Strategic Leadership for Business Transformation: Gillette Case

This report analyzes the relationship between strategic leadership and business transformation, focusing on Gillette's business expansion into the women's grooming market. It examines the challenges in leading organizational transformation, including implementation of change, cost of change, resource availability, consumer choices, and organizational culture. The report discusses the importance of a shared change vision and effective communication strategies, such as emails, instant messaging, and phone calls. Furthermore, it explores the application of transformational leadership practices, emphasizing the need for leaders to inspire and motivate their teams, foster innovation, and build strong relationships with stakeholders to ensure the success of the transitional change implemented by the organization. The analysis highlights the critical role of strategic leadership in aligning organizational efforts with the vision and achieving competitive advantage in a dynamic business environment. Desklib offers a variety of resources to help students with similar assignments.

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Strategic Leadership for business transformation

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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................4
Task 1...............................................................................................................................................4
1. Analysis of relationship of strategic leadership with business transformation.....................4
2. Challenges in leading organizational transformation...........................................................5
Task 2...............................................................................................................................................6
Part 1 Shared change vision.........................................................................................................6
1................................................................................................................................................6
2................................................................................................................................................6
Part 2 Communication.................................................................................................................7
Task 3 Application of transformational leadership practices..........................................................8
1....................................................................................................................................................8
2....................................................................................................................................................8
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................10
References......................................................................................................................................11

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Introduction
Transformational leadership is a theory of leadership and it is considered as the most
effective and dynamic amongst the all leadership theories. As per this theory, leader works in a
team in order to identify the change needed at workplace, creating vision for the same, inspiring
the teammates in terms of aligning their vision and goals with the organizational mission and
vision (Zhu, Avolio& Walumbwa, 2016).
This report will focus over the business expansion of Gillette Company as the company
has set their vision “to build brand value by innovating in terms of delivering customer value and
customer leadership faster and better for gaining competitive advantage”. Organization has
rapidly expands its business by understanding women’s wants. Organization launched its women
segment products in 2001 under the name of Venus and now company is planning to double up
the sales from this segment with the objective of sustainable growth and overall development in
future years. With the application of transformational leadership practices in this scenario,
success of the transitional change implemented by the organization will be ensured.
Task 1
1. Analysis of relationship of strategic leadership with business transformation
Strategic leadership is one of the essential parts of the whole strategy of business which plays
vital role in the business transformation because business organizations need strong, strategic
and capable leaders who could motivate, coach and inspire their subordinates for performing
strategic work in order to attain the goals. Employees at all levels require a leader who could
show them the adequate path to follow in terms of reaching towards the desired destination as
well as to add certain value towards organizational success. In order to gain competitive
advantage and to measure the employees’ efficiency, it is required for the leader to align their
efforts with the organizational vision. Therefore, leaders are required to increase their efficiency
in relevance with focusing towards strategic work to adopt competitive advantage along with
gaining the hidden opportunities (Center for Management & Organization Effectivenes, 2017).

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The four dimensions of strategic leadership are creating an inspiring vision for the future,
communicating and motivating people to buy into and deliver vision, managing delivery of the
vision and building ever-stronger, trust based relationships with the people at the workplace.
These four dimensions of strategic leadership not only help the organization to manage the
change in an effective manner but these factors also ensure the success of the business
transformation. In the scenario of Gillette Company, leaders of the organization required to
practice their functionalities in an appropriate manner through which the goals linked to the
business expansion in women segment along with enhancing sales in the future years could be
attained. This will be done by setting up small goals in relevance with accomplishment of
primary vision to attain success (Donohoe &Kelloway, 2016).
 Creating vision: Vision for Gillette is to build brand value by delivering high product
value along with the development of customer relationships. The vision is supported by
fundamental principles i.e. core values and organizational excellence.
 Communicating vision:In relevance with communicating the vision with the employees,
leaders will use appropriate and trending communication tools through which their
engagement with the organizational functionalities could be enhanced (McCleskey,
2014).
 Managing delivery of the vision: With the help of strategic leadership, business
transformation will be aligned in order to reach to the desired goals. Apart from this,
organization would also focus towards enhancing efficiency of the employees in order to
align the goals and objectives.
 Building relationship: In order to build strong relationships with the people,
organizational leaders will deliver the qualitative products and highly valued products
and that too at the cheapest rates in comparison to their competitors.
2. Challenges in leading organizational transformation
Gillette is one of the giant brands of men grooming and shaving products and it is a
subsidiary company of Procter & Gamble Co. and it was founded in 1901. Company is
specialised in manufacturing and distributing razors, blades, and various other products like pre
and post shaving gels, foams, skin care, etc. After getting success in the men grooming products,

