Management and leadership analysis: RMIG

The company RMIG is one of the leading distributors worldwide of perforated metal. Perforated metal is found in many different aspects of human life – inside homes and buildings, in cars and other transportations and in other industrial designs and equipment. Because of this, RMIG has secured a niche and has been consistently delivering quality products and services to its long list of satisfied clients. Founded late in the 19th century, the company has changed hands in leadership after several years; it continues to remain as a very stable company.

The history reflects that RMIG as a company has been very solid and stable. Nonetheless, underneath these indicators of success are parts and aspects of the company management which reflects the strengths and weaknesses in leadership and management. The analysis of such parts can reveal possible avenues for change and development that can benefit the company in the long run. II. Discussion How good is the management? How good is the RMIG management?

When they say history speaks for itself, then one only needs to look at the history of RMIG to know how the company is managed and how the management has been effective all these years. Partnerships and deals with other industry players, a wide array of products distributed worldwide, a company known for high quality materials - these are all some of the products of the excellent management in the past, and even today. However, as an old adage says, nobody (or for this case, nothing) is perfect, and change (internally and externally) remains constant.

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Thus, there is need for constant re-evaluation and adaptation methods in order for the company to survive and remain competitive and significant in the industry. While RMIG should be commended for its excellent management (which is expected), what is more important is to discuss and analyze points that identify where management is not performing well. For example, the closing of two production units this year in Switzerland and Italy is testament to the state of management of RMIG.

While it was mentioned earlier that it can reflect positive points when it comes to company leadership, it does not follow that it is also indicative of good company management because these are two different things. For one, the closing of the two production units is considered as a good move leadership-wise. It reflects the good decision making and leadership of the company based on the current situation, how the leadership acts and reacts to the current state of things inside the company.

However, the leadership of the company should not have been made or forced to decide regarding the closing of the production units if the management of the company has been on top of the situation. Remember that management is both long term and short term responsibilities. It is about handling the needs and demands of today and projecting what happens in the future and starting a foundation today to ensure that once the future becomes today, the conditions will remain favorable to the company. It appears that the management of the company has failed in that factor.

Sure, it is easy to blame economic depression, change or shift in supply-demand and other economic-related factors that necessitated the closure of two production units. For the good manager and the sound management paradigm, all of these should have been part of the consideration years ago and steps should have been made to make sure that this kind of situation does not materialize. Remember that in the area of management assessment, what is being assessed isn't just the management of the processes guaranteeing sales and income or profit.

Part of how the management is being evaluated and how the management style is efficient or not efficient in how it handles its roles and responsibilities in the operation of the company also includes the consideration of the management of its resources, including its human and non-human resources. Definitely, it is very hard to consider RMIG as having an excellent display of management capabilities when two of its Europe-based production units have closed down.

This leave employees and their families with the problem on how to move forward when jobs that previously sustained them in the past has just been taken away from them. As Narayan (1999) explains, "good management... means effective direction by all those responsible for the work of others (Narayan, 1999, p. 2). " With the closing down of the production units, RMIG appears to be guilty of poor management. This is not to say that RMIG as a company is characterized by constant poor management because the truth is, it is not. Evaluation is on a case-per-case and time-per-time basis.

There are times wherein leadership and management leaves a lot of room for improvement. For a company that was founded and has started operating since the 1890s, there is very little doubt that there are times in the past when the company showed excellent and commendable management skills. This allowed the company to be where it is now, an important entity in the perforated steel industry. Excellent management in the past has allowed RMIG to grow, expand and remain productive, efficient, and sustainable and to be a trusted industry name with reputation to stake.

What this paper points out are chinks in the armor that contributes to making its management performance less desirable because of the negative points that pulls it down. How good is the company's leadership? It is important to assess if the leadership of the company is sufficient or not. Here, it is important to look at two important groups: first, the high-echelon top brass management team; and second, one of the most important company leaders and figures – the chief executive officer or CEO. In the case of RMIG, there are two important scenarios that need to be analyzed and evaluated in lieu of the issue of company leadership level.

In the case of the management teams, it is the consideration on which between long or short tenure is beneficial for the company. In the case of the CEO, the topic is about decision making and how it impacted the company and how it reflects management style inside the corporate culture of RMIG. a. Long term retention of management teams: healthy or not? - An important factor in the analysis of whether or not the company currently possesses a core with good and sound leadership qualities is looking at its leaders and the leader structure trend.

