Free Business Essays - A Consultancy Report based on the Tinco Ltd case study
A Consultancy Report based on the Tinco LTD case study.
Write a sales proposal for Tinco LTD explaining how you propose to undertake the work, the process you will use and the roles you will adopt.
Executive summary
Tinco Ltd is currently a company which has gone through a successful period of rapid growth, leading to its current position as a market leader in the production of zinc and magnesium parts; as such, it is strongly focused on maintaining this growth, both in its traditional zinc and magnesium markets, and also in the larger, more competitive, and fast moving plastic and aluminium markets. This focus, as exemplified in the company's mission statement: "To build upon our leading position" and the Visco Ltd's focus on growth as one of the big five words to think about, is beginning to fragment the rapidly growing company, leading to problems in growth, profitability and managerial capacity. These problems are manifesting themselves amongst the global regions and divisions, with the new acquisitions, and with the wider range of customers and contracts Tinco is acquiring.
In my opinion, Michael has taken the correct approach to solving the fragmentation, and associated problems, by addressing all the key elements of the overall direction in which the company is moving, and attempting to sum it up in a new mission statement, however whilst addressing these areas, it is important to realise that they all impact upon each other, and must be addressed as interrelated entities, whilst also addressing the underlying problems and the root causes of these problems.
Corporate Identity
Recent environmental trends, such as growing uncertainty and increasing global competitiveness, have forced senior managers to give greater importance to their corporate identity, and associate corporate communications, with many managers discovering that conventional methods of redressing identity problems are becoming progressively less effective because, in the opinion of many experts, including Balmer and Gray (2000) and Cornelissen and Harris (2001), the traditional focus has viewed corporate identity and corporate communications as functional rather than as strategic. Balmer and Gray (2000) suggested a much broadened view that looks at corporate communications as a three part system process: primary, secondary, and tertiary, and made the claim that in many companies, these three are out of balance. Primary communication should present a positive image of the company and set the stage for a strong reputation, with secondary communication being designed to support and reinforce primary communication, and tertiary communications primarily intended to be positive, and result in a superior reputation if the other two stages of corporate communication are properly conceived.
Balmer and Gray postulated that senior managers who implement this can invest their organisation with a competitive advantage, and Cornelissen and Harris (2001) further claimed that "The metaphor of corporate identity may enlighten our theoretical understanding of corporate behaviour and communication, or, conversely, may mystify and distort our view of these affairs." They observed that much previous theorising has been based on deductions metaphorically transferred from theorising about human identities, rather than being based on empirical observations. As such they criticised a number of explanations based on these deductions as theoretically naive and empirically false, and identified the theoretically as well as empirically legitimate ways to conceptualise the corporate identity metaphor.
In the context of Tinco Ltd, the corporate identity can be primarily viewed as functional, with great differences between the management styles of Tinco's organically grown divisions, and the new acquisitions, particularly Mastico, whose plant mangers still identify themselves as being operations managers, and thus think operationally, rather than overall strategically. In order to correct these differences, and ensure that the company obtains and maintains one coherent identity, to which all managers can relate, it is important to concentrate on the three part communications process, using primary communications to ensure that all managers are aware that sales and profits are their responsibility, secondary communications to make them aware of how they can help to control these, and tertiary communications to make them aware of the benefits of being aware of, and reacting to, prrofitability concerns, and also to show them how much better the whole company works and performs if they do.
Tinco-Mastico Vision
A corporate vision should articulate what sets your organisation apart in a way that will help build a competitive edge and influence the behaviour of employees towards accomplishing organisational goals. It should provide clear focus, direction and alignment as well as engage the hearts and minds of employees and make them want to contribute. A commonly shared corporate vision can provide clear direction in decision-making, particularly when tradeoffs among goals become necessary however, if people lack a common picture of the system within which they are operating, it is difficult, if not impossible, to align their actions. As such, Mintzer (2001) claims that: "One of the most important facets of a vision is the power it has to unify people to strive towards a common goal. When a corporate vision becomes more important than an individual's personal agenda, we rise above the “turf” issues and power struggles that can happen at work." Thus, especially during times of organizational change, or strife, it is crucial that everyone has a shared vision of what the organization seeks to accomplish, and what his or her part is in it, and also that this vision accurately reflect what is expected of everyone.
