Successful Leadership in Corporations Discussion

Successful Leadership in Corporations Discussion

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Question: Research and discuss a corporate success or a corporate failure scenario of a leader where the leader either resonated or failed to resonate with the culture required on a global scale. Discuss whether you agree/disagree with the approach the leader took and how you would approach if you were in this leader’s position.

Part 1: For this discussion board, I found the case study “Four Seasons Goes to Paris” to be very interesting, as it shows the example of a global corporate leadership success. Indeed, the Four Seasons Hotel is well-established internationally, and well known to be providing exceptional services to its clients, while providing a great workplace for its employees.

In 1999, The Four Seasons Hotel wanted to open their first French subsidiary, which came with a lot of cross-cultural challenges. They had to comply with American standards but also conform to stricter French laws. Examples of more restrictive labor law in France would be the 35 hours workweek, the generous unemployment benefits, or even ‘for life’ contracts. Truth is, the “French labor law is characterized by both social public order and employees’ protection (in order to restore ‘the balance of power’), whereas American labor law rests on the ‘balancing of power’ by actors themselves” (Baudry & Chassagnon, 2018). This means that in France, it is part of the law to try and balance the power between the employees and the employer, while implementing specific rules and regulations. On top of this, challenges related to business culture came into play. In France, there is a strong logic of honor, with a clear emphasis on valuing human relationships over arbitrary schedules. For example, French people would most likely base promptness on the nature of the relationship, where US people would be more inclined to emphasize promptness all the time (Hallowell, Bowen & Knoop, 2003).

The Four Season’s strategy was to hire Mr. Le Calvez as the French general manager, who was originally French, and had also been living in the US for over 10 years. This later revealed to be a great choice, as Le Calvez took into consideration local aspects when dealing with the company’s employees, while keeping close American standards. To me, communication was key for Le Calvez’s project to succeed. Interpretation differs from one culture to another, and can lead to communication gaps between the French employees and US management team (Lebowitz, 2017). Therefore, he worked hard on problem solving approaches. He and his teams regularly hosted events for employees to speak up in order to improve efficiency and morale in the workplace. He also worked transparently and diligently with the media, which resulted in positive media coverage for the company in the local and international news.

Overall, it seems to me the Four Seasons succeeded in their goal to open a new subsidiary in France thanks to their great global leadership approach. First, they did their due diligent work to really understand how both cultures worked, what were some common grounds, and what were some differences. Being aware of the differences or similarities of one’s own culture is essential for the success of the project. After that, their strategy was to choose a leader who had extensive cross-cultural background with both cultures, and was able to adopt to the local culture, while keeping single process of operating ‘the American way’. Again, this was a great leadership move, as it provided some flexibility for the French employees, while maintaining a clear brand culture across subsidiaries. After the two-year mark of opening the Paris branch, a survey was taken by almost all employees, and it came back glowing, with employees even stating they would love to work there again (Hallowell, Bowen & Knoop, 2003). Therefore, if I were to approach this situation in the future as a leader, I think I would do my best to follow similar steps to succeed!

References

Baudry, B., & Chassagnon, V. (2018). The analysis of employment relationship in contract economic theories: A critical review based on the nature of American and French labor laws. Économie et institutions, (27).

Hallowell, R., Bowen, D., & Knoop, C. (2003). Four Seasons Goes to Paris. Harvard Business Review.

Lebowitz, S. (2017, August 01). 8 things that drive French people nuts about American offices – and vice versa. https://www.businessinsider.com/differences-between-french-american-work-culture-2017-7.

Part 2: Diversity and inclusion has become an increasingly important part of Corporate America, so it is important for companies to appoint leaders who want to create an equal playing field for all employees and have a pulse on what issues the world is facing, both socially and politically. One leader who failed to resonate with the culture required on a global scale was former Papa John’s CEO and chairman, John Schnatter.

