Leadership Development Plan for Craiglock Garden Centre

Introduction

The reorganization of a business can take many forms. One of the most crucial areas for reorganization — whether expanding a business, acquiring a new one, or restructuring due to bankruptcy — is focusing the new management team and incorporating viable solutions for leadership learning and development. This report aims to draw up a management development program, devise a plan that ensures the learning needs of the organization are met through a sound and reliable strategic framework, and illustrate how a well-formatted strategic plan can tie in the objectives associated with learning and development planning.

In addition, the report justifies the management development program by examining the strengths and weaknesses of this type of program. By explaining the importance of learning and development in the strategic direction of an organization, the management team is more likely to successfully evaluate what is and is not necessary. Strategic human resource management provides a strong rationale for drawing up plans based on realistic activities that clearly meet the development needs of the directors.

History and Business Background

The Craiglock Nursery, established in 1974, was originally a consortium of local businessmen from Edinburgh who provided individual gardening and nursery services. The business thrived during the 1980s and 1990s and expanded to six dispersed units across the city and in some surrounding towns. These individual units were largely self-sufficient in terms of management structure and systems, each serving its own local market area. As the industry evolved, larger garden centers — combined with the growing popularity of gardening programs on television — reduced the nurseries' market share. A further concern arose in 2008 when the original owners retired and left the organization to their children.

One of the new directors has worked with the company since the age of 18 and has a good grasp of the business, including its strengths and weaknesses, as well as a strong rapport with the staff. Another director also worked with the company during summers and weekends throughout his school years; he currently works in London as a financial manager and will therefore serve as a part-time financial advisor. The third director has managerial experience from a large hotel chain and holds postgraduate management qualifications, and has been working hard to gain insight into the business to ensure future success. The three new directors get along well and share a common vision: to expand Craiglock Nurseries into a strong company with local, national, and international market presence.

Brian Tracy, one of the best-known motivational speakers and business leaders of our time, draws on more than thirty years of experience in his book The 100 Absolutely Unbreakable Laws of Business Success. He presents a set of principles — or "unbreakable universal laws" — that he argues lie at the root of every person's business success or failure: "These are natural laws that work everywhere for everyone, virtually without exception. Every year, thousands of companies underperform or even fail, and millions of individuals underachieve, frustrated by thwarted ambition and dreams — all because they either attempt to violate or did not know these universal laws." (Tracy, 2000, p. 13)

New Organizational Structure

The current situation is that the company employs 50 staff members scattered across six sites, with directors based in a main city office separate from the primary nursery. Seventy-five percent of the staff have been with the organization for over ten years, and some are nearing retirement age. There has always been an ingrained culture among the long-serving staff, and at all six sites this has reinforced Craiglock's identity as a local supplier for each surrounding community.

The new organizational structure moves the company in a new strategic direction. The directors plan to combine the six smaller units into a single centralized facility located just outside Edinburgh city in a well-established shopping complex. The company's new name will be Craiglock Garden Centre, and the new facility has already been completed, with the business expected to be fully operational within the next 18 months.

Combining the six units will enable the company to take advantage of economies of scale, and there will also be a 25% reduction in human resources, saving additional costs. Any gaps in the labor pool will be filled with temporary and agency staff. Human resource policies and procedures will be examined and reshaped to ensure effective performance management output, and Craiglock aims to become a learning-based organization and achieve Investors in People status. One challenge is that the move to a central location may affect some staff negatively, potentially causing inner conflict, even though others may welcome the new setting.

Strategic Planning and Organizational Development

The success of Craiglock Garden Centre will depend on a variety of critical factors. The organization must set the right goals to become profitable while also meeting objectives that protect the environment and human health. Craiglock Garden Centre will maintain close collaboration and good communications with governmental partners, suppliers, and vendors, as these relationships are a critical aspect of a meaningful business development strategy. The company and its partners will need to use the best available economic and technical information to establish priorities and make decisions. Incorporating the right technology will help the company determine whether problems pose mission-critical risks to the organization, the environment, human health, or quality of life, while sound economic information will ensure intelligent and cost-effective decision-making.