For Tinco Ltd, this vision needs to accurately reflect the Visco CEO's desire to focus on the global nature of the company and its customers, the need for sustained growth, the desire to improve communication and react better to change, and finally the underlying drive to improve financial and qualitative performance. As the CEO has rightly suggested, once the four initial concerns have been dealt with, the performance of the company should noticeably improve, but in order for this to occur, it is vital that the company's vision creates the right "sense of mission" (Campbell and Yeung, 1991), which should help unify the fractured management team, and thus give the company a much more coherent approach to its strategy.
Tinco-Mastico Strategy
One of the important reasons for the tremendous interest in corporate strategy and strategic planning is that managers realize that a good strategy greatly increases the likelihood of a firm's success. Strategic planning is not the only reason for success, but there have been several studies which show that firms that plan their strategies are more effective, and as such, as early as 1981, Unni took the relationship of strategy and success as given, and considered the need to develop strategic planning for small businesses. However, Unni also conducted a survey, which indicated that the small businessmen fall, cope, and learn in the struggle for survival, and that ultimately judgment, experience and intuition seem to play a more important role than any well structured technique of strategic planning. Interestingly, many businessmen were found to be "growth maniacs", since growth is often viewed as the most tangible manifestation of achievement.
Following this work, in 2004, Guttman and Hawkes asked a critically important question, that is frequently overlooked by those more interested in the conceptual aspects of strategy, rather than in moving strategy from the drawing board to business results: "What organizational conditions must be in place to ensure that strategy is effectively set and implemented?" They found that increasingly, the "big bang approach" to strategy, whereby the top team head up to the mountaintop for a strategic retreat and return with the complete new strategy, which is then presented au fait to the unsuspecting organization, is being discredited. Nowadays, strategy is viewed more as a dynamic, continuous organizational process than as a one-time event; the focus is on continuous update, refinement, and enhancement. Buttman and Hawkes claimed that "This new orientation requires a fresh set of rules for creating the organizational conditions that promote, at every level, an ongoing strategic dialogue."
As such, it is equally important for Tinco Ltd to ensure that its corporate strategy is developed and refined continually, through constant consultations with managers both from Tinco Ltd's organically grow business, and the newer acquistions, in order to provide a strategy that not only reinforces, and fits with, the corporate vision, but also one that is relevant to the clients of each aspect of the business. If neccessary, seperate strategies, and thus values and mission statements, should be allowed for each department and region, as plastics in America may need a significantly different strategy than aluminium in the Far East, although care should be taken to ensure that these strategies still fit within the overall corporate vision.
Corporate Values
Hollender believes that the key to a responsible and well functioning company all depends upon its values, and these values have to develop and build consensus and understanding around a clear set of values and operating principles. This does not mean a list that is mounted on a plaque and hung on the wall: it must live in the hearts and minds of every employee. Equally, commitment to these values, right from the top of the company is key, because if the head of the company is not committed to being open and honest how can anyone else be expected to be. Once these values are clear the structure, benchmarks, and measurements are needed to evaluate your progress toward achieving a set of goals based on your values can be determined. Finally, the company is in a position to decide how change will happen operationally: who is responsible for what, where are the conflicts, challenges, obstacles, and so on.
However, internal governance: the wealth creation processes inside diversified multinational corporations, is being challenged by an emerging, increasingly competitive, environment. The rate of change in the competitive atmosphere exceeds the speed with which companies have been able to transform their internal governance processes, and thus their value structures. Prahalad and Oosterveld (1999) claim that there are three identifiable main processes that constitute internal governance: cultivating strong corporate business unit relationships, fostering inter unit linkages, and pursuing growth and innovation. Many leading firms, when faced with signs of competitive difficulty, only focused on one of these processes: in Tinco Ltd's case, the focus is strongly on growth. Therefore, the authors describe the competitive discontinuities that DMNC managers are now facing and define new managerial challenges, which can only be solved by refocusing corporate governance, and values, to address all three of these processes.
