Professional Development in Business

Question: Discuss about the Professional Development in Business. Answer: Introduction: Leaders guides and motivates vision to frame something new for his team members. They show the accurate direction to the team. An able leader should have a unique idea and skills to lead his team in the attainment of the goals and objectives (Northouse 2015). This report proposes a framework of the standards of rendering direction to the organizations and brings together the diverse yet complete information about the leaders who have acted on similar projects. The report is a step forward towards the growth of new occupational standards. This report aims at providing the skills and qualities of a successful leader required in a booming business. Here, Andy Palmer, the chief executive officer of Aston Martin is chosen for the case study. A brief overview of Andy Palmers leadership style, traits, attitudes, behavior and power is explored in this report. The report proceeds with a brief view on the leadership skills theory and then focuses the leadership styles of Andy Palmer. Aston Martin is being chosen for the case study to analyze the strategies undertaken by the CEO, Andy Palmer to increase the brand value and sales of the organization. The product placement strategies by the marketing executives increase the revenue of the company. The data collected are qualitative in form. Both primary and the secondary data are collected for the case study. Primary data is collected by interviewing the executives and customers by forming a questionnaire. Secondary data is collected from secondary sources like company statistics, documents supplied by the company and journals. Literature Review: Leadership is a complex procedure about the qualities and the competencies that can capture the nature of the leaders. A study on the leadership skills of the successful leaders reveals the capabilities inbuilt within him. Effective leaders can co-ordinate with his team irrespective of the number of team members (Certo 2015). Leaders implement empowerment within the organization to motivate the employees. The leaders must first empower themselves in order to create the environment of empowerment within the organization. Employees under insecure leadership cannot perform well (Day et al. 2014). They are given below: High level of Integrity and honesty:The essential traits in a successful leaders are high level of integrity and honesty. Motivating and inspiring: An effective leader should be able to communicate with his team members to stimulate and motivate them towards achieving the goal. Good and effective communication skill:Good communication skills are one of the important traits that connect the team with its leaders. Analyzing problems and solving them: Good leaders should be able toanalyze the current market situation and solve the problems for the organization in the way of its achieving its objective. Forming relationships:For every business to succeed a strong foundation of trust and relationship should be built among the employees of an organization. A strong relationship is also required between the consumers and the company. Strategic viewpoint: Good leaders can foresee the problems and take strategic decisions to avoid them. Innovative thinking: Innovation is the key skill for every leader to become successful. To develop technical and professional skill:A good leader should keep himself updated by upgrading his technical and professional skills. Organization choosesthe leadership style based on theories and techniques. The situational leadership style is the often argued to the best type of leadership style as this is based on the variables set by the situation. The type of work, qualifications of the employees and the complexities within the company all takes part in choosing the leadership style of an organization (Cherniss and Boyatzis 2013).The main reasons behind the success and the failure of the CEO of a company depend upon the following points below: To know the employees better:Psychological and behavioral attributes influences the success and the failure of the leadership styles. To understand the culture better:to get a better insight about the company a good connection with the employees, consultants and vendors are essential. The key to become a successful leader is to combine different characteristics of leadership style based on the circumstances. Various approaches of leadership styles are discussed below: Trait Theory: This theory is based on the assumption that individuals inherit certain leadership qualities or traits that are best suited for him. Trait theory often recognizes the behavioral and the personality traits that are best suited for the individual. Inconsistencies between the traits and the effectiveness ultimately led the scholars to shift their model towards search for new explanations for the effectiveness of leadership (VanWart 2014). Great Man Theory: this theory is based on the assumption that great leaders are born and cannot be made (Lu 2012). Contingency theory: this theory focuses on the variable that are related to the environment that determine the which particular leadership style is best suited in a work situation. Thus, this factor is the variable that is related to a particular situation. This theory mainly relates to the leadership styles that are demanded in a specific situation (Bihr et al. 2014). Situational Theory: this theory proposes that the leadership theories are the preset course of actions that the leaders adopt based on the circumstances. This includes appropriate leadership styles and decision-making by the leaders in a particular situation (Campbell, Youngs and Anderson 2013). Behavioral Theory:this theory is based on the great man theory, which focuses on the internal and the intellectual qualities of the leader. Two types of behavioral leadership style as Autocratic and the Democratic. Participative Theory: This theory suggests that the input from the team members are essential and the leader feel that it is relevant for the team member to take part in the decision making process (Campbell, Youngs and Anderson 2013). Transactional Theory: this theory is referred to as the management theory that takes into consideration the supervision, group performance and exchange of thoughts between the leaders and the team members (Marais et al. 2014). Transformational Theory: this leadership style brings about valuable and positive changes among the team members. This leadership model increases motivation and morale among the employers of the organization (Marais et al. 2014). Skill theory: The skill theory states that the knowledge and the skillsacquired are the main factors in effective leadership style. However, it refuses to take into account the inherited capacity to lead effectively. This theory often demands the resources and the efforts that are devoted for the training a development of leaders (Marais et al. 2014). Critical analysis of Leadership skills of Andy Palmer: Andy Palmer is a man with innovative thinking and strategic view point. This particular traits of his character enables him to make a plan to transform Aston Martin into an innovative 21st century car manufacturer which will transform the company from a car manufacturer to an icon in England. According to him, this can be done through strengthening of the core competencies of a luxury sports car manufacturer. Andy palmer has incorporated innovative plans within the organization as the main framework for his future vision of the company (Nurnberger and Holgate 2015). The beauty, power and soul are the tag line of the organization.Andy Palmer is responsible for the product planning, program management and marketing communication on the global basis in the organization. His strategy is to improve controlling of the revenue through mathematical formulae to adjust cost of marketing, sales