Vigor Skin Care Product Company

Success of the Case Study Situation

            The case study is about the vigor skin care product company. As the name suggests it is a major manufacturing company of the various skin care products. Its products are well known as the vigor skin care and other skin conditioning products which are also at the same time an anti aging product known as the ageless vigor product. This particular company with the kind of not so good and effective leadership that is in its place was able to realize a lot success coming its way (Heimbouch 2003). The success of the company together with its team included the following: the team the company was working with was performing at its best, this made the company to award the team as the best performing. This particular team being awarded was under the leadership of Peter who took over the lead of that particular division about four years ago. It was the same team that came up with the vigor skin product that earned the company lots of fame.

            Another great success the company realized was that it was able, through the leadership of Peter, to rejuvenate. Previously just before the company appointed Peter to lead part of the company manufacturing the vigor skin product, the company was literally falling apart but new leadership saw the company to success. The company was also successful in gaining huge sales of the vigor skin care products. The company achieved this through thriving out in the field for more customers.

The problem

            The major problem that the vigor skin care product company faced was the leadership problem. As it may be well known by many, the kind of leadership in a particular company greatly affects its normal operations. And the outcome of the kind of leadership in place is a complete reflection of how exactly a company or organization is being lead. With specific regards to Vigor Skin Care Product Company, the company, before Peter came in, was being poorly managed and that was why it was almost flopping. Peter and his team who had nicknamed themselves as the fearsome threesome provided the company with the kind of leadership that it really needed at that point in time. The team comprising of Peter, Josh and Sandy all had different leadership qualities that when put together formed a powerful trio that was doing good service to the company (Heimbouch 2003). But with all this still higher authority of the company failed to utilize the potential leaders that they had.

            Many leadership styles have been expressed or rather used in the vigor skin care product company. And these styles also have been used by different individuals at different situations: the task leadership style was used by the headquarters leaders who focused on the specific tasks that they had assigned the vigor skin care product team. It is with this kind of leadership that the leader only focuses on the duties he has assigned without considering the needs of the team. This was evident in this team because from the case study the team needed more than just a closer supervision by the headquarters. They needed more strategies and better plans for marketing the products. Also, it has been quoted that the headquarters on paid attention to the team and the company as a whole when problems had become crisis. Such instances only lead the company into even more problems. A part from supervision the company never helped the team in finding new strategies.

Another leadership style expressed in the vigor team was the Laissez-faire leadership style. This was used by Peter because he was the one who was responsible for leading the team at team level. And this is the kind of leadership style where no closer supervision is given to the team members because they are all well qualified and have good experience therefore the team was basically self driven. This is evident in this case study where by the vigor team were self driven and Peter did not have closely supervised the team to work. This though also lead the team and the company into many problems because this style of leadership is normally associated with continuous failures of the team not meeting the set deadlines and at times poor service delivery one thing that is common in the case study at some instances (Heimbouch 2003).

            On the other hand, Peter also demonstrated the democratic kind of leadership where by he depended mostly on what his team had to say. He could basically do nothing with the absence of his team. He even claimed at one point that he could not lead the company to Success on his own. This is a major characteristic of this kind of leadership. This made him not to rely on his personal decisions and opinions. That is why Peter was becoming worried when Josh started being a bit unavailable. Such kind of leadership at time proves to be very good because the views of the many are usually represented in the final decision making but at the same time one becomes lazy to follow his own opinions which might be the right ones. By Peter listening and depending too much on Josh for creative ideas he could not develop an idea when Josh was away and this was not a good thing to the company.

            Also in one way or the other the headquarters proved to be those kind of authoritative leaders because from the study at times they wanted to be making all of the decisions concerning the company that is why they could only appear or show their concern when problems became crises so that the entire company would feel that they were actually the only legal decision makers.

            In many instances Josh proved that he could also be a good leader if given a chance. And he would make such a nice transformation leader. These are the kind of leaders who are always motivating their team that they are working with and they always like following the chain of command if they want a certain job done (Heimbouch 2003). Also his characteristic creativity qualifies him for this kind of leadership style. But since the company never gave Josh the opportunity of being a leader of the company, the company failed to tap the very many useful and creative ideas that he had and that is may be why Josh felt he was been wasted in that company and he was slowly slipping away to other companies which would utilize his creative mind.

                                                                       Solutions

            The various leadership styles that were expressed in the vigor skin care product company that were not put into good use could have been approached using different approaches. These different approaches would enable the company solve problem of leadership and the team would not fall apart after achieving all the success that it had achieved.

            One approach to proper leadership the company could have adopted would be the trait-oriented leadership approach. This approach uses specific traits of an individual to appoint a leader. For instance Peter would have been appointed at the headquarters because of the traits that he had for example it is quoted that formally he was National accounts manager, Global accounts manager and also was the division’s vice president. This means that such a person would effectively lead the whole company into success.