Papa John’s was started in a broom closet in Jeffersonville, IN, and has grown to more than 5,000 locations in 45 countries and territories around the world (Papa John’s, n.d.). What started from humble beginnings resulted in a wildly successful pizza franchise, with $1.7 billion in revenue, amassing a $950 million fortune for Schnatter (Kirsch, 2018). As CEO of a global organization, Schnatter served as the face of the brand via TV promotions and other marketing collateral and became a household name. But Schnatter embodies the expression, “the higher you climb, the harder you fall,” due to his inability to spearhead diversity and inclusion when it grew more important on a global scale.

Schnatter’s first failure to adapt was during the take-a-knee protests occurring in the NFL in 2017, complaining during an earnings call that they were hurting the company’s earnings, since they were the official pizza of the NFL (Zetlin, 2019). He also criticized the NFL’s handling of the protests, calling them a “debacle,” which resulted in Papa John’s shares crashing by more than 11% within hours (Kirsch, 2018). These comments were culturally insensitive from Schnatter because they showed that he cared more about his company’s earnings than the racial inequality and tension that was rising in the United States – and globally.

As a leader, Schnatter should have been able to gauge society’s temperature on these protests, as well as the racial inequality that was occurring, and realize that his comments could have offended a number of people – especially since these protests were during the height where police brutality and profiling towards minorities were exposed on a national and global level. Because of this, Schnatter was denounced as CEO (although he was still chairman) and franchise sales dropped at least 5% (Kirsch, 2018). Aside from making remarks about the NFL protests, Schnatter also used a racial slur on a marketing agency phone call, stating that KFC’s Colonel Sanders had no repercussion for using it (Zetlin, 2018). This derogatory comment forced him to resign as chairman.

In addition to these comments, Schnatter also fostered a toxic work environment where men mocked their female colleagues and asked if they were “menstruating,” and male executives made sexually explicit comments to female colleagues (Kirsch, 2018). Although these comments are completely unacceptable, they were brushed under the rug by the “boys” club that Schnatter created – Schnatter put all of his most loyal executives in the company’s top ranks, which included his close friend from high school, as well as current CEO, Steve Ritchie (Kirsch, 2018). Stacking his ranks enabled Schnatter to say whatever he felt without fear of repercussion, and clearly, his employees felt comfortable doing the same. After all, organizations must ‘tone at the top’ and role model the behavior they want to see from their employees.

After reviewing the information about Schnatter’s demise, I completely understand why he failed as a leader and do not agree with his approach. Even if he did not agree with how the NFL handled the take-a-knee protests, from a public relations perspective, I think it is better not to comment on issues that are controversial; ones where personal opinions can have strong implications for the person or brand’s reputation. I also think his comments, as well as the language he used, when discussing KFC’s Colonel Sanders was completely unacceptable and inappropriate. Under no circumstance should racial slurs be tolerated or used, and as a leader, this is something I will never do.

In addition, I think the workplace environment that he created was deplorable. Stacking his company’s top ranks with his most trusted friends and employees means that those who were most qualified were not considered for those roles. In other words, he hired out of bias, not necessarily off of qualifications. This means he did not create an even playing field for qualified employees, which again, is something I will not do. Instead, I will choose people who are most qualified for the roles at the top; ones that also represent diverse voices and backgrounds. Additionally, the sexist comments that were made towards women could be deemed as sexual harassment, opening the business up to lawsuits and a tarnished brand reputation. Of course, these comments were completely inappropriate, should never be tolerated, or enabled by the CEO. If I were him, I would not have created this culture and made it acceptable for employees to talk this way. Personally, I would have fired those employees on the spot, and overall, I think Schnatter’s leadership at Papa John’s is a great example of how not to lead.

References

Kirsch, N. (2018). The Inside Story of Papa John’s Toxic Culture. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesdigitalcovers/2…

Papa John’s. (n.d.). About Papa John’s. About Papa John’s | Papa John’s Pizza. Retrieved from https://www.papajohns.com/company/index.html

Zetlin, M. (2019). Here’s How 3 of the World’s Worst CEOs Almost Killed Their Companies by Creating a Toxic Culture. Retrieved from https://www.inc.com/minda-zetlin/worst-ceos-toxic-…

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