It appears that RMIG's top management core team has not changed in the last 8 years. In analysis, it is important to see if that is a good thing or a bad thing, and what makes it good or bad all in all. There is no clear way to break this down; there are no facts to support that long leadership has been detrimental to the welfare of the company. On the other hand, the company also has no idea of the growth that could have happened inside the company if there was change in leadership in between the eight years the management team has stayed on its position.

It is important that the analysis is supported what professionals believe with regards to leadership, leadership transition and the pros and cons that go along with leadership succession and long leader tenure holding key management responsibilities. Thomas North Gilmore (2003), who wrote the book “Making a Leadership Change”, explained both sides of the coin. The analysis can be applicable (in both sides) to the case of RMIG. First, Gilmore points out the importance of long term leadership. "Organizations risk a succession of new leaders, each of whom do not serve long enough to fully implement a new strategy (Gilmore, 2003, p.

1). " In this position, Gilmore wants to point out that sometimes, it is suitable for organizations to have a set of leaders and managers in position for a long period of time, in the case of RMIG, 8 years and running (Gilmore, 2003, p. 1). Leaders have long term visions and goals that can only be realized if they are given the chance to implement such full term plan over a long period of time. Looking at RMIG, the management appears to be under individuals who are handling long term programs for the company that helps the company survive and remain competitive.

If this is true, then the fact that the top management of RMIG remains unchanged over a period of 8 years or more is more of a positive characteristic than a negative. The leaders are given mantle of power, authority and tenure sufficient for them to realize their long term plans for the company. The fact that the plan can either be good or bad is outside of the equation, but considering how they have been performing in the recent years, it is safe to assume that the plan is more of a good plan than a bad one.

As mentioned earlier, there are always two sides of the coin, and the other side of this argument is also presented by Gilmore. "New leaders offer a powerful way for new values and behaviors to enter an organization, to revitalize working alliances, and to stimulate rethinking of outdated assumptions (Gilmore, 2003, p. 1). " In short, what RMIG is risking by retaining management officers for a long period of time is the lost opportunity for positive chance and the dangers of being passe, outdated and stagnated.

The crucial idea here is change. While existing leaders can be catalyst of and source of change happening and spread over a long period of time, what new leadership can do is bring the atmosphere of change in the company. This can start a new wave of development and improvement that can push the company towards more prosperous years ahead. In the case of RMIG, management can be seen as somewhat sliding towards being stagnated and redundant, out of touch with what is new and is hardly influenced by new ideas.

The people in place are cocooned inside their own ideal, policies and philosophies in corporate management. Moving consistently towards a plotted direction is acceptable, but it is also important to consider that the market is very volatile and economic factors can quickly change the industry's landscape. Without new ideas and visions coming from new leaders, continuing towards the same path as dictated by the characteristics and inclinations of the leaders can be disastrous, or at the very less counterproductive, to any company like RMIG. b.

CEO and decision making - Among the highest ranking officials in the company that can influence management and has a very important role in leadership is the CEO, or chief executive officer. For RMIG to continue to be prosperous and productive, excellent management is expected from the CEO. Included in the necessary skill set is decision making. In the recent years, the CEO of RMIG has been criticized for poor decision-making which eventually led to predicaments that is generally disapproved not just by the employees but by the stakeholders in general in the society/community.

A perfect example of this is the closing down of two production units in Europe just this year alone. It is important to point out that the decision making abilities of the CEO will impact significantly how the company is manage and the results of this style in management. If RMIG continues to suffer from poor decision making of its CEO in the future, the board of directors should address this problem immediately or else risk losing a lot and becoming less and less competitive and productive in the industry.

In the process, it loses its partners and clientele, which is the lifeblood of the company and its enduring success in the past. Summary: Identifying the good and bad points, and the areas for change RMIG is one of the multinational companies that prides with a long history and a commendable portfolio. Over the years, the company has been a major supplier of different big companies and have partnered in projects that has defined the level and quality of products and services that RMIG offers to customers and business-to-business clients.

Still, it is important that there are close examinations of the management and leadership characteristics of the company for RMIG to be able to pursue a productive and competitive future. It is not new that a very stable company ends up in pieces in a blink of an eye because of its leaders and the quality of leadership present inside the company which went unscrutinized for a period of time. For RMIG, any chance of monumental collapse can be avoided if it can identify some of the company leadership and management strengths as well as weaknesses and explore which areas the company can improve to develop the company.

This is indeed a changing world. While it is not necessary for everything to be changed immediately, it is important to know the significance and role of change, what needs to be changed, how and why. a. Strengths – There are two important strengths found in RMIG Company that is essential in successful overall management. These are: (1) management of products and its quality; and (2) management of business strategies. Looking at RMIG and its performance in the industry, RMIG continues to win contracts and secure