1) Describe the extent to which Brenneman paid attention to the three areas of the triad of awareness and discuss which of these areas he could have been more attentive to.

2. Explain how the actions of Brenneman and Fletcher Jones addressed the three recurring paradoxes.

3. Critically evaluate how the theory of the business explains Brenneman's actions and whether his actions indicated that he transformed the business model.

4. Discuss how Brenneman's actions aligned with two of the secrets of the super bosses and how he succeeded in dealing with two of the biases  which impede organisational learning.

5. Consider how the actions of Brenneman and Fletcher Jones indicated that their businesses were 'Purpose-Driven'.

 

Answer:

1. Explain the ways Greg Brenneman paid attention to the three areas of the triad of awareness and discuss which area he could have paid more attention to.

According to our main challenge is to have a thorough understanding of ourselves so that we can realize our leadership gifts and put these gifts in the service of others. The lives of both Brenneman and Jones is a reflection of this principle, especially when one considers their respective roles and missions. Nothing displays any trace of pursuit of selfish interest in their actions, even in the case of Jones and his business where should he have pursued his self-interest, then people would have understood because, after all it is business. They were committed to their service to the populace. Both Brenneman and Jones were looking to build were looking to build success for the greater majority; serving others so that the many people involved could benefit. Such is a mark of true leadership, which is admirable and original.

connotes that the mark of an authentic leader is the person's desire to build a collective success for all the people involved rather than build their own success or get their workers to follow them. Instead these breed of leaders realize that success of the organization is heavily dependent on the empowerment of leaders at all the levels of the organization, like Brenneman and Jones did.  Empowering other people has a knock-on effect since the people who are empowered pick up the culture of empowering other people around them, making them creative enough to step up and become leaders also ///. It is often the case that leadership emerges from the life stories of people who are determined to make a difference, from whom we copy desirable traits and skills. /// explain that for one to become an authentic leader, they need to know their true self, exercise and live according to their principles and values, thus maintaining a balance among their intrinsic motivators /// One example of what Shamir and Eilam refer to can be seen in the authentic voice of Brenneman and that of Jones, which was a result of their values and beliefs they picked out of their own life events. This aspect of their character was responsible for the decision to make people-centered decisions.

Moreover, Brenneman, a Harvard graduate and a successful business figure had mastery in these awareness and used them to achieve much of what he did. He recommended use of use of steps such as; having a plan and track on the progress, thinking of money in and not money out, building a fortress balance sheet, building a team, and letting the inmates run the asylum. The impact of the steps has been seen on the business success even during financial crisis such as in 2008, and also to his own personal life which helped improve areas such as finance, fitness, family and friends. In his one-page plan dub, the 'Go forward plan.' has four cornerstones which are; product, financial, people and market. This helps in developing workable strategy that ensure one works and focus on the plan.

It is the application of this knowledge that we see his achievements such as improving the market share and profits of burger king corp. which had slipped over the years preceding 2004. Within one year Brenneman burger king had positive comparative sales, award-winning advertisements, improved services, reduced costs of construction of new restaurants among other achievements. His professionalism was good, though he decided to resign as the president of continental airlines in 1995 which broke up among the most durable and also successful executive teams within airline industry. On my opinion, his presence in the airline industry was impactful and he did not have to quit to re-join the private equity firm he had earlier on founded, Turn Works. Being the founder, he should have ensured the stability of the company before moving to other corporate units to avoid resignations and re-joins.

2. In what ways did Fletcher Jones and Brenneman effectively address the three recurring paradoxes?

Owing to the financial difficulties that his company was having, Greg Brenneman had to confront the paradox of innovation head-on. The question posed by the innovation paradox is "are we managing for today of for tomorrow?" Brenneman knew that he had to focus on managing today but he was able to gain some breathing room once he had restructured the finances with his creditors, hence gaining long-term sustainable strategy for his company.

Brenneman was forced to confront the innovation paradox head on due to Continental's financial difficulties, the innovation paradox which poses the question, are we managing for today or for tomorrow? Brenneman knew that he had to focus on managing today but once he restructured the finance with creditors he had breathing space to focus on a long term sustainable company strategy.

Brenneman was clear in his intentions with Continental from the beginning with the way he would engage the workforce. The social paradox was managed effectively by Brenneman as he believed by valuing his workforce and providing his customers a quality service, there would be a return to the shareholders in time.

The global paradox was less obvious within Brenneman's case study but still managed subtly and was impactful. Brenneman knew the boundaries of the airline industry particularly within his time of being a consultant to Continental. Brenneman recognised the past of Continental did not serve the future strategy and thus crossing boundaries and taking Continental to areas less familiar, this was not radical but more a gentle nudge to reinvigorate its core competencies.

Competencies from the collaborate quadrant are evident throughout Brenneman's story. The title of Brenneman's article how 'we' saved Continental speaks volumes of how he approached the strategy of transforming Continental into a successful airline. First and foremost, Brenneman knew that he needed a collaborative environment if the turnaround was to succeed, and he set about hiring team players, prepared to work in a collaborative environment. The engagement of the workforce for the The Go Forward plan' was a key requirement for success and Brenneman knew this from the outset. A pertinent example of turning engagement into action was the opportunity for employees to make suggestions for organizational improvement with the establishment of a 24-hour hotline to take these suggestions.

