Strategic Leadership and Change Paper, Part III

RUNNING HEAD: STRATEGIC LEADERSHIP AT COMCAST 0

Strategic Leadership and Change

Author’s Name

Institution

Strategic Leadership and Change: Comcast Corporation

Current executive leadership structure

Comcast Corporation is headed by a Chairman who is also the Chief Executive Officer of the Corporation. Second in command is the Chief Executive Officer who also assumes the duty of Senior Executive Vice President. The Senior Executive Vice President who also acts as the Corporation’s Chief Financial Officer comes next in the chain of command and is followed by the Senior Executive Vice President. The Vice chairman is then next in command. The President and Chief Executive Officer of Comcast Cable who is also the Senior Executive Vice President of Comcast and his Executive Vice President, also the Corporation’s General Counsel and Secretary, follow respectively. The Executive Vice President of Global Corporate Development and Strategy comes in next, and he is followed by the Executive Vice President and Chief Communications Officer of Comcast Corporation. Last in command in the executive leadership structure is the Executive Vice President who is also charged with the Regulatory and State Legislative Affairs of Comcast Corporation.

Comcast has structured its organization to enhance better customer care relations. It has three major regions; in the Northeast, Central, and West. These regions have been further divided into 15 subsections that attend to customers in a particular region. This structure has improved their service delivery because employees in these specific subsections are able to relate with the employees and are able to give them immediate assistance.

How effective is the current leadership team in providing strategic leadership

Comcast’s current leadership could be described as being strategic because it has given essential direction and inspiration that has fundamentally helped achieve the goals of the organization, as well as its objectives and mission. Once the leadership noted that it was losing its customers, it identified the problem and made a strategic move of adjusting its vision and mission to address the issues that made some of its customers to leave. By the current leadership making a consciously intended thought and coming up with a set of guidelines that equipped the organization with an ability to deal with the situation of losing customers, it shows that there is strategic leadership in the organization.

Another trait of strategic leadership that the current leadership in Comcast exhibit is that of changing their previous organizational culture to a new one that fits the corporation’s mission and vision. Only strategic leadership would be able to change its employees’ culture. The employees’ change of culture in terms of their attitudes and mindset enabled them to provide better service delivery and hence growth of the organization. The leadership is no longer outdated regarding the customers preferences or complains, they are instead up to speed with the updates that may be affecting their line of work.

Comcast has also aligned its statement of ethics to help it achieve its goals and objectives. It reads, “Pioneering new ideas while also acting with the highest standards of integrity are key principles that have gotten us to where we are today,” (Comcast, n.d., p. 1). It is only strategic leadership that helps such.

A critique of the organization’s mission statement and strategic vision

Comcast’s mission statement reads, “We will deliver a superior experience to our customers every day. Our products will be the best and we will offer the most customer-friendly and reliable service in the market” (Comcast, n.d., p. 1). From this statement it can be noted that Comcast’s main priority is excellent service delivery and customer relations. The management is more concerned with satisfying its customers. This mission statement is excellent because it will essentially help the organization to grow. Ensuring that the customers are happy is a sure way of determining the business growth as more customers will be attracted to it too. By offering its customers better services and technology, their employees are motivated to put in more effort. Carter (2015), reported that this has proven to be fruitful and is evident because their customers have experienced fewer technical issues and the waiting times have significantly been reduced.

Comcast adjusted its vision to be one whose primary concern is to satisfy their clients. Their realization that happy clients are what make a business thrive was the best strategic move that the management achieved. Its strategic vision and mission to prioritize it customers undoubtedly helped in retaining their customers and attracting even more. This move is a reflection that the leadership is giving a listening ear to their customers and using their complaints and suggestions, to shape its vision and mission. After losing customers for a period of time due to technical hitches and poor service delivery, the leadership took a prudent move of re-evaluating its vision and mission to address this issues and it has since bore fruits.

Discuss whether or not the long-term vision is adaptive and supports change or is rigid and resists change

Comcast’s long-term visions are adaptive and receptive to change primarily because their vision solely revolves around pleasing their clients. This therefore means that as the customer needs and preferences change, so does their vision. Adjusting their vision to their customer’s preferences and satisfaction will ensure that the business continues to nourish. By their vision being to improve customer service and give customer better technology, it shows that their long-term vision is open for change. This is also attributed to the fact that technology is dynamic and changes with time.

The surrounding competition has also shaped Comcast’s long-term vision to some extent; in that, it analyzes its strengths as well as its weaknesses that their competitors would use against them. After identifying them, it then shapes its vision in a manner that would make them achieve their goals. These internal and external factors are bound to change, and if their long term vision could be affected by these factors, their vision will also be adaptive to change. Their vision is to grow and change is inevitable where growth is concerned.

References

Alden, W. (2014). The Comcast-Time Wamer deal, by the numbers. The New York Times. Retrieved from http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2014/02/13/the-comcast-time-warner-deal-by-the-number/?_r=0 11th May 2017.

Carter, T. (2015). Comcast rolls out strategy for new emphasis on customer care. Retrieved from http://msbusiness.com/2015/05/comcast-rolls-out-strategy-for-new-emphasis-on-customer-care 11th May 2017.

Comcast. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://corporate.comcast.com/our-values 11th May 2017.