Strategies in Change Management

Dubinsky and Apple

Edward M. Baldwin

La Verne

Business 585: Strategies in Change Management

2619

John C. Sivie

May 9th, 2013

Dubinsky and Apple

1. Donna Dubinsky was a graduate from Yale with an MBA. She showed a drive to become part of the Apple Company despite the lack of a technical background. That drive was the starting point for a strong reputation.

Dubinsky excelled in the company because of her drive and passion. Her peers respected her leadership style and her willingness to take care of her people. She was willing to fight for her people and their needs. Peer and supervisors made comments about her willingness to stand up for the right things. Dubinsky herself commented on having to make difficult decisions that were out of her normal scope of duties but her willingness to do so. This is based on Apples approach to putting the people first and expecting them to take the risk and challenge themselves. This empowerment of the employees shows respect and trust for them and leads to success of the company as a whole. (Kotter, 2012)

2. Dubinsky had been successful with Apple and was eventually placed in charge of the distribution and viewed it as being successful. There were never any complaints or delays due to the distribution side of the company. Steve Jobs, Chairman of the Board and the General Manager over Macintosh, had dinner with the CEO of FedEx, Fred Smith.  During their dinner they discussed IBM’s theory of supply called “just-in-time distribution”. This theory is based on a principal of limiting unnecessary inventory and cost.

Jobs’ position as Chairman of the Board and overseeing Macintosh placed him in a position of power and influence. When he pitched his idea of just in time distribution for Apple this was seen as a blind side attach against Dubinsky. Apple had recently shown some loss of the market shares to outsiders, but Dubinsky did not see the distribution being at fault for any of this. She took this as an attack against her and her group.

Jobs’ idea was not backed up and supported with a real need for this change. Kotter discusses the need to instill a sense of urgency and support from the people. Kotter says regardless of trying to help a company that is crumbling or one that is doing okay but wants to be stronger, the changes required have to be justified and show the people why its important to them and the company. (Kotter, 2012)

A task force was eventually formed and Dubinsky was part of this coalition but she had not bought in to the idea. This group was tasked with changing what she had created and she did not see the need for this change. She eventually found herself spending more and more time on this project and less time focusing on her current duties. This continued to build her frustration and she realized that she did not support the proposed changes. This feeling grew larger and she finally got to the point that she realized this change was detrimental to the entire company and eventually forced her to make an ultimatum about her position on the changes.