Change must always be embraced by the top brass, in order to be wholeheartedly accepted and adopted by the lower echelon of the company.
Moving forward, we believe that Kurt Lewin’s model of change management may be very relevant in addressing the cultural and leadership challenges at Ford, Toyota, and VW:
In our analysis, this model is best exemplified by the following observations from the three manufacturers:
• Employees at Ford were not ready for the changes proposed by the leadership and marketplace respectively. In such scenarios, as Mullaly undertook, the best course of action is to first ‘unfreeze’ the employees existing routines and expectations. This involves clarity in communication and more importantly the …show more content…
Mullaly divested most of his companies whereas Winterkorn acquired a lot in the same time-frame whereas Toyoda remained distant on that front. We could see a bigger impact of Mullaly on Ford vis-a-vis Toyoda on Toyota and Winterkorn on VW. This is partially because Alan Mullaly will always be remembered as someone who saved Ford from the brink of bankruptcy and brought it back to its old glory days and partially because of the US culture in which Alan Mullaly operated. Perversely, it is all the more ironic that Japanese and German cultures are considered to be far more hierarchical than the US culture but the strategic decision-making at the top in German and Japanese culture is far more consensual compared to …show more content…
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