Page 153 - MS Year in Review 2020

Sears – the organization resisted the changed vison and caused it to be dismantled

even after it was executed and successful! Accordingly, it means that the
leadership must market the “new” vision to the organization.

The Length of Time of Crisis Resolution is Typically Longer than Expected

There is generally no “quick fix” or panacea for a crisis. A crisis can take years or
even a decade to resolve. The crises at Chrysler, Kodak, American Express, Disney,

and others required several years. A few required a decade or more.

Resources are Typically Required to Buy Time to Fix a Crisis

Since time is required to fix a crisis, sufficient resources are required to provide the

necessary time. Sometimes resources can be obtained from the government,
Unions, or others. For example, Chrysler obtained the now famous bailout by the
US` government.

Some Leaders Can Simultaneously Solve a Current Crisis While Positioning

the Company for the Future

The challenge to leadership in a crisis is to create a defense to manage the current

crisis while simultaneously positioning the company for the future. Some leaders
(notably Lee Iacocca, Harvey Golub and Michael Eisner) can achieve this, while

many more cannot.

Planning is an Essential Tool to Lead an Organization Through a Crisis

In several if not all of the of the examples of companies in crisis, a lack of planning

or in- effective planning was one of the underlying causes. For example, in the case
of Westfield’s inadequate planning lead to the crises because the firm purchased
Channel Ten without a careful analysis of what was really involved in that business

or how it would manage the property once acquired. Osborne Computer grew
“willy-nilly” without an understanding of the risk of rapid growth. The failure of

Kodak to plan its diversification correctly led to the virtual destruction of a Global
icon. Similarly, Sears turned victory into defeat by reversing a brilliant
transformation. Both Iacocca at Chrysler and Golub at American Express made

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