted together to meet evolving relations with the rest of Disney.
The Pacing and Sequencing of Hightower’s Actions from 1988 to 1994
Hightower took publishing beyond licensing in 1988. Such actions were undertaken with the aim of taking control of the company’s downstream operations (Bartlett & Beamish, 2018, p. 45). This was undertaken as part of the company’s greater risk and responsibilities given that over time, the European publishing operations by Disney became a mosaic of licensing in Germany, United Kingdom, and the Nordic countries. Hightower further centralized the company’s European contract administration and auditing. However, such changes provided the platform for Hightower to reorganize the company’s regional office in 1992. This was achieved by making several personal and organizational changes. For instance, Hightower split the company’s creative division that had previously been operating uneconomically. By 1993, Hightower had overseen massive growth of Disney’s business from the initial $650 million in 1987 to $3.5 billion (Bartlett & Beamish, 2018, p. 45). Following the death of the company’s COO and President Frank Wells in 1994, Hightower realized that it was going to be difficult to plan for his succession in the coming years.
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Evaluation of Hightower's Approach to Bringing About Change in His Organization
Unlike Jack Welch, Hightower adopted a pragmatic and result-oriented approach in bringing about change in his organization. Upon assuming his roles as the company’s transnational manager, Hightower aggressively revamped Disney’s market operations and businesses (Bartlett & Beamish, 2018, p. 45). In this case, he was able to bring change within the shortest period by specifically crafting an appropriate and workable European strategy. In his adopted approach, Hightower revamped the company’s business segments by taking publishing beyond licensing and integrating accordingly all its European operations. The attainment of such changes in the organization can further be attributed to Hightower’s management approach. This is because he prioritized evaluation of the resultant business situations to help formulate appropriate plans for accomplishing the specific identified needs. Having established loyal troops, he was able to affect the intended changes with the help of the existing loyal troops (Burke, 2017, p. 41). In this regard, he was able to bring changes to his organization successfully. For instance, Hightower was able to achieve all this through the reorganization of the company’s regional office and knitting together the country operations by the company in the bid to give it renewed strength for achieving the intended changes.
What Hightower should do about the Apparel Business
Hightower can re-engineer the apparel business by putting the appropriate measures in place to boost its distribution and enhance the quality of the sold apparel products (Bartlett & Beamish, 2018, p. 45). Considering that spotty distribution and shoddy product quality are responsible for the plunging of the Apparel business, Hightower can correct this by developing an appropriate apparel strategy aimed at enhancing distribution and boosting quality.
Challenges of Building a Transnational Organization
Diverse cultural groups are the primary challenge of building a transnational organization. In this regard, the responsible manager should possess vital organizational and strategic thinking skills to successfully lead such diverse cultural groups (Burke, 2017, p. 31). The language barrier is another major challenge of building a transnational organization since differences in language may be a pivotal barrier to communication.
References
Bartlett, C. A., & Beamish, P. W. (2018). Transnational Management: Text and Cases in Cross-border Management . Cambridge University Press. Retrieved from: https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/print-profile.aspx?facId=6419
Burke, W. W. (2017). Organization change: Theory and practice . Sage Publications. Retrieved from: www.dias.ac.in/download/2015/DIAS%20Technology%20Review%20(14th%20Edition%20of%20DTR).pdf#page=74
