The organizational change of LVV started in early 1996 when Emma van Nijmegen, the new Managing Director of LVV, was appointed as its head. She totally transformed the company which was non-profitable into a market-focused organization. The main goals that she wanted to carry out were to change the former culture, to build a new image and to communicate more openly. In 1986, Neerlandia, a shipping company, took over LVV and put at its head in 1991 the former director of its human resources. The thing is that he was never in contact with basic employees on the field to interact with them. He preferred working alone without his management team, which was by the way not a real team. As a result, wrong strategic decisions came out and pushed the company towards real bad times. Therefore, employees were not motivated at all and were under pressure, stressed out, because they did not believe in what they were doing and at the same time did not trust the top management. The result of this awful management drove the company to a consequent downfall with a huge loss of revenues. Even if he used to be the HR Director, he never got the necessary skills and capabilities to manage different kinds of people, from truck drivers to its executive committee. That is why, at the end of 1995, Neerlandia decided to fire him. The next three months knew a kind of rebellion among the top executives and they decided to manage their business the way they did in the past. Thus, it started to be judicious and strategic and wanted to hire someone who would be able to face it's difficult position and implement new strategic solutions. That is why, Emma van Nijmegen, a young Neerlandia manager, was chosen because of her talent and her past experiences during her career that made her very competent, a risk-taker, and able to listen and understand quickly.
[...] Emma's was more of a supportive leadership. She promoted harmony within the company, she was very friendly, she solved conflicts and helped boost morals, and she was intuitive, thought with her feelings and emotions. To put it in a nutshell, Emma and Charlotte got the perfect features of an effective leadership. They both have the management of attention that means that their visions commanded the attention and commitment of those who worked for them and within in order to achieve goals. [...]
[...] Her strategy was to redefine all the aspects of the business: products, markets, clients, etc. In addition, it was necessary for the staff and the sustainability of the company to shape a culture of innovation and openness. In fact, LVV did not have a good reputation in terms of quality and needed a clearer vision of the future. Thus, all departments thought about new business plans so that Emma's team rearranged goals and directions to follow. This implementation of a new strategy for the future enabled to set up a new objective based on reliability and innovation, summed up as becoming the leader in the Benelux for parcels and pallets delivery. [...]
[...] But above all, Emma was inspired by what she did. Comparison with Charlotte Beers's leadership Concerning the comparison with the leadership of Charlotte Beers, the context was approximately the same, the environment was changing and the company did not take the train of moving forward. Indeed, there was a loss of leadership at the head of the company, the vision was misaligned and the company was losing money and clients. Charlotte and Emma have the same strong background of success in their respective areas. [...]
[...] Above all, what Emma focuses on is feelings. She was more driven by her feelings and was by the way very emotional. She was also detail oriented with strong technical skills on the other side because she couldn't be empathetic and incompetent at the same time. She was very perseverant as well due to her entry to the Excom, which was only composed of men. And she proved them that her open and intuitive approach of things was different but equally pertinent. [...]
[...] And that was the best way to gain recognition and trust from them because she simply listened to them. Furthermore, she also shared the daily routine of truck drivers and therefore gave a better image of her personality, able to get involved personally. These particular moments of closer communication were great opportunities to know how employees saw the company, their daily lives and their futures within LVV. Those learning experiences underlined the close relationships she wanted to set up internally. [...]
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