When it comes to radical transformation leadership, what is the difference between it and conventional leadership? Perhaps the combination of a sharp mind at the helm and a track record of consistent and predictable performance is what separates good leaders? In any event, this has, at the very least, been the secret to organizational success for many, many, many years. Many firms and leaders, it is reasonable to suppose, continue to rely on this old strategy in combination with their long-term strategies, as shown by the fact that
This, however, is no longer the case today. The time has come to seek out fresh viewpoints and maybe even a new approach in order to deal with the current situation. Despite all of the fuss around the word “disruption,” organizations and their CEOs cannot ignore the competitive impulse to create and shake up present markets because it is too strong.
Section 1
When confronted with the tsunami of disruption coming at them, firms must rebuild their business models and business processes in order to stay competitive in the long run. The way the great majority of people go about their everyday lives is being influenced by this as well, which is a good thing. The CEOs of companies must jolt them up from their slumbers if they are to compete effectively in the global market. Examples include including CEOs in talks about the significance of social concerns and the need for diversity. The level of freedom and control that people have over their activities at work has the potential to be increased as a result of them.
Stages of Change
However, disruptive leadership is not about introducing new ideas only for the purpose of introducing new ideas. It is all about incorporating transformation into the company’s way of doing business, which is not an easy task. In order to be really disruptive, a leader does not need to speak about disruption. How? Disruption is embraced and disseminated by the most innovative leaders in these five ways.
Faisal Hoque in the trenchant article “5 Habits Of Truly Disruptive Leaders” shares the 5 stages of leadership change. The first stage is the relentless pursual of truth by the leader. (Faisal Hoque, 2015). A good leader needs to disrupt the process if he/she sees the company heading into a dead-end situation. Disruptive leaders are not afraid to see the truth for it is accomodating for necessary organizational changes. The second stage presupposes the ability of a leader to lead through chaos and uncertainty. Disruptive leaders are constantly trying out to look if their company`s techniques are nevertheless effective, and that they say so after they don’t. The quicker alternate occurs, the greater vital it’s far for leaders to accompany all personnel on the journey. Truth hurts sometimes, however it is regularly its surprise that makes human beings make moves and choices they would not in any other case have a notion of (Faisal Hoque, 2015). They are also decisive, break rules and explain why, and thrive on uncertainty (Faisal Hoque, 2015).
Case Study of How Netflix displaced Blockbuster
Blockbuster was a video rental chain that focused on new releases from the film industry and had outlets worldwide, peaking at 9,000 outlets in 2004. Most of the company’s revenue, however, came from fines for late DVD returns rather than from the rentals themselves. Those fees brought the company $800 million in 2000, about 16 percent of its revenue, but also irritated customers (Ash, 2020).
Netflix, on the other hand, supplied DVDs ordered from its Web site and offered its customers unlimited rentals on a monthly subscription basis. In other words, it eliminated late fees. Netflix founder Reed Hastings, aware of many people’s antipathy to Blockbuster fines, even wove them into the origin story of the company itself, claiming for years that he founded Netflix because he owed $40 for overdue Apollo 13 movies (Castillo, 2017)
Netflix has become attractive to some customers not just because of the lack of late fees. Without the physical constraints of storing discs indoors, the company was able to offer a much larger catalog of movies, including niche genres. Plus, Netflix offered home delivery of movies. Customers could watch movies at their own pace (Sisson, 2020). They didn’t have to drive to a physical location and could send them back when it was convenient for them.
Section 2
In New Orleans, which suffered the most, the effects of the worst oil spill in U.S. history are still visible. Today we can clearly see that the interests of oil corporations are against the interests of people. British Petroleum (BP) may have paid for the accident all that it was legally obliged to, but from the moral and ethical point of view this is not enough.
On the morning of April 20, 2010, workers aboard the Deepwater Horizon were canning an exploratory oil well at a depth of 1,220 meters. At that time, combustible gas moving almost at the speed of sound ruptured and bent the drill pipe. An emergency valve, the so-called blowout preventer, designed to close the well in case of an explosion, failed. When the gas reached the platform, there was an explosion that killed 11 crew members and caused a massive fire. The Deepwater Horizon platform eventually sank and tons of oil spilled into the Gulf.
