Located in the town of Cambridge, a family owned bakery named “Iggy's Bread of The World” is facing big challenges. The bakery, opened in 1994, was founded on creating a “nurturing and respectful environment at our workplace that fosters cooperation, communication and a sense of accomplishment for all employees”. In less than six years, the company's proud owners, Igor and Ludamilla Ivanovic, prospered and grew the net revenue by more than $500,000. While trying to grow the business, Iggy's is walking a fine like to maintain it's family like culture and ideals. The bakery is experiencing issues like change in culture, communication breakdown, and a sudden shift in structure. In essence, these issues are stemming from unstable leadership that is unable to support the organizations culture and ideals. The current issues are described in a case study presented by the Harvard Business review published in 2001.
Iggy's was founded by two individuals with a strong vision and ideals. Ludamilla viewed her role in leadership as an opportunity to promote her passion. As she explained, “The bakery became a stage for me, a channel though which I could do what I believe in...I want our employees to get pleasure out of what they do. I want them to be involved in the company. I want them to like what they do, to be excited to come in and have initiative to be proud of what they do.”
Igor viewed leadership as an opportunity to teach and facilitate skill advancement. Almost all employees had no prior experience in baking. This was done strategically so employees could be taught everything from scratch. Additionally, there was huge diversity among workers as they all came from different countries. Often they came from abuse or impoverishment and Igor and Ludamilla took their social, physical and emotional health seriously by providing counseling, alternative health treatments,