and cost of transaction (Payne and Lagonda 2015). Here, he uses the trait theory to set goals for the organization. The trait theory mainly brings out the traits and qualities of a leader. However, there is no quantifiable measure to recognize the characteristics of leadership. Forming good relationship with the customer is an essential for a business to succeed. His relentlessly efforts and a constant focus on the target customers enhances the sales and the brand value of the organization (Ritchie 2013). The strategic view point of Andy Palmer enables him to foresee the problems the company may face in the future. So he frames his strategies in a way to escape any such situation. A combination of contingency theory and situation theory of leadership skills is applicable here.The contingency theory is mainly based on the environmental variables. But it is found that leaders like Andy Palmer often tend to acknowledge or penalize the employees. These strategies help Aston Martin to reduce marketing cost and enhance transaction pricing in the target market in both Europe and United States. He is the linchpin in the organization between the development of the product and the sales in the market. Maximizing efficiency in the production process is applied to Aston Martin along with marketing strategies. Good communication skill is an essential for effective leadership. Good communication enables a leader to understand the diverse cultural background of the employees. This in turn helps the employees to take active participation in the project in which they are involved. A combination of participative theory and transactional theory is applicable here. The transactional theory is a servant-leadership theory. The transactional theory is based upon the ethical and monetary needs of the company. However in reality the structure is predominantly supported by power and politics. Good communication with the employees motivate them and thus increases the productivity of the organization. The employees are human beings having psychological and social needs which cannot be satisfied by monetary compensation. The CEO should put emphasis on this factor. The company increases its brand value by advertising campaigns (West 2015). Brand value is steadily increasing and is now ranked within the lea ding brands globally. It is also elevated itself from a car manufacturer to cultural icon in UK. Aston Martin does not have the technologies according to the customers. However, Aston Martin incorporatesthose technologies within the car models and invests more in creating alliance with those companies that are already using these technologies. Andy Palmer emphasized on enhancing customer satisfaction and experience. The objective of every dealer is to achieve the brand value as portrayed in the advertising campaigns. The product planning strategy continuously incorporates innovations and other advanced technologies like automated transmission into the models so that it can meet up with the customer demands in the long run. The electric vehicle will be an inevitable solution to the pollution and the greenhouse gas effect worldwide (Bryman 2015). The CEO also possess the qualities of a born leader which is reflected in his attitude. A combination of great man theory and transformational theory is applicable here. His duty is to extract the best out of the employees of the organization, which cannot be achieved overnight. However, the qualities like integrity and honesty within him will enable him to achieve his audacious goals overtime. The great man theory emphasized on the fact that people from upper class with exceptional living standard can only have leadership skills, which limits the scope of leadership. He finally focuses on converting the company into a premium brand. This conversion goes through different stages of development. Reasons behind choosing Aston Martin: The company Aston Martin is chosen for this case study. The study tries to investigate how the product is placed in the market and to find how effective the strategies are as undertaken by Andy Palmer. The effectiveness of the strategies would reflect the leadership skills of Andy Palmer, the CEO of Aston Martin. Other associated questions that arise with the main question are what kind of benefits for placement of product is perceived (Bryman 2015). The goals of the study are given below: to enhance the brand name of the organization and increase the sales of the company to identify and put the description of the product placement strategies in the history of the company as it is placed Aston Martin DB5 in a James Bond film Goldfinger. to collect interpretations on the convenience of the marketing strategies by the executives of Aston Martin. to gather information about the revenue earned and increased sales resulting from the placement of the product in the target market. Aston Martin encourages its customers to gather and choose from a huge range of options in their models. The company takes pride on its artisanship of the workforce. The birds eye view involves approaching operating system in their model, which can be upgraded overtime. The engineers face a lot of technical constraints and technological challenges. The strategies undertaken by Andy Palmer to encourage the employees and the engineers help the organization to overcome such difficulties and incorporate innovation and scientific research in the process (Payne and Lagonda 2015). The exterior designers, the interior designers and the engineers work together to launch model of Aston Martin in the market. Hence, teamwork is required to complete the project successfully. A good communication among the employees will increase the productivity and efficiency of the team. Aston Martin has an excellent reputation on the quality and the artistry of the product. Aston Martin is trying to make partn ership with other organizations to enhance its quality and efficiency of the product. Data collection: This case study gives a qualitative research on the organization Aston Martin. The study follows a qualitative pattern of research and is supported by social constructionist approach. The social constructionist approach views the society as the process of asserting individuals and the world. The methodology used in the study requires the empirical investigation on the contemporary fact on the context of real life. The study focuses on the product placement marketing strategies and its contribution to increase the profitability of the organization. The study involve s both primary and the secondary data. Primary data is collected by interviewing the executives of the organization. Questionnaire is formed to understand cause behind the strategies chosen by the marketing executives (Lu 2012). Again, interviewing the individuals will give opportunity to gather answers backed by the responses of the interviewees. Secondary data is collected from the secondary sources like journals, news a rticles, documents provided by the organization, the statistics supplied by the organization. The data retrieved are verified based on the primary data collected. Conclusion: The leaders take the key responsibility to increase the competitive advantage in the market. A proper leadership often acts as the key to every successful business. The leaders are the linchpins in connecting the employees, level of performance and productivity of the organization (Loveys 2015). The report shows path toward the growth of new occupational standards. The study also provides skills and qualities of a successful leader in a flourishing business. The CEO of Aston Martin is chosen whose leadership skills and qualities are analyzed based on the theories of leadership. A literature review on the leadership skills are given in the report, which is followed by a critical analysis of the leadership skills of Andy Palmer. 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