Joline Godfrey and the Polaroid Corporation Essay

Executive comp endingThe unfavorable problems Polaroid confront in the Jo force Godfrey and the Polaroid hatful (A) case be the lack of structures to put up innovations and the absence of mechanisms to come natural endowments. Polaroids descent r breakd slightly a champion product category, which had been to a lower place the threat of rising technologies. The company had retrenched to a narrow nidus on profit with damage-cutting and short sales promotions instead of business innovations for strategicalal pitching. The companys engineering taste and respect for rising-through-the-ranks made it knock divulge for groundbreaking endeavors and talentss from a unlike ambit (particularly females) to set d proclaim about strategic modifys. The organisational deficiencies at Polaroid manifested themselves through a serial publication of atypical choices and manoeuvres of Joline Godfrey and her mentor Jerry Sudbey, which tried to circumvent in clod limitations t o obtain financial and human resources for the exploration of a strategic substitute(a). With limited commit and regards for formal processes, Joline turned her Odysseum mold into a private audition and failed to compromise tactically with find bodied stakeholders to conglomerate assume and legitimacy.The expulsion gradually disordered its perplexity and internal aliveness and the failed first step cumulated in Jolines derailment as an agent of change and a young talent with smart creativity. To prevent disasters like Joline and her Odysseum project from iterate themselves, we recommend from Polaroids physical compositional berth to 1)Introduce a project management self-assurance to provide guidelines, assess viability, grade resources and pull in milestones and deliverables to materialize innovational ideas 2)Introduce a mentorship programme to provide high potential rung with structured facts of life, line mental picture, project exposure and strategic pleader for them to flourish.The Problems and How They AroseThe critical problems Polaroid faced in the Joline Godfrey and the Polaroid Corporation (A) case be the lack of structures to support innovations and the absence of mechanisms to develop talents.Polaroids business revolved around a single product category, which had been under the threat of emerging technologies. After the privacy of its founder, the company had retrenched to a narrow center on on profit through embody-cutting and short sales promotions instead of business innovations for strategic repositioning. The companys engineering druthers and respect for rising-through-the-ranks had built a accruement of like-minds which reinforced this lack of openness, making it difficult for innovative endeavors and talents from a different background (particularly females) to bring about strategic changes.The detrimental ConsequencesThe organizational deficiencies at Polaroid manifested themselves through an unorthodox me ntor-apprentice relationship between Jerry Sudbey and Joline Godfrey. In an prove to explore a strategic alternative to cope with external changes, they took a series of choices and manoeuvres that circumvented Polaroids internal limitations. Jolines Odysseum project took on a private experiment flavour and gradually lost its agency and support from Polaroids corporate structure. To Polaroid, the trial of the Odysseum initiative non except cumulated in the derailment of Joline as a young talent with promising creativity, but also spelled an probability missed perhaps for a critical corporate change.What Went Wrong?While Polaroids ripened management claimed to embrace innovation, they did not walk the talk. As oft as Jerry saw the need for Polaroid to evolve with its environment through Jolines Odysseum project, the initiative lived on a patchwork budget. pecuniary support needed to be solicited from different functions, most of which through in-person relationships prefer ably than formal authority and endorsement. The project police squad had been assembled from volunteers who worked during private hours. Without stand-alone budget and resources, Jolines drive for innovation faced dire pressure and took a hit in times of cost-cutting. The strategic instinct and personal rapport that Jerry had with peers and top management could only carry the initiative through a short distance, but not to the end where a fundamental change in the way Polaroid does business might grow come about. Jolines career at Polaroid had revolved around ad-hoc projects initiated by sr. management (e.g. corporate downsizingand the Spetra launch). finished these extremely unstructured opportunities, Joline had authentic a knack for thinking out-of-the-box and taking on challenges at her own initiative. Joline was creative, energetic and highly driven. She had the charisma not only to bring in followers but also depotinate the best out of them. However, without well-stru ctured training and management from Polaroids hierarchy, Joline remained a dreamer with no hand-on experience in line functions that are essential for creditability and respect in Polaroids conservative culture. With few opportunities to work through and appreciate the formal structures and processes in Polaroid, she had developed a tendency to go her own way, unimpeded and even to a storey of stubbornness that she simply refused to compromise tactically with key corporate stakeholders (e.g. the marketing department) to garner support and legitimacy for her Odysseum project (see read 1).What Can Be Done to vitiate a Repeat?While it whitethorn be convenient to pin the failure of Odysseum, the mentor-apprentice relationship, and Jolines derailment on the personal ineffectualness of herself and Jerry, it would be far more meaty rather for Polaroid to address innovation and executive director development from an organizational perspective (see represent 2). Firstly, we suggest t he introduction of a project management office (PMO) to consolidate, support and authorisation innovative endeavors. Individuals and teams are encouraged to reflect ideas into structured proposals with clear objectives, benefit and cost assessments, milestones, deliverables and adoption and cut-loss thresholds. The PMO leave alone evaluate the proposals in terms of strategic fit, potential impacts and viability, prioritize the chosen ones, and procure resources and support for their pensiveness. The PMO get out take projects with promising interim results to line departments for critique and validation, then formalize them as corporate initiatives and monitor their implementation progress.The cost of a PMO would likely be a couple of executives with good knowledge of organizational structure and business and financial processes to save up new ideas moving along. The key benefits of a PMO are the pronounced commitment to and structural support for intrapreneurship, which would foster innovation eon keeping initiatives practical and realistic to event profits for the organization over twainshort and long terms. Secondly, to protect dexterous but inexperienced executives from failing through derailment cracks, we recommend the establishment of a training and mentorship program. Staff with potentials result each be assigned to a mentor from senior management, who will provide strategic guidance and help the faculty develop key networks.The mentorship will be coupled with short-to-medium term assignments to business and functional lines to help the staff acquire hard-skills conforming to company standards and values. This equilibrate of top-down and bottom-up approaches will help the staff understand business processes from strategic planning through to procedural execution. greet of the program will likely be extra time spent by senior managers (as mentors) and line managers (as trainers). But rewards will be long-term and plentiful it will help th e organization establish talent pipelines and solidify succession plans, which will call down its long-term sustainability.1. The market (external environment) is changing evolving from painting to electronic photography. 2. Sudbey as a corporate leader had a vision for Polaroid to reposition to a service orientation. 3. intercommunicate Odysseum was carried out mostly through informal structures and lost track in the end. 4. Polaroid lacked the formal structures to support innovation (e.g. financing, human resources, strategic guidance, etc.). 5. Changes are needed in formal structures(introduction of Project Management Office and Mentorship Program). 6. The new formal structures would trigger changes in how different components of the organizational architecture interact with each new(prenominal) (e.g. leadership involvement, work process for incubation of innovative ideas, etc.). 7. Polaroid would benefit as an organization and its staff would have venues to materialize thei r innovative ideas and develop skills to evolve into competent executives.