This leads me to conclude that Tinco Ltd's previous strong growth, under Michael Wood, has lead him to perceive the pursuit growth as the company's major method of governance, and this is why interunit linkages and corporate business unit relationships have suffered. Therefore, I believe Tinco Ltd's governance and values should be refocused towards cultivating these interunit linkages and corporate business unit relationships, as well as towards a customer and operations focus. Not only will this help the company grow stronger and more coherent as a whole, but it will help placate the former Mastico Ltd managers, who have traditionally been focused more towards customers and operations than profitability and growth.
Corporate Mission
A corporate mission explains why an organisation exists and provides a guiding light to keep it on course to achieve shared aims and objective. While they are often lofty or elaborate, the mission statement should serve as an everyday tool that helps steer decision-making and keeps everyone centred on what is important. By constantly having the mission in mind, an organisation can determine whether its actions and activities are in line with its overall aims and values. A well-constructed statement should neatly encapsulate the vision and where your organisation's sights are set. It also needs to be short, written in plain language, and easily understood. (Beagrie and Couzins, 2005)
As such, it is clear that the Visco CEO's view of the company's mission is much clearer than the North American departments mission statement. Whereas the North American statement places great emphasis on the company's technology and processes, the CEO's view is much more strongly focused on the overall areas that are believed to need working on. Equally, the current mission statement is too strongly focused on details, such as explaining its no discrimination policy, rather than it simply being implicit in everything the company does.
Conclusion
Tinco Ltd is a market leader in several industries that are rapidly becoming more dynamic, and as such the company's size is starting to be somewhat of a hindrance, especially given the various backgrounds of its general managers. In order to counteract this, Tinco Ltd needs to let different departments and regions formulate and follow their own strategies, in order to maximise profits and growth, whilst ensuring that customers are kept happy and loyal, and that the company's technological edge is maintained. However, in order to ensure the company develops and maintains coherency, along with healthy interdepartmental and inter region competitiveness, the company needs a strong and coherent corporate vision, expressed in a powerful and simple way in its mission statement. In order to achieve this, the mission statement needs to be strongly focused on the aspects of Tinco Ltd's business that are important to it: these are the five points emphasised by the Visco Ltd CEO, as well as concentrating on the benefits of coherency and mutual support to the company as a whole .
Proposed New Mission Statement
Through the innovation and dedication of its employees, Tinco and Mastico have become the world leaders in the manufacture of precision components for industrial customers. We intend to ensure that this leading position is maintained around the globe, by developing a strong spirit and identity amongst every member of our extended corporate family.
We plan to continue our growth in all our markets, be they mature or emerging, through strong communication across our entire company, and with all our valued customers and suppliers. We also recognise that the world is changing, and we will prepare ourselves to meet, and take advantage of, any future changes through our communication, organisation and superb, cost-effective, technologically advanced solutions.
By constantly striving to achieve these goals, across our entire company, yet with each division playing to its strengths, we believe that we will place Tinco and Mastico in a position to create great success and development opportunities, for our employees, customers, shareholders, business partners, and our company as a whole.
References
1. Balmer, J. M. T. and Gray, E. (2000) Corporate identity and corporate communications: creating a competitive advantage. Industrial & Commercial Training; Vol. 32 Issue 7, p. 256.
2. Beagrie, S. and Couzins, M. (2005) How to... develop a corporate mission. Personnel Today; p. 35.
3. Cornelissen, J and Harris, P (2001) The Corporate Identity Metaphor: Perspectives, Problems And Prospects. Journal of Marketing Management; Vol. 17 Issue 1/2, p. 49.
4. Guttman, H. and Hawkes, R. S. (2004) New rules for strategic engagement. Journal of Business Strategy; Vol. 25. Issue 1, p. 34.
5. Hollender, J. (2004) What Matters Most: CORPORATE VALUES AND SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY. California Management Review; Vol. 46, Issue 4, p. 111.
6. Mintzer, B (2001) The Power of a Vision...A Leader's Journey. Manage; Vol. 52 Issue 4, p. 20.
7. Prahalad, C.K. and Oosterveld, J. P. (1999) Transforming Internal Governance: The Challenge for Multinationals. Sloan Management Review; Vol. 40, Issue 3, p. 31.
8. Unni, V. K. (1981) The Role of Strategic Planning in Small Businesses. Long Range Planning, Vol. 14, Issue 2, p. 54.
