1) What qualities are most needed to become a successful change agent?

To become a successful change agent requires a critical trait – power, a transformative idea can come from below, however, change can only be made by a person with some sort of authority (expert, legitimate, reward, coercive, etc.). Change is compelled by managers who have a platform to advocate for a new direction and the ability to hire, promote, and reward those who embrace it.

To become a successful change agent also requires essential transformational leadership qualities, these qualities are:

The ability to have a clear vision, set clear goals and direction for yourself and those involved in the change effort. A successful change agent sees a future no one else does, and that vision would not let him rest until it is achieved. A successful change agent leads change because he believes his organization must get ahead of an approaching calamity in order to survive and win. He has the ability to set difficult but attainable goals for himself and his co-workers but used his optimism, enthusiasm and self-confidence to build positive expectations in others. He let people know how changes or innovations would help them succeed and incorporated this into their visions for future success.

The ability to be persistent and courageous to bet his careers. A successful change agents is willing to take bold action—and accept the consequences. This requires commitment and he knows that leading change can be messy, with few clear-cut answers about how events will play out. He understands that pushback accompanies any change initiative and that he will take the impact of it if things go wrong. He is able to overcome skepticism, complaints, criticism, politics, resistance and foot dragging. He is willing to modify the innovation to address people’s concerns and deal with resistance and criticism in a positive, problem-solving manner.

The ability to galvanize teams and turn people on. A successful change agent uses a participative management style involving others to improve the idea, secure cooperation, build trust, and deal with fears and concerns. People buy into the change effort not to avoid punishment but to reap the great reward that comes with change. The reward for change can be organization's survival, growth, more and better jobs, new products, global expansion, byproducts—excitement and fun.

Be knowledgeable and lead by example – Becoming a successful change agent requires knowledge about the organization’s past, its political system, and its culture. A successful change agent is not only seen as charismatic and credible but must also be knowledgeable in what he is speaking about. If you want to create change you must be able to articulate what that looks like as well as show it to others.

Comfortable with change – to become a successful change agent you need to be comfortable with change itself. You must understand that change is a fact of organizational life, are not threatened by it, and even enjoy the stimulation associated with change. Change is required for personal and organizational growth. He also has a high degree of self-confidence and see himself as being able to cope with change.

In business, a successful change agents with authority do not have to wait. He has just got to see the future and has the guts and the followers to effect the change.

2) What was Browning’s predicament at White Cap?

Peter Browning is endowed with most of the qualities that one need to become a change agent. However, there are some impediments at White Cap that stand in his way for implementing his change agenda. He is facing the predicament at White Cap:

Peter Browning is in a precarious situation. He has the task to take necessary action to revitalize and preserve White Cap’s profitability in the capping business considering the changing environment and the increasing competition. White Cap is already a successful division, but now he must improve upon not only an already successful division but the best of the nine divisions of the company - this creates a different set of challenges considering where he is coming from. He had more flexibility in implementing his vision to turn a failing Bondware Division into a succeeding one than he would in an already successful White Cap Division. It would be difficult for White Cap division to realize that change is necessary firstly because it is the most successful division and secondly because this change is dictated from external – Continental executives or corporate level.

The image of Bob White, though he is retired, he is still very much alive in the hearts and minds of White Cap employees, he still live in the Chicago area, Browning in uncertain about the outcome because he has to change those values and style that White represented.

The traditional perception of dips as cyclical and transient, justified by the continuous success of the White Cap is also a predicament to Brown. Very few managers or employees at White Cap acknowledge the need for change. The business results for more than 50 years have been impressive, dips have happened in the past, when they do occur they are perceived as cyclical and transient. Given this perception, how does he convince White Cap that dips need to be taken seriously? How does he initiate change, in what areas, and what type of change – incremental or transformational.

The prevailing culture at White Cap is also a predicament to Browning. White Cap has a family oriented culture that identifies loyalty as its cornerstone. An example of the prevailing culture based on family was witnessed when Mrs. White, one of the founder’s wife, cooked lunch for the company’s employees. Another example of family orientation is the fact that Mr. White would give loans to individuals during inordinate events such as medical emergencies. The establishment of the organization as a family exists heavily today, despite being bought by Continental Can Company. In fact, the cultural effects created by the buyout were insubstantial because Mr. White used his influence to remain aloof from corporate headquarters. This prevailing culture is a constraint on Browning’s effort to change the organization.

White Cap management has till now refused to commercialize plastic development to introduce plastic closures with the argument that plastic threats in the past had never materialized. Will management be convinced that this treat is reel and can negatively affect White Cap if they fail by to commercialize plastic development? The position of White Cap management in the commercialization of plastic development needs to shift for Browning to be effective in implementing change.

The workforce at White Cap mostly made up of friends and relatives living in the community immediately surrounding the plant lacks diversity. Such a workforce typically shows a lot of solidarity towards each other as well as resistance to change.

The workforce is also made up of personnel that have so many years of experience with the division – 80% of them have over 15 years of experience. Such a composition of workforce is usually stereotypes and tends to have the ‘it has always been done this way’ attitude. Flexing such attitude to implement change would not be an easy task for Browning.

Another predicament comes from the Browning’s personality. He has strong attachment to his own belief system that he tried to instill on others. An industrial psychologist suggested that although the majority of individuals shared his ideals, there were those who held different beliefs and values and they found it difficult to relate and understand him. This indicate that he sometimes neglect those who differ with him or derive motivation from their own values and beliefs.