            By effectively appointing leaders in a specific division using a trait-oriented approach, better outcomes can be deemed possible due to the fact that better handling of skills and tasks are facilitated. What Peter could have done is look beyond the core team he is currently engaged on and search for fresh minds and ideas coming from other people who can be fit for other tasks. Thus, properly delegating work to capable individuals can be an important solution to the piling of work that might have been felt by Sandy or Josh.

The company could have also used the functional approach to leadership which believes that leadership should be distributed among the different people working together. By giving this responsibility to almost everyone, they would ensure that there targets were met and this would help the team to stay together not just for a while but for a long time.

Another important contribution of functional approach is its ability to exhaust better outputs and functions from the workforce. Seeing this, Peter must continue to improve on his trust to his workers capabilities and push to expand on the creation of more positions that will focus on a particular goal. By expanding out his team of experts, Peter can exhaust their individual capabilities and create avenues necessary for change and improvements.

             The contingency approach could have also been used. This approach demands that leaders should be very flexible with their decisions and once one decision does not seem to work he should quickly adopt another alternative. The vigor team failed to have alternatives to their major decisions that is why they were facing problems. This could be a viable approach to them.

            As far as contingency approach is concerned, Peter can efficiently exhaust measures and means that can back-up the original plans promulgated by the group. Creating an alternative plan is important in every business endeavor and venture. It can help alleviate and solve an issue given the original plan becomes problematic. As a leader, Peter must realize that coming up with only one (1) plan can be risky and can pose problems in the future for the company. He must constantly create contingency measures that will backup the original plan.

            Another important leadership style that Peter can apply is transformational leadership. With the current situation, the team is feeling unmotivated and burned out. As a transformative leader, Peter must create avenues that will create increased participation and motivation for Josh and Sandy. Peter must have a better outlook in things and foster viable options that can help improve both Sandy and Josh’s situation. On the other hand, he must also create opportunities for other people to step up and create better outputs for the company. In this manner, he can find new addition to the core team and help them create important outputs which can be beneficial in the overall growth and development of the company and be dynamic among its competitors.

            With all the leadership styles in place, applying the proper leadership styles in a given situation can help boost the efficiency and effectiveness of the programs that Peter may introduce into the company. By properly pointing out tasks, decision- making procedures and applying viable leadership styles, only then can Peter create realistic solutions for the company.

            Another viable solution to the vigor skin product company would be the leaders to adopt both convergent and divergent thinking while making decisions for the company. Peter and the team never involved the finding of both the single solution and multiple solutions to the problems that they were encountering. These two would highly help and would save the company much agony.

            Elaborating on such option, Peter can apply a divergent thinking approach in enhancing the decisions in the company. Since he is the one in command, he can make decisions that are deemed to expand the horizons of the company. Looking at the current issue that Peter and his team are facing, there are indeed various ways that can alleviate such problem. This means that Peter can exhaust various business strategies and apply it to the current scenario. All he has to do is think outside the box.

            On the other hand, convergent thinking is another approach that Peter can use and apply on things that are intangible and fixed in the company. By understanding the current scenario and situation, Peter can be educated of things that are needed to be changed and the processes that are deemed important by nature. Realizing that there are certain things that cannot be changed or prevented can help Peter create measures that will anticipate and address his options for improvement and development.

            Seeing this, Peter needs to exhaust the collaboration of convergent and divergent thinking to create a scenario of changes. By properly understanding which areas need to be addressed and how to solve them efficiently and effectively can help bolster the further growth and enhancement of Vigor Skin Care Product Company. 

Conclusions

            Given the current scenario that Peter is facing, various mechanisms and practices can be exhausted as a means to create solutions for the problem. One important application that Peter should look into is the expansion of the team size, redefinition of the structure and imparting creativity. By applying such initiative, Peter can address the problems by Josh and Sandy and the relative dilemma’s they bring.

            In addition, there are various roles and norms that continue to revolve around the structure of Vigor. As head of the department, Peter must understand these roles and norms and how such concepts affect the way people exhibit behavior and outputs in work. By seeing this, only then can Peter create solutions over the impeding issues at hand.

            Leadership and proper thinking approach can also help bolster the current problems faced by Vigor. Peter, being the leader of the group, must actively apply the necessary principles of leadership and efficiently manage the skills and behavior of his people. This can be made by having a proper outlook and thinking. By collaborating these two issues altogether, better outcomes can be achieved.

            Lastly, the elements of climate and cohesiveness, work plans, power and influence and social loafing must also be considered and looked into by Peter. These facets are also vital for the escalation of the problem. Peter must put into regard the importance of climate and the current trends of the market while at the same time taking into consideration the element of power, influence and social loafing. In the end, as Peter attempts to rectify the issue among his colleagues at Vigor, he is faced with the challenge and at the same time opportunity to effectively push the company towards growth.