Alice in Wonderland; a Different Approach to Organizational Change

MM 5002 People in Organization

Alice in Wonderland; A different approach to organizational change This case study told us about Emma van Nijmegen who was appointed to lead Luijk & Van Vaest which its core business was providing logistics solution to the customers, and this typical male-dominated industry land transportation business was completely new to Emma. The situation in LVV prior to Emma was a rocky one and described as the management team wasn’t a team at all and they set a questionable strategic decisions with a focus on volume growth quickly led the company downhill. People were pushed to do work they didn’t believe in, working under pressure without trust in their management team. The LVV was very fossilised and hierarchical in the way it was run, and there was a huge communication gap between the head office and the regional offices To make it even worse, people warned her that it was one great snakepit (highly political, no cooperation) and they thought she was a woman, too young, and don’t know the business, so how she can turn it around. Emma’s key actions in handling LVV were: 1. She started with gathering the right people around her and establishing a cohesive team 2. Together with her team she developed a vision and figured out which way to go, what products to use, in which markets to compete and which clients to serve 3. She convinced the LVV people that a corporate culture of innovation and opennes was in their best interest 4. And as a pre-requisites Emma created an open communication culture and gained trust from her people 5. She did management by walking around, go to the shopfloor and open for suggestions as well as criticisms 6. She told her management team to not hide their feelings and admit feeling as a fact to move forward 7. She had a consultant from outside as personal coach and had a mentor within Neerlandia who stayed in the background, quietly but surely supported her Her personal qualities could be described as intuitive yet analyzing, people and number person, know when to stop and find balance, know her own weakness and having her correct set of vision, values, ethics, beliefs and motivations to be succesful leader.