3) What should his change objectives and time frame be?
Before making change, I believe that Peter should first do an overall assessment of employee’s responsibilities Continental White Cap. The case states that the salary and administrative costs at White Cap account for 13% of total cost while the rest of Continental places these costs at around 3% of total cost. This displays to me that there is more than likely some inefficiency in the way the factory is operated or there are too many employees. While this is analysis is occurring, Peter should also focus on getting the current White Cap managers on board with the change he is trying to implement. Any change that Peter implements will go much more smoothly if he gets all the current managers to support what he sees is important to the success of the company.

Another member of the group he will have to get on board with the change are the employee’s themselves. It’s quite obvious that the family atmosphere at White Cap is important to the employee’s and any change in that may be detrimental to the success of the brand. It needs to be communicated to the employees that some changes may have to occur for the overall good of the company. White Cap wouldn’t be the first factory to cut free lunches to employees or other services offered in order to stay in business. Browning may have to be the bad guy but at least the employees will know that he is attempting to save a brand that may be in trouble and that they all care about.

Another concerning topic from the case was the direction that companies were moving in buying more plastic containers than glass containers. White Cap has lost several huge customers to this, such as Heinz brands, and I would think there’s no way that’s not affecting their bottom line. I believe their product line may need to reevaluated so that they do not lose more customers to this changing market. If the market is changing but White Cap is not then it is only a matter of time before their product becomes obsolete. Going off of this, I believe their marketing department needs to search for new customers, markets and leads that they could tap into. In the case study, it was mentioned that the marketing manager spends more time reading the Wall Street Journal than he does doing his actual job.

4) What should he do specifically in dealing with White, Lawson, Stark and Green?
White
I believe that Browning should meet with White and attempt to take him on as an ally rather than alienate him from the company. White obviously has a ton of experience with the company and the culture that is ingrained at the White Cap factory. It would first be beneficial for Browning to gain an understanding of that knowledge from White. If White is the business man that he seems to be and cares about his company then maybe Browning can explain to him some change that he wants to implement. Gaining White as an ally could also give Browning some credibility with some of the current employees.

If White is uncooperative, then Browning may have to just explain to him that there will be some changes and since his company is now officially owned by Continental (and not the other way around as some employees believe) that he will have to accept many changes. I think this is a situation that you have to set the expectations for White so that he is not caught off guard by anything. From there on out, Browning will just have to maintain a pulse for how White is handling the changes and make adjustments as necessary. If conflict escalates then Browning may have to cut ties with White.

Lawson
Since Lawson was the last predecessor of White, I believe it would be very beneficial to gain some knowledge from how he handled the culture when taking over. Lawson is directly above Browning in the reporting chain, so it will be crucial that these two work together in order to be successful. With the combination of gaining knowledge from both White and Lawson, Browning should be able to at least gain the basis of a strategic plan to successfully implement change into White Cap. I would guess that Lawson tried to change at least a couple of tasks while he was in charge – was he ever met with resistance? How did he handle this resistance? What were some things that he wanted to change but never did? These are all items that would be useful for Browning to know.

Browning should also communicate to Lawson the pressures that he been sent to White Cap with. Corporate realizes that White Cap has lost several customers and profits have been sliding. These are pressures that Browning is expected to change. Lawson needs to know this so that he can understand Browning’s motives.

Stark
Jim Stark seems to be a difficult situation that Browning will have to handle. He has an excellent track record at White Cap and has been with the company for over 30 years. Although it appears that Stark’s best days are behind him. Stark’s clear strength in the company was his ability to deal with customers as opposed to his people managing skills. Starks internal relationships with his marketing staff had “soured” over the years and team spirit was low.

Although Browning’s manager urged him to avoid any sudden personnel changes and to “give Stark a chance”, I believe that since this is such a crucial department for the continued success of the business that Browning needs to make a change. It says that relieving a manager of his current responsibilities would be unprecedented at White Cap; however, if the team morale is so low, it is possible that a change may be more than welcoming than it seems. Browning needs someone in this position who is going to be able to tap every market available and motivate his team to do the same; it seems that with the current performance of Stark that this task would actually be next to impossible. Browning needs someone in this role that he can trust, and it is apparent that Stark isn’t that guy. I believe keeping him in that role would be maintaining the status quo and settling for complacency.

Green
The situation with Green is very similar to the one with Stark. Green has had been in his current position for 5 years and with the company for more than 20 years. Green was popular, however, because he maintained all the traditional and popular benefits that people had come to expect at White Cap. Browning discovered that Green had very few constructive ideas to offer and spent a lot of time delegating and reading the Wall Street Journal. Moreover, Browning found himself stepping in on many decisions that should have been Green’s responsibility. I believe all of these are red flags and reasons that Browning should replace Green’s position. I even believe the fact that he is popular with the tenured managers at White Cap is a red flag. If the HR department stays grounded in White Cap’s old ways, then it will be that more difficult for Browning to implement change.

I think Peter should go with the option from the case to replace Green with the human resources manager from Bondware that he can trust. I believe Peter can make this change without it being seen as a threat to the employee’s at White Cap. Obviously Browning has made moves like this before (at Bondware for instance), so I think it would be a hurdle worth leaping in the long run for Browning and the company.