Analysis of change leadership implementation options in organizational scenarios

Gene Change

Leadership Change at GeneOne

GeneOne is facing some significant challenges in its leadership individuals and structure as the company heads towards its IPO on a fairly accelerated schedule. The company has been immensely successful since its founding, largely due to the individual talents of the executives that helped to found or were brought into the company, but none of these team members have any experience whatsoever with IPOs, meaning a change in leadership will be necessary in order to effectively guide GeneOne through its next phase of growth (BrainMass 2010). In addition, not all team members are on board with the strategy that has been discussed and decided upon for bringing off the IPO successfully, and similarly not all of GeneOne's leaders are especially happy with the IPO itself or what it represents.

There are several alternatives for the changes that could occur in the organizational leadership at GeneOne in order to better meet the challenges of the IPO and the future development of the company. One of the major choices that needs to be made is wither the current CTO and lead scientific innovator at the company, Terri Robertson, should remain. Though she has been an invaluable asset to the company and is in fact responsible for the technological breakthrough that led to the company's establishment in the first place, she has also made it clear that she is not fully committed to an established business timeline for scientific developments. A leader that is not on board with the overall changes and trajectory of their organization can be a tremendous liability, not only hindering operations but affecting morale and potentially alienating a huge an integral segment of the organization (Bratton et al. 2005).

In addition to deciding whether or not Terri Robertson should be kept on as a leader in the company, GeneOne's leadership must determine if certain other key individuals should remain with the company, and truly each executive position should be examined to determine if the person holding it will be a good fit for the same position following the IPO; some individuals might still be an asset to the company but be inappropriate executives for a newly public company. At the same time, there should not be too many changes in leadership, or the company risks suddenly losing the human impetus and the familial culture that has been developed, as a sudden leadership change occurring at the same time as a major strategic change can be incredibly disconcerting for others in the organization (Bratton et al. 2005). The company needs to find the proper balance between personnel/leadership stability and the maintenance of a solid structure and organizational culture on the one hand, with proper knowledge and experience on the other hand (Bratton et al. 2005).