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organization has recently surveyed to analyse the demand for razors, blades and other products
amongst the women and the results obtained from the research have ultimately motivated
organization to move towards fulfilling women’s wants. With regards to this, Gillette launched
the brand for women in 2001. This transformation has been the most beneficial step taken by the
organization since its origination, thus, organizational parent company i.e. Procter & Gamble Co.
has showed their interest in expanding women grooming industry and in relation to this,
organization has set vision of doubling up the sales from women grooming in the coming years
(Tepper, et. al., 2018). With regards to this expansion, organizational leaders may need to face
certain challenges which are as follows:
 Implementation of change: Business transformation is directly linked with the change
management process and in this scenario, Gillette is transforming its interest to the
women grooming products, thus, it will be bit difficult for the leaders to implement this
change. This is because the employees have appropriate knowledge about the products of
men grooming and shaving products and now shifting their skills, experience and
knowledge towards women’s demands will require lot of efforts such as providing
training to align their efforts with the organizational vision (3i Infotech, 2018).
 Cost of change: This is the biggest concern for every leader because transformational
leaders are known as the role model for their subordinates and the scenarios under which
leaders’ strategies fails, it creates negative impact over the employees as well as over the
whole organization. Thus, the cost of change could be very expensive for the
organization.
 Availability of resources:Gillette is a well-known brand of men shaving and grooming
products and suddenly shifting their primary interest towards manufacturing women
grooming products would lead to finding appropriate resources for the organization along
with the experts of the women segment who could train the employees for the attainment
of desired goals (Breevaart, et. al., 2014).
 Choices:From the research, it has been evaluated that men do not much think before
buying shaving gels, foams, etc. But while considering the women industry, they thinks a
lot before purchasing a single product and the major concern in this is offering different

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varieties and choices to them. In relation to this, leaders may not be able to fill
information regarding every product amongst their employees to fulfil organizational
primary vision of building a highly customer value (Collins, 2015).
 Organizational culture: Culture of the organization limits the people to be receptive for
the change which act as one of the biggest challenge. Thus, leader’s first needs to analyse
the organizational culture and with regards to this, appropriate and relevant measures will
be adopted in order to align employees’ efforts for the attainment of organizational goals
(Engelen, Gupta, Strenger&Brettel, 2015).
Task 2
Part 1 Shared change vision
1.
As per the case study, organizational vision is “to build total brand value by innovating
new products to deliver customer value and customer leadership faster, better and more
completely than the competition. In relevance to this, organizational vision for the women
segment will be “providing appropriate choices and varieties with the objective of fulfilling their
demands along with the objective of fulfilling their demands”.
Female segment is considered as the highly profitable and there is huge opportunity to
enhance organizational performance. Thus, it is must for the organization to deliver qualitative
products at cheap rates in order to gain competitive advantage as well as to accomplish desired
goals (Roueche, Baker III & Rose, 2014).
2.
a. Desired destination for the organization in the women segment is to be the most valuable
company along with the highest customer satisfaction. Organization is expanding its
business in the women segment through their newly established brand i.e. Venus with the
objective of fulfilling the demands of women segment. Gillette is known for delivering
higher valued products through which customer satisfaction could be enhanced and for better
customer relationships. With the same objectives, organization has entered into women

