XYZ Transport is a freight-handling and logistics firm. The private company began its operations in 1966 and now operates a fleet of 10,000 trucks and 2,000 trailers that haul freight 5 lakh kms per day. Revenues are approximately ` 85 crores a year.
The company has had only three leaders. The first was the founder; the second was his own son, Krish and in August 2002, the first non-family member took the helm when Chris was made CEO, replacing Goodman, who was 67 years old. But it was not as if the company was not making preparations for change over to executive leadership. In fact Krish had told his board of directors in 1998 that their primary task was finding a successor. Chris joined the company in 1994 as a vice president and became chief operating officer in 2000. After being appointed COO, Chris began to develop an organizational framework for the five-person executive group that today shares many of the company’s strategic responsibilities.
Everyone who knows Krish closely agrees that he is a tough personality to follow. ‘Krish is an icon,’ says another top executive of the company. ‘He probably has great say and commands more respect in transportation and logistics than anybody else in the industry,’ says Chris, ‘our approach has been to put together an executive team that has a set of skills, perspectives, clarity about goals, and commitment is broader and bigger than ever before.’ The idea, according to Chris, is to have individuals with knowledge and expertise in product line or functional areas, while maintaining their oversight of those areas, develop a sense of responsibility, accountability and commitment for the financial performance of the whole company. ‘If you have people who aren’t taking an enterprise solution, their only role is their function or their business, then ultimately it has to go to someone who’s going to referee the points of tension.’ says Chris. And Chris has no intention of playing the referee role.
To resolve the points of conflict, the executive group formed by Chris after a lot of spadework and analysis has had to learn how to work together. The company had even hired a renowned consultant to help them better listen and understand one another and debate critical issues. ‘Conflict between people or between groups of people is not positive. Conflict around business issues is the most wonderful, healthy thing,’ says Chris. ‘Any business without tension will fall to its lowest level of performance.’
1. Explain why the transition in leadership from Krish to Chris was relatively conflict free.
2. Define the strategy of conflict management Chris uses. What are the attributes of people delivering results through such a strategy? What type of approach within the broad strategy would be more effective in the given situation and why?
3. Trust-building is the most crucial aspect of conflict management. How do you think trust-building can be ensured amongst the top management executive team and in different tiers in the organization.