Week 23

1.     In your own words and using referenced quotes describe what is meant by the term “strategic leadership”.

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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 28^th April, 2013

About Strategic leadership, [Online], Accessed from http://www.wisegeek.org/what-is-strategic-leadership.htm Accessed on 28^th 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?

         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.

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.