It took 87 days for BP, which operated the platform, to get the oil fountain under control. Several attempts to plug the well failed. Small Air Force planes took to the skies to spray chemicals that were supposed to break up the oil slicks and settle the oil particles to the bottom. Some of the oil caught fire and the flames and smoke were visible from space.
When the spill was stopped, more than 2,000 kilometers of coastline were already covered in oil and marine life was significantly affected. Thousands of people involved in fishing, tourism and the energy industry lost their jobs. The Deepwater Horizon oil spill was 12 times larger than the previous largest spill from the 1989 Exxon Valdez tanker accident (Ingersoll et al.,
The Deepwater Horizon disaster exposed the risks of oil drilling in one of the world’s most culturally and environmentally significant places. Even ten years later and with $69 billion spent on remediation, they are still visible.
Researchers at the University of South Florida say fish in the Gulf are still contaminated with hydrocarbons. The area of the spill itself, according to recent studies, is larger than originally thought – it reaches as far south as Florida’s southernmost point.
Meanwhile, oil production in the Gulf of Mexico goes on, although, as members of the special commission set up by the US government to study the disaster say, the state has not implemented all their recommendations to reduce the risk of such accidents in the future, and if drilling continues at greater depths or at a greater distance from the coast, a new disaster will not be avoided.
Let’s not forget the impact of the accident on human health. According to a government study released seven years after the spill, tens of thousands of workers continue to suffer respiratory problems caused by Corexit, which was sprayed over the Gulf to dissolve the oil slicks. A significant portion of those affected by the chemical, low-income fishermen, are still sick or have died. The more time passes, the more the terrible consequences of the spill are revealed. The question legitimately begs – could something like this happen again? Beineke and six other members of that commission, which was formed under President Barack Obama’s administration, recently told the New York Times that their recommendations have not been taken seriously and that the United States is only marginally more prepared for such an accident now than it was a decade ago. As oil production moves further offshore and deeper into the sea, the risk only increases, they said. Immediately after the Deepwater Horizon accident, BP hired some 47,000 people, mostly fishermen who had just become unemployed, to collect oil from the surface of the water. Some of them worked in Mississippi, Alabama and Florida, collecting oil from beaches. Almost immediately, thousands of workers developed a rash. Some coughed up blood and suffered from migraines, others complained of burning eyes and memory loss. Others noticed heart, kidney and liver problems. All were exposed to Corexit, an oil spill dissolving dispersant that contains toxic substances. BP assured them it was as safe for workers as dishwashing liquid. About 7 million liters of dispersant were sprayed from airplanes to neutralize the huge oil slick that resulted from the accident.
References
Ash, A. (2020, August 12). The rise and fall of Blockbuster. Business Insider. https://www.businessinsider.com/the-rise-and-fall-of-blockbuster-video-streaming-2020-1
Castillo, M. (2017, May 23). Reed Hastings’ story about the founding of Netflix has changed several times. CNBC; CNBC. https://www.cnbc.com/2017/05/23/netflix-ceo-reed-hastings-on-how-the-company-was-born.html
Faisal Hoque. (2015, November 9). 5 Habits Of Truly Disruptive Leaders. Fast Company; Fast Company. https://www.fastcompany.com/3052725/5-habits-of-truly-disruptive-leaders
Hogue, F. (2015, November 9). 5 habits of truly disruptive leaders. Fast Company. https://www.fastcompany.com/3052725/5-habits-of-truly-disruptive-leaders
Ingersoll, C., Locke, R., & Reavis, C. (2012, April 3). BP and the deepwater horizon disaster of 2010. MIT Sloan Management, 1-28. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License.
Reardon, K. K., Reardon K. J., & Rowe, A. J. (1998). Leadership styles for the five stages of radical change. Acquisition Review Quarterly, 129 – 146. Download the pdf.
Sisson, P. (2020, April 23). The perfect virtual video store isn’t Netflix. It’s DVD.com. Vox. https://www.vox.com/culture/2020/4/23/21230324/netflix-dvd-rental-classic-movies
Zhu, D. (2017, December 6). Dominic Barton on disruption and leadership. Huffpost. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/st-gallen-symposium/dominic-barton-on-disrupt_b_13223402.html