Mgmt 7014 - Leadership & Organizations - Big Shoes to Fill Case Analysis

Individual Case Analysis

Big Shoes To Fill

MGMT 7014 - Leadership & Organizations

Zachary Freeman

4/3/16

With the untimely and unfortunate passing of Mr. Jack Donally, Innostat CEO, Stephanie Fortas, the soon-to-be CEO will be looked at in a big way to sure up some of the problems that Innostat has been facing recently. Innostat is a global leader in the production of prosthetic limbs and surgical implants. Mr. Jack Donally had led this company, essentially from the ground up, by taking it from a measly scalpel manufacturer. Mr. Donally joined the team at Innostat as a sales person, and worked aggressively to become as successful as he did in such a quick amount of time, setting up the company for success. The company had become rather stagnant from the early 1990s onward. This was due to a lack of vision from Mr. Donally, whom lost his edge in terms of innovation, which led to a decrease in overall market share and a decrease in profits, which to no surprise upset the board/share holders quite a bit.

Now with Mr. Donally passed on, Innostat has to be careful in the way that they proceed into the future if they want to keep the company afloat and retain the early and consistent success that Mr. Donally had implemented for the company. So even though Mr. Donally had helped build the company up, it appeared by the end of his tenure that he lacked the leadership ability that one would need to be CEO of such a big company. Aside from that, other issues were mounting such as:

• Poor leadership
• Lack of employee motivation

• Both at the low and managerial levels

• Bad company communication
• Lack of a structured innovation plan

So with so many internal issues to conquer, Stephanie is going to have her work cut out for herself.

        While the company certainly needed change, it would seem strange that they went the way of hiring an outsider such as Stephanie to head the company. The board must have really thought poorly Mr. Donally’s leadership style towards the end of his career. But Stephanie was brought in to make changes, and so the real question for her in this case study is whether she should implement a complete overhaul of the innovation strategy, reorganization? Or should she take the approach that Jack once did and implement that sense of strong leadership back into the company?

        This company needs to do a complete 180 in terms of how they operate which is why Stephanie was hired. From the internal issues to the innovation issues, Stephanie needs to figure her course of action, which is why she consulted with her career coach, Teddy, with whom a former colleague had introduced her to. Teddy, essentially tells Stephanie that the company doesn’t necessarily need her to do a complete overhaul, rather they need her for her expertise, which happens to be in innovation. He tells her she doesn’t have the rapport that she would need to implement a complete overhaul, yet she does have the innovation skills that the company so desperately needs. Now she just needs to help the people of Innostat to reach the peak of their creative potential, due to the need for new products to keep ahead in this cutthroat pharmaceutical industry.