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grooming segment and the desired destination for the Venus is to lead the whole industry as
well as the business expansion in all those global parts where organization is already
performing with its other subsidiaries.
b. Primary challenge in reaching to the leading position and in terms of attaining highest
customer satisfaction is competition in the market. There are number of competitors for
Venus who are already performing well in the women segment through their extra ordinary
products, thus, setting up position in front of those companies as well as to gain competitive
advantage is bit difficult.As there is no such success without obstacles, vision set up for the
Venus will be attained with the help of strategies adopted by the transformational leaders of
the organization (Wang, Demerouti& Le Blanc, 2017).
c. Change is necessary for the purpose of growth and development of the organization.
Business environment is considered as the dynamic in nature and to sustain in the dynamic
business environment, it is necessary to adopt certain effective strategies. Apart from this,
communicating change with the employees is another crucial aspect for the organization as it
not only helps in engaging them with the organizational vision but it also helps in building
appropriate relationships with the employers (Mittal &Dhar, 2015).
Part 2 Communication
Communication is one of the most appropriate and effective element at workplace which
helps in creating better work environment, developing coordination amongst the employees,
communicating organizational goals with the employees, customers and relevant stakeholders.
With regards to this, there are multiple options available with every organization through which
not only organization could be able to execute their functionalities but it will also help the
organization to manage a better coordination between management and employees (Engelen,
Gupta, Strenger&Brettel, 2015).
As per the organizational shared vision, organization could focus over both written as well
as oral communication methods in order to communicate the organizational vision with the
employees. Following three forms of communication tools could be adopted by the organization
to match up with the organizational expectations:

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 Emails: Email is one of the great and effective medium of written communication
methods. This method is also known as the confidential method of communication and it
is the most and widely used method in the business. In business, documentation is the
key aspect for executing any activity and the email method of communication is a well-
known source for documenting the conversation held between two or more parties
(Ghasabeh, Soosay&Reaiche, 2015).
 Instant message (internal communication method):This is another effective medium
of written communication methods. Using internal communication system has been the
major tool for organizations these days as it helps organizations to encrypt the
conversation between the employees and the management. Risk factors in using internal
communication system are very less because it is controlled by the personal server of the
organization which helps in development of confidentiality at the workplace.
 Phones:This is known as the most used communication method especially in the oral
communication methods’ category. As this tool is not much confidential because there is
no source to document the conversation held between the parties until and unless, phone
calls are being recorded. This is used by the employees for communicating with each
other at workplace in order to discuss the project and it is known as the instant result
oriented platform (Anderson, et. al., 2015).
Task 3 Application of transformational leadership practices
1.
Transformational leaders help the organization to find cost-effective strategy in order to
enhance organizational functionalities. Transforming leaders are idealised in the sense that they
are a moral exemplar of working towards the benefit of the team, organization as well as the
whole community. With regards to this and as per the given scenario, following five leadership
practices will help the organization to implement strategic change as per the shared vision:
 Personal accountability: Transformational leaders do not blame external factors to
bring change at workplace or they do not blame the organizational culture, their
teammates’ efficiency, their boss’ behaviour or other factors for their actions. They used

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to bring change by their own and in relation to this, they start implementing change from
themselves (Phutela, 2015).
 Strengths, purpose and values: Every leader has unique strengths, values and purposes
but the leader who actually brings change with these attributes is considered as the most
effective. This also helps the leader to prove its effectiveness amongst their subordinates
along with developing positive attitude amongst their teammates. According to research,
it has been observed that when leaders are more focused towards their own values, and
sense of purposes, it makes them more confident, courageous and resilient in terms of
meeting with the changes and challenges (Inam, 2016).
 Experiment with new behaviours:Transformational leaders are efficient enough to deal
with new behaviours along with taking appropriate actions in order find out best ways
for the purpose of enhancing organizational performance. This makes them more agile to
different situations and ultimately, it enhances productivity of theorganization.
 Brings mindset of curiosity rather than judgement: Taking out the same way to reach
towards the destination is the general approach adopted by human beings. This reduces
the brain power of the human beings. Transformational leaders do not take the easy and
similar way to reach towards the desired destination and it helps them to find unique
ways to reach out towards their desired destination in an effective manner (Merckaert, et.
al., 2015).
 Looks for the opportunity in change:Whenever change happens at workplace,
transformational leaders find some sort of opportunity in it. They analyse both positive
as well as negative aspects of the change in order to find the points through which
learning could be enhanced as well as to generate new options for the objective of
enhancing organizational performance.
2.
Transactional leaders emphasize the structure of rewards as well as conformity to rules. They
also enforce the policies that can hold back creativity. Transitional leaders connect the strength,
purposes and values to maintain the strategic business relationship with internal and external

