1.
In
your own words and using referenced quotes describe what is meant by the term “strategic
leadership”.
1.
Why has Lady Gaga been so successful? What strategy has she
followed?
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The potential of the
manager to express a strategic vision for a part of the organization, or a
whole organization, and to persuade and motivate others to acquire that vision
is known as Strategic Leadership. Utilization of strategy in the management of
the employees can be another definition of Strategic leadership. It is the
potential to execute organizational changes and influence organizational
members. Expressing strategic vision, allocating resources, and creating
organizational structures are the major activities that the strategic leaders
performs. The potential to comprehend and foresee the work environment is the
major requirement of strategic leadership. It requires potential and
objectivity to look at the broader picture.
Strategic productivity
is the main objective of strategic leadership. Developing an environment where
the employees can forecast the organization’s needs in context of their own job
is another important aim of strategic leadership. The employees in the
organization are encouraged by the strategic leaders to follow their own ideas.
Strategic leaders make best use of incentive and reward system for inspiring
quality and productive employees to show much superior performance for their
organization.
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Main qualities/features/characteristics/traits of
effective strategic leaders are as follows:-
Ü Self-control:
Ü Loyalty:
Ü Readiness to delegate and
authorize:
Ü Self-awareness:
Ü Social skills:
Ü Compassion:
Ü Constancy/Reliability:
Ü Articulacy:
Ü Motivation:
Ü Have wider perspective/outlook:
Ü Judicious use of power: and,
Ü Keeping them updated:
To conclude, Strategic
leaders can passionately possess vision, express vision, create vision and
persistently drive it to accomplishment.
2.
Identify
two interesting similarities and two differences between the 5 Elements of
Successful and Effective Strategic Leadership model and the Transcendent
Leadership model.
Two Interesting
Similarities and differences between 5 elements of successful and effective Strategic
Leadership model (also known as Lynch Model) and Transcendent Leadership Model
are given below:-
Similarities:
1. Both
these models focuses on managing the changing environment and gaining
sustainable competitive advantage over the time.
2. Granting
benefits to the stakeholders and holding good relationship between both of them
outside and inside the organization is another important similarities between
these two models.
Differences:
1. Leadership
for the organization’s purposes and benefits is the only focused area by five
elements of successful and effective leadership model (also known as Lynch
Model), whereas Transcendent leadership focuses on leadership of self and
others too alongside with focus on leadership for organizations purpose which
is fascinating.
2. Five
elements of successful and effective leadership model (also known as Lynch
Model) considers only human resources as to select, motivate and develop them
with focus mostly on key talents, however non-human elements like structure and
procedures, rules and strategies are the main focus of Transcendent model.
Reference:
About Strategic leadership, [Online], Accessed from http://www.managementstudyguide.com/strategic-leadership.htm, Accessed on 28th April, 2013
About Strategic leadership, [Online], Accessed from http://www.wisegeek.org/what-is-strategic-leadership.htm Accessed on 28th April, 2013
Yukl, G. (2006), Leadership in organizations, 7th edition, Pearson
education, Inc.
Russell, R.F & Stone, A.G (2002), A review of servant
leadership attributes: developing a practical model, leadership and organizational
development journal, 23/3, pp. 145 - 157.
Lynch R (2009), Strategic Management, 5th edition, Pearson
Education Limited
Johnson, G., Scholes, K, and Whittington (2008), Exploring
Corporate Strategy, Text and Cases, 8th Edition, Pearson education Ltd.
Case Study:
1.
Why has Lady Gaga been so successful? What strategy has she
followed?
Lady Gaga is undoubtedly a music sensation. Since 2008, she
has sold more than 15 million albums, 40 million singles and countless
downloads worldwide. She has a huge following of her fans which can be seen by
the rising amount of followers/fans on Facebook which is more than 10 million
(first living person to achieve 10 million fans on Facebook). 5 million fans on
Twitter and a first currently performing artist to reach a billion views on
YouTube are some of her other achievements that shows how successful she is.
There are many things that Lady Gaga followed which made her successful.
First of all, she stood on the shoulders of giants such as Madonna, and glam
rockers such as Alice Cooper and Queens to craft her image, stage performances
and more importantly music. She is likely to lasts longer than most people in
the music business today because of her wider appeal across generations.
