Henkel Building A Winning Culture Case Solution

1. Write Down in a Sentence or Two Your Definition of a Winning Culture

A winning culture is one which has a clear mission statement that communicates to employees what it expects of them and how it intends to be successful. To support it, an entrepreneurial spirit must go along.

2. What Are the Things That You Like About Rorsted's Approach?

The Steve Jobs like a way of thinking tops it for me. To create something so simple speaks for the sophistication of that thing. The evaluation forms, along with the redefined performance management and a decent rewards system, was easy to follow and provided a forum that can help employees realize their place in the organization. I liked that he developed these new values across the company, created a vision and steered the company out of a crisis. The evaluation system is one that I am truly a fan of, it is simple and effective (Eccles, Ioannou, & Serafeim, 2012).

There was a defined system of how things are to be done, but they are not how you should do your job but the values with which you should do your job. Helping employees look at Henkel as a part of them, and that they represent Henkel in front of the customers, was not quite there yet. He explained to his people why they needed to move fast, he showed them the ground realities by also showing how competitors were doing. This way, the business moved to a more customer orientated dimension, which could then help achieve the financial performance goals. The training sessions, and many discussions back & forth proved that Rorsted looked to understand the organization as a person, and how it could help that person. Given the right words, the right pats on the back and the right goals, Rorsted tells me that organizations can change. He fulfilled the three strategic priorities that were set out for him (Klein, 1996). 

3. What are the Risks?

Firstly, the evaluation forms. Yes, they are simple and push for improvement, but they also push managers to make tough decisions and differentiate. The long-term effects of this could lead to psychological and emotional outbreaks (Kafetsios & Zampetakis, 2008). When deciding which category, employees fall in automatically relates to their lives at the company and the money that they make.