The complete quadrant is demonstrated through the various ways in which Brenneman sought to cut costs and increase productivity. The most drastic of these was probably the closure of Continental's Greensboro operations, which had vast implications for the workforce there. Brenneman realized though, that it was necessary for the success of the airline overall. He also set reducing the advertising budget and replacing a large number of staff. Other competencies of the compete quadrant, such as developing and communicating a vision, setting goals and objectives and motivating others are also evident throughout Brenneman's story.

3. Critically evaluate how the theory of the business explains Brenneman's actions and whether his actions indicated that he transformed the business model.

The theory of business describes transformational business model as how an organization creates and captures value. According to the theory, the model must define and describe customer value proposition and the pricing method. The model must also indicate the approach of an organization in organizing it processes and choosing the right partner to be able to produce value. Also, the model specify how a company structures its supply chain. Transformational business model is a system whose various features of an organization interact, often in complex ways, to determine the company's success.

Brenneman was able to deliver customer value proposition to Continental, this strategy was the turn around for Continental from the worst airline to be the first, this model features had technology integration to meet customer demand.

Greg Brenneman showed he had a transformational business model because of the distinctive model he used  " A more collaborative ecosystem". Brenneman realized how technology can improves collaboration with supply chain partners or stakeholder and helps allocate business risks more appropriately. He also noticed Continental lack effective communication and engagement among employees, managers and various departments within the organization.  Brenneman employed technology such as bulletin boards, magazines, toll free hotline among others to handle employee's opinion as well as suggestions. The communication infrastructure he built resulted in huge success for Continental as the infrastructure helps employees to gain insight of the company's process, this has help the company to add value to customers.

According to theory of business by Forbes, once a company is aware of the changes it needs, it must first identify and then develop the skills and competencies needed to prosper over the long term. The theory must be understood through organization and to be tested constantly.

Continental Airlines bankruptcy crisis started as a result of the company unaware of the customers need and desire. The company environment was assumed not fit for reality, therefore resulting in losses for the company. Brenneman was fully aware of company current situation, this help him in setting a clear goal the company need to accomplish in reformation process.

4. Discuss how Brenneman's actions aligned with two of the secrets of the super bosses and how he succeeded in dealing with two of the biases  which impede organizational learning.

Brenneman was thoughtful and deliberate in many of his actions in his leadership tenure with Continental airlines. The suggested methods to overcome obstacles to learning provided a platform of success for Brenneman. It would have been easy for Brenneman to have a bias towards success, after all Continental were close to bankruptcy. Embracing a growth mindset and seeing the potential in his people is what Brenneman used to engage the workforce in his Go Forward Plan. If Brenneman had tried to use his approach to strategy execution, a clear set of measurable goals and objectives when trying to inspire a shared vision with staff, he may have come across as too driven to achieve, and lacking in a cohesive approach.

A pertinent example in Brenneman's case study was the difficult situation in closing down the Greensboro operations. Brenneman could have succumbed and conformed to the historical way of communicating bad news to the workforce as Continental once did, but he chose to go against this method and he personally travelled to Greensboro to deliver the news to the workforce. This action fostered trust and transparency and provided an opportunity for Brenneman to listen and respond to the needs and concerns of his workforce. 

Brenneman embraced Kouzes and Posner's five key leadership practices throughout his journey at Continental. The three practices that were clearly demonstrable and evident in examples in Brenneman's tenure as CEO included; inspiring a shared vision, enabling others to act and model the way. 

5. Consider how the actions of Brenneman and Fletcher Jones indicated that their businesses were 'Purpose-Driven'.

Inspiring a shared vision was evident in the development and communication of the strategy that would ultimately turn Continental Airlines around and make them a success. The Go Forward Plan developed my Brenneman sought to bring others on the journey, the plan had had clear and simple goals and measurable objectives which aligned to the goals. Brenneman recognized the importance of selling the strategy and having his workforce committing to it whilst communicating it with 'energetic zeal'  to co-workers, realizing that having the staff engaged was key to the success of the strategy.

Enabling others to act was paramount in implementing the Go Forward Plan, a strategy was not enough for Continental's success. Brenneman's ability to foster collaboration and get people to work together had a uniting effect across the business. An example of this was the initiative of the establishment of a 24-hour hotline to take suggestions on organizational improvement.  By giving employees a voice and a sense of empowerment and by being able to influence the decision making process employees were visibly supporting and assisting their business in the direction of success. The importance with this initiative is that every suggestion was taken seriously and it was transparent and clear why some suggestions could be adopted and others could not. 1 in 10 suggestions were implemented which encouraged further action by the workforce which created a self-propelling way forward.

Another creative initiative Brenneman developed was the 'forgiveness campaign'. Brenneman's actions with this initiative directly align to Kouzes and Posner's leadership practice of modelling the way. The initiative required executives to follow up complaints against the airline personally with a phone call.  Brenneman made his share of calls as well and wanted the initiative to demonstrate the connection and importance of Continental's customers and how terrible the airline had been previously which Brenneman described as humbling.