Lady Gaga has been very smart and clever to exploit and
understand between the 3 F’s: Fashion, Fans and Followers. Lady Gaga has
recognized herself as a brand and have trademarked her name early in her
career. Lady Gaga has been able to maintain control over her management, music
and image. She has always been able to be in the spotlight and is a perfect
example of exponent of continual reinvention: Changing her public image and
stage personae regularly as a means of sustaining the involvement and interest
of media and fans alike. Use of sexual, religious and violent iconography have
attracted both attention and controversy for her.
Lady Gaga’s product development and marketing was quick to
adapt to the changes that have almost destroyed the music business over the
last decade. The revenues from the recorded music was dipping down because of
the digital technologies and the ease of internet file sharing. This resulted
in the elevation of live performances to be the major source of revenue
generation for the music business. Money from concert tickets are the major
source revenue for Lady Gaga and her record label not the record or video
sales, which shows how well Lady Gaga have been able to adapt to the changes.
Opportunities from internet and social media was also very quickly
recognized by Lady Gaga and her team. She makes broad use of social media such
as Twitter and Facebook, to build her fan base and by personally creating the
majority of her own online contents. She also engenders the feelings of loyalty
and friendship through engaging with fans in social media platforms. She made
the loyalty of her fans more strong by giving them the pet name “monsters” and
providing them with the extracts of videos prior to the general public release.
Her fans have become an unpaid public relations force for her. She even
dedicated her second album “Fame Monster” specifically to her fan base.
2. If you were advising her on her future strategy – what analysis would you undertake? What models or theories would you use?
2. If you were advising her on her future strategy – what analysis would you undertake? What models or theories would you use?
If I had to give advice
to Lady Gaga regarding her future, then I would probably use all the four
theories/models that comes under Strategy Theory Responses, the theories are as
follows:-
Ø
Complexity
Theory
Ø
Options
Theory
Ø
Rapid
Adaptation
Ø
Creative
and Strategic Thinking
And, their implication,
Ø I would use the Complexity
Theory because we cannot predict the external environment as well as the
outcome of our actions. This theory can really help in advising Lady Gaga
because it helps to identify the common relationships and information and can
help in accelerating the speed of adaptability to change through
self-organization.
Ø I would use the Options
Theory because it will help in identifying and analyzing the best possible
options to have the best outcome. This theory will help us to understand the
possible options available for us making us flexible and which leads in gaining
competitive advantage through flexibility. Lady Gaga can also utilize on this
as it will provide her with different options to choose from and which can give
her the possible best output with flexibility and competitive advantage.
Ø I would use the Rapid
Adaptability theory because it will provide us with the capabilities to
read and act on signals of change, experiment frequently and rapidly (with
strategies, processes and business models too), and with abilities to motivate
partners and employees/team/management. This would be really handy for Lady
Gaga because this theory will provide many capabilities and abilities that will
help her for rapid adaptability and sustain her future.
Ø And, Lastly I would use Creativity
and Strategic Thinking theory because this theory helps us to learn the
ways of appearing unpredictable to the external world whilst, internally
thinking the strategies through. This can help Lady Gaga to gain competitive advantage
because it will set her apart from her competitors while becoming stronger than
them.
If I have to advise her for her then I would probably advise her as follows:-
3. What advice would you give her?
If I have to advise her for her then I would probably advise her as follows:-
Ø She should try to value the die-hard fans that may only make
up a small part of the fan base but are very valuable because these are the
fans who truly evangelize for her and will bring new fans into the fold. They are
the most passionate fans and customers, who are willing to go the extra mile to
sing your praises to their community and friends.
Ø Building a community can really help her in many ways. Fans
set up profiles, photos, post fan art, find links to concert dates and message
each other.
Ø She have a fan base all around the world and therefore should
focus her concerts and music not only limited to the western countries but all
over the world.
Ø She should continue her involvements in social services in
future too. She has been already involved in helping the people in those
societies where they feel bullied and marginalized for being different. She
should continue to stand up for social issues in future too, because this helps
to make a deep emotional connection with the customers as they can identify
themselves with your values or causes that you care about.
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