Craiglock Garden Centre will also collect and maintain environmental information that can be used to assess how best to serve its customers while improving its green objectives and reducing its global footprint. The company will establish a baseline of current conditions across the six outlets and identify how best to incorporate this information into the new single facility. This baseline data will also inform the creation of new business objectives and goals and serve as a benchmark for assessing progress and evaluating performance.

The new director team will continue to explore new and creative ways to achieve organizational goals, including innovative approaches to addressing environmental needs and better serving the customer base. Craiglock Garden Centre's future success will be greatly influenced by its ability to develop and sustain a highly skilled, adaptable, results-oriented workforce — one that brings the right mix of technical expertise, experience, and leadership capabilities to carry out the company's mission.

Recommendations and Action Plan for Human Resources and Management

Craiglock Garden Centre will maintain a modern work environment and will build a fluid and dynamic workforce. Keeping accurate job analysis data and up-to-date personnel information will be a vital part of the organization. By implementing the following human resource and company objectives, this strategic plan will help Craiglock Garden Centre become more streamlined and efficient, and the hiring process will be greatly improved through sound, business-focused methodologies that increase productivity and create a performance-based atmosphere.

First and foremost, the three directors will utilize strategic business planning techniques focused on offering the management team a sound guide to thinking in a Craiglock Garden Centre way. This training process will require the entire management team to apply a comprehensive systems-thinking approach that enhances the strategic and business planning process. The directors will explain how management will develop departmental strategic plans that ensure successful implementation of the overall organizational plan, while also building and sustaining high levels of performance across every employee. As Tracy notes, "Continuous practice of a key skill reduces the time required to perform the task and increases the output achieved." (Tracy, p. 285)

Employee management will also need to address the organization's aging workforce. The company must create processes that enable Craiglock Garden Centre managers to recruit, train, motivate, and retain younger employees. In practical terms, Craiglock Garden Centre will actively make Generation X employees feel welcome, and directors aim to implement strategies that help the management team understand how to put younger employees' unique skills and characteristics to work in service of the company's goals. The company will also actively recruit from the newer cohort of young adults known as Generation Y. Managers will be well trained to understand the traits that pose the greatest challenge when managing these employees and to stay current with the expectations of tech-savvy, upbeat workers.

The management team will also be required to implement systems-level thinking and learning by using practical concepts and specific tools to move from theory to practice. Craiglock Garden Centre aims to eliminate chaos and complexity from day-to-day operations by shifting from seeing elements, structures, and functions in isolation to seeing the processes, interrelationships, and successful business outcomes as a whole. For example, in the hiring process, Craiglock Garden Centre management will incorporate competency-based interviewing techniques that provide a very detailed strategic focus. These techniques allow hiring managers to integrate job-specific, future-oriented competencies into their interviews and enable the management team to identify the key competencies of reliable employees and build those competencies into the hiring and selection process. In short, Craiglock Garden Centre will hire the right people for the right job.

The hiring process will never be left to guesswork, as this approach is no longer viable in today's globally oriented business environment. Managers who hire for Craiglock Garden Centre will use assessment information because the legal environment demands it and maintaining a competitive advantage requires it. A consistent process will allow managers to make informed decisions that expand the potential of new hires, strengthen legal compliance, and improve Craiglock Garden Centre's overall understanding of its people and their performance.

Conclusion

The reorganization of a business today comes in many forms, and a crucial area of reorganization — whether a business is growing, integrating a new subsidiary, or restructuring through bankruptcy — is focusing the new management team to incorporate viable solutions for leadership learning and development. This report provided a management development program and strategic plan to devise a viable process ensuring that the needs of the organization will be met. The report also justified the management development program, including an examination of the strengths and weaknesses of this type of program. By explaining the importance of learning and development in the strategic direction of an organization, the management team can successfully evaluate what is and is not necessary. Strategic human resource management is a strong reason to draw up plans based on realistic activities that clearly meet the developmental needs of the directors and the employees of Craiglock Garden Centre.