Case Study On Individual Leader Behavior

CASE -1
1) In this case I chose to talk about IBM CEO, Ginni Rometty. She was appointed as CEO in
January 2012. She is regarded as one of the most powerful women in business by many
prominent publications including Fortune, Forbes and Bloomberg Markets. Many articles
have lauded her ability to blend enthusiasm, charisma, clear communication, strategic
thinking, and cool minded decision making. Shes not a stiff there is nothing imperious
or imperial about her, notes Harvard Business Schools Rosabeth Moss Kanter. However,
Rometty rarely leaves anything to chance; which best describes her personal management
skills. As General Manager for IBMs Global Services Division, Rometty pushed early for
the acquisition and helped negotiate the deal to purchase PricewaterhouseCoopers.
Overnight IBM became the worlds largest consulting business. The acquisition wouldnt
have been successful without Romettys persuasion of the consultants, PwC partners, to stick
around. This action is demonstrative of her persuasion and negotiation skills.
The personal approach to leadership is how Rometty was able to keep talented,
entrepreneurial employees like Manoj Saxena. A serial entrepreneur, Saxena arrived at IBM
after the company purchased Webify. Rometty promised to offer more services to Saxena and
when he had a health issue, she personally emailed him to see how he was feeling. She not
only cares about the employees but also about the customers. This is an example of her
ability to motivate, lead teams, and her overall conscientiousness.
Rometty could ultimately help change the way corporations communicate with their
customers and the way they use technology to build and sell their products. This is a
mindset shift, not a market shift, Rometty explained to the CMOs at the Manhattan event.
It changes everything. She was referring directly to her customers, but she could just as
easily have been talking about IBM. This is a demonstration of her communication and
interpersonal skills. Rometty is a textbook extrovert, demonstrated by her ability to
effectively communicate ideas with those around her. Rometty is emotionally stable and
confident in her choices. One example is when she was appointed as CEO in 2012, her
predecessor sets very high goals and 2015 Roadmap to hit $20 earnings per share in 2015.
As technology goes through a radical change, all big tech companies are in make-it-or-breakit-mode, from HP to Microsoft. Although, Rometty tried to keep the promises made by her
predecessor and none of it worked. But in anticipation of 2015 forecast, Rometty and CFO
declared to Wall Street that they would not hit the target. Rometty generally doesnt join the
quarterly earnings calls, but this time, she did. This shows that Rometty has high emotional
stability, compassion, and a true concern for those affected by her company.
Rometty has used her collaborative skills to partner with Apple, a former competitor, to
cross-sell each others business services. Tim Cook, the CEO of Apple, has this to say of
Rometty: I think she is wicked smartshe has an incredible ability to partner and can make
tough decisions and do so decisively. And she sees things as they really are. This is just
another example of how others perceive her and how her agreeableness has taken her far.
Rometty believes in collectivism as she works with more than 400,000 employees and its
very important to have collaborative work environment to attain higher productivity and
innovative solutions from employees.
2) This leaders personality does benefit her performance in her profession. The personality
characteristics such as influential and persuasive skills assist exponentially in negotiating
deals effectively. The ability to act quickly and decisively is essentially a requirement in
dynamic work environments like IBM. Rapid changes in technology changes need to be
implemented quickly; otherwise competitors will beat you to the punch. The emotional
stability Rometty possesses also plays a vital role in dealing with change.
Strengths:
Ability to motivate and lead teams Currently IBM is well behind shareholders
expectations and to outperform from current situation, employees need motivation and an
individual with strong leadership skills. Rometty has the ability to motivate and collaborate
with teams.
Knowledge of business and management trends Traditionally, IBM is known for its
slow execution of new projects. To improve its execution capabilities, Rometty has plans to
setup special leadership team-- the Client Experience Team, which she chairs. Her extensive
knowledge of business practices will facilitate the team in coming up with different solutions
to issues that arise.
Decision making As earnings drop due to competition in the market, its very important to
make better decisions in view of the companys future orientation. One of the decisions
Rometty recently made was for IBM to work with Apple, to support and sell one product to
another.
Weaknesses:
Persuasiveness Rometty has excellent persuasive and influential skills. She persuaded to
acquire PwC consulting company and influenced the negotiation of the deal. But in critical
years of IBM, a bad decision could make a worse impact.
1) Rometty is just following the roadmap her predecessors had drawn for IBM. IBM
transformed as a service provider to creation of business machines. She never revealed her
vision for IBM. Thats the reason IBM hasnt been able to move beyond this temporary fix to
the evolution of what it will become in the future. The influence from her predecessor created
pressure to sell more services and as the revenues are falling from two consecutive quarters;
Rometty concentrated on cutting costs, which in turn led to many job cuts. If she had been
able to implement her own vision for the company, she might have done something to
concentrate on growing revenues rather than cost cuts.
References
Hempel, J. (2012). IBMs Ginni Rometty looks ahead.

http://fortune.com/2012/09/20/ibms-ginni-rometty-looks-ahead/
Retrieved
from
Pratch, L. (2011). Why women leaders need self-confidence.

https://hbr.org/2011/11/women-leaders-need-self-confidence.html
Retrieved
from
Greenfield, R. (2011). Virginia Rometty: The kind of lady CEO the business world needs.
Retrieved from http://www.thewire.com/business/2011/10/virginia-rometty-kind-lady-ceobusiness-world-needs/44128/
Wood, S. (2014). Powerful women dealing with weak cultures. Retrieved from
http://steveonleadership.com/post/powerful-women-dealing-with-weak-cultures-part-1.html
Groth, A. (2011). Heres why Virginia Rometty was IBMs obvious choice for CEO (Its not
because she is a woman). Retrieved from http://www.businessinsider.com/ibms-new-ceovirginia-rometty-2011-10

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CASE -1

Hempel, J. (2012). IBMs Ginni Rometty looks ahead.

Pratch, L. (2011). Why women leaders need self-confidence.

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