Case Study – Stevenson Industries
TEAM 9
By
Weizhao Chen
Hsin-Ti Hao
Yimto Yue
ACCT325
Professor Kunkel
Mar 3, 2014
Introduction
The choice of leaders to steer the success of an organization is an important process that
eventually shapes a company’s strategies. It is these strategies that eventually determine
whether a company will be successful or not. Stevenson Industries is a company whose
decision to appoint Paul Steel as the CEO of the company had a negative impact in the
performance of the company. Despite the tedious and time consuming process that lasted
two years, the choice of Paul Steel as the CEO culminated into doubts concerning his
management style. As a new leader, there were mistakes that he made. In addition there
were ways in which Paul Steel could have done things differently in order to change the
outcome of his leadership. There are other leadership styles that Steel can use to manage
Stevenson Industries.
Steel’s Mistakes
One of the mistakes that Steel made as the new leader of Stevenson industries was in
coming up with a vision that was not properly suited for the company. Simon, the then
board chairman of Stevenson industries revealed this. According to Simon, Steel’s vision
for Stevenson Industries did not fit with its culture neither did it respect the traditions
which contributed to the company’s success (Davis 1). Visions which are not consistent
with organizational culture and which do not consider factors that contributed to an
organization’s success in the past are bound to fail. Such visions, however ambitious they
may be, have less chances of success in steering an organization to success. Large scale
acquisitions were proposed by Steel as business strategies for Stevenson Industries despite
the risks coming with such acquisitions (Davis 1). Steel’s strategy was not consistent with
the Company’s preference for small-scale acquisitions, as it had always been done in the
past.
Another mistake that Steel made was in making hasty decisions in dictatorial manner and
without a sense of cooperation. Four senior executives of Stevenson Industries felt that the
management style applied by Steel was autocratic (Davis 11). The leader characterizes
autocratic style of management as less involvement of the top managers of an
organization. Steel’s mistake during his tenure involved his making of decisions without
consultation of the board members. Despite an agreement that involved reducing the
workforce by 8%, the reductions that followed were excessive resulting into deterioration
