Analyzing Strategic Leadership and Building Trust: Hi-Tech Case Study

This case study analysis examines the leadership of Frank Coleman at Hi-Tech Aerostructures, a manufacturing company facing performance challenges. Coleman, a new president with a vision for transformation, struggles to implement his ideas due to a lack of strategic action and effective communication with his team, particularly Vice President Deacon. The analysis highlights the importance of strategic leadership, encompassing vision, mission, strategy, and execution, and contrasts Coleman's visionary approach with the need for practical strategies. The study emphasizes the significance of understanding employee perspectives, building trust, and translating vision into concrete actions to achieve organizational goals in a dynamic business environment. The document underscores the importance of effective leadership in navigating challenges and achieving sustainable success.

- Introduction
“The best way to predict the future is to create it”. Good afternoon, I am Sebastião and
this is Jeanne. Our topic for today is “Strategic Leadership and Building Trust”, which will
be discussed in the context of the case study “Visionary Leadership of High-Tech
Aerostructures Company”.
- Summarising the case study.
Hi-Tech Aerostructures is a 50-year-old family-owned manufacturing company that
produces parts for the aircraft industry. Since then the owner had served as the
president of the business. Now, the owner has decided to bring someone from outside
of the company to get a fresh perspective. It was certainly needed as over the past
several years Hi-Tech had just been struggling to perform.
Frank Coleman who came from a small business but had high competency, started his
association with High-Tech Aero Structure as its new president. The President came with
a new vision, and shared it with the vice president Deacon and other employees. The
president asked Deacon to take initiatives for transformation projects. Hence, the Vice
president and the team came with few ideas and discussed with Frank Coleman. At the
end of this discussion session they identified the needs to go for a transformation.
At the team’s first meeting with Coleman, Deacon presented several different ideas and
concepts they had come up with. It also included explaining the advantages of each idea
in respect to resolve the issues faced over past few years and become efficiently
operative in the 21st century. However, the Coleman’s ambitious project never actually
took off. The probable reasons according to Coleman were that all the suggestions were
either too conventional or too confusing. Deacon was later informed that the final draft
is not effective for the company. The feedback came as a surprise to the team. However,
Frank Coleman with his leadership skills was able to control the negativity spreading in
the team and encouraged them to follow a new method. Frank Coleman did meet to the
team and requested to submit a revised draft consisting of a new method. One year
later the team sent the revised draft. Deacon was expecting that the president may ask
them to start the project all over again.
Outlining the issues
Even though Frank Coleman created a vision that motivated, energized and promoted
creativity for all the employees especially the vice president, David Deacon. However, he
failed to understand his employee’s perspective on the transformation. He appeared to
have favoured his own opinions all the time, and never accepted any kind of suggestions
or opinions from the vice president and the employees.
Frank Coleman appeared to have a vision; however, he has no strategies in place to turn
his vision into a reality. There was no overall list of goals and objectives that explain
every step to be taken to achieve his vision. Normally, great leaders use goals and
objectives as the basic strategies to move closer to achieve the vision. However,
Coleman failed to implement any sort of direction and support to the transformation
projects.

Coleman could be considered as a visionary leader but not an efficient and an effective
leader. He was more of dreamer than visionary leader. The case shows that he failed to
communicate effectively with the team. His autocratic ideas and no trust in his
employees lead them to wrong directions.
- What is strategic leadership?
Strategic Leadership is the ability to anticipate and envision the future, maintain
flexibility, think strategically, and initiate changes that will create a competitive
advantage for the organization in the future.
- The Domain of Strategic Leadership
When a leader is able to understand clearly the
meaning of vision, mission, strategy and execution, it
helps them to delegate who should accomplish what.
It helps to have better plans and better execution of
the plans as well. It also helps to achieve more of
what they want. Relating this to the case study,
Coleman is lacking in these area. All he has was vision statement with no strategies or
tactics for execution. The picture shows the levels that groups together the domain of
strategic leadership.
At the top is Vision, which gives a direction and describes what and where an
organisation wants to be in the future.
Mission –who are we as an organisation, why it exists, its reason for being.
Strategy- It is a formula, goals, methods and direction for transforming the vision into
action. Strategy is the organization’s plan to accomplish the visions in more specific
terms.
Strategies are intentions and Executions that make those intentions happen.
- Linking Exhibit 13.1 – Linking Strategic Vision and
Strategic Action
Exhibit 13.1 demonstrates four possibilities of
leadership in respect to accomplish a vision. This
is where we describe the types of leaders. Both
Coleman and Deacon can be judged in terms of
leadership based on their attention to vision and
attention to action. The person who is low both on
providing a vision and stimulating an action is
uninvolved, not really a leader at all. Deacon presents himself as the doer with all his
actions and little vision. He worked really hard with his employees and was also
dedicated to the job. However, he worked blindly to follow Coleman’s ideas and never
analyzed them. Without a sense of purpose and direction, the projects have no real
meaning, and do not truly help the company as well as the employees. On the other
hand, Coleman is more of dreamer who is good at providing a big idea. He may
effectively inspire others with a vision, yet he is weak on executing strategic action. The
vision in this case is only a dream, a fantasy, because it has little chance of ever

becoming a reality. To be an effective leader, one should have big dreams and ability to
transform those dreams into significant strategic actions.
In today’s rapidly changing, global business environment, enterprises are facing steady
and often insightful changes from the marketplaces, competitors, and progressive
technologies to increasing client expectations. Increasing demands for cost control and
new products when shared with a sense of necessity create an atmosphere that is often
pressured and complicated.
Strategic leadership plays an important role in dynamic business environment. It is a
wider and more innovative way of thinking on a daily basis about the entire goals of the
job, team and organisation. It provides a longer-term orientated and a more organized
view of the environment. The global business faces various challenges today. Everybody
is struggling and is fighting for survival and existence. In order to survive in a business
environment, business leaders need a clear vision, effective strategies in place to
execute the vision.
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