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stakeholders and improving the professional attitudes, qualities and behaviour and ethical
behaviour (Hall, 2016). It is discussed as below:
Strategic business relationship with internal stakeholders:
Transitional leaders develop the relationship with internal stakeholders in order to understand the
business drivers and requirements as well as try to get forward of their requests, and learn to
potential requirements. Internal stakeholders will appreciate the transitional leader while they
would assume the accountabilities for dealing with issues in an effective manner (Merckaert, et.
al., 2015).
Strategic business relationship with external stakeholders:
The transitional leader develops a favourable relationship with external stakeholders by
organising the community campaign. In this way, workforces are provided time to volunteer the
local business and it is supported by the company. Moreover, transitional leader organises a
meeting with the external stakeholders who are already motivated regarding all things that
company perform in the community (Inam, 2016).
In addition, the transitional leader may act cooperatively with other body both private and public
and also make sure that risk and harms creating from corporate activities could be minimized.
Furthermore, the transitional leader should identify the interdependence of rewards and efforts
between external stakeholders. They should also make efforts to attaining the fair distribution of
the benefits and creates a burden of corporate activity between them. It may also take into
account the respective exposure and risk. A transitional leader can listen to and openly interact
with the stakeholders regarding the respective issues and contributions. They may also identify
the uncertainty that they assume due to involvement with the company. Moreover, the

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transitional leader can acknowledge and actively address the issue of all legitimate stakeholders
and should focus on the interest of external stakeholders into decision making as well as
operation (Engelen, Gupta, Strenger, & Brettel, 2015).
Professional attitudes, qualities and behaviour:
The transitional leader may endorse the compliance by followers. This compliance can be related
to both punishments and rewards. By using the punishment and rewards system, a transitional
leader could be competent to keep followers encouraged for a shorter time period. A transitional
leader always has professional attitudes, behaviour and qualities. They are likely to command the
operations, manage companies and lead international projects that need rules and regulation for
attaining the purposes and objectives on time and moves people in an effective manner (Hall,
2016).
Ethical behaviour:
The transitional leader gives value to all workforces. They also demonstrate their employees that
they are in high amount but despite it, the leader gives value to them and empowering them by
involving into decision making procedure. These leaders develop the comment box and generate
an open door policy to motivate all employees to share their concern (Phutela, 2015). The
minimum ethical need of a transitional leader is to consider the laws and regulations developed
by governmental bodies. However, a business that includes those minimums could be rewarded
with higher loyalty of customers, maximum profits and lower employee turnover. Moreover, the
transitional leader may opt for paying more than the minimum wage to lower level workforces.
The transitional leader may demonstrate the environmental leadership via measures like reducing
energy usage by retrofitting facility with more energy efficient illumination and using recycled

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products in the manufacturing procedure (Breevaart, Bakker, Hetland, Demerouti, Olsen, &
Espevik, 2014).
Other expectations:
Transitional leaders donate products to area charitable companies and motivate workforces to
volunteer on time. They can also provide an incentive to workforces who engaged in volunteer
activities like permitting them to do so when technically on the clock. Moreover, they can
publically appreciate the workforces who are giving of their time (Anderson, et. al., 2015).
Conclusion
Transformational leadership is the main element of strategic leadership and with regards
to this; this leadership style is capable enough to align the business transformation along with
mitigating the challenges arising due to business transformation. Apart from this, transformation
leadership is said to be a great source of motivating employees along with showcasing the right
path in order to reach towards the desired destination which could also attain the goals at
individual level also. With this unique style, transformational leaders generate a sense of respect
amongst its subordinates and teammates and they also treat their leader as the role model which
acts as an essential factor for inspiring the employees along with raising their interest in the
project.

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