I believe that Jim Adamson has been successful in changing the corporate culture at Advantica due to his strong commitment to change. The management team devised a four-part strategy to introduce culture diversity to the company. This four-part strategy included steps designed, "to loosen up the hierarchical environment; make diversity a performance criterion for all managers; require the entire staff to attend workshops on racial sensitivity; never miss an opportunity to preach the gospel of diversity." (Cañas & Sondak, 2008, p. 150-151). Adamson also demonstrated diversity commitment by hiring his former colleague, Ray Hood-Phillips, chief diversity officer …show more content…
Adamson reinforced the company's re-education initiative in November of 1995 by promising, "If you discriminate, I'm going to fire you" (Cañas & Sondak, 2008, p. 151). This new philosophy eliminated nine bad managers right from the start. That allowed the company to hire more diverse managers as replacements. Also by posting/displaying toll free phone numbers for customers to report any future incidents and declaring Martin Luther King's birthday a company holiday; was very effective in showing customers and employees alike their commitment to diversity and change.
Do their efforts get to the core problems at Advantica?
In my opinion, their efforts to change corporate culture have addressed the core problems at the company. They implemented new diversity policies that affected both employees and customers in a positive way. The new internal changes were very drastic in changing the company's image. This resulted in Adamson being named 1996 CEO of the Year by the NAACP and Denny's being named number one on Fortune's "50 Best Companies of Minorities" in 2000. Even with all the accolades, they need to stay focused on maintaining a diverse and healthy corporate culture.
What are the other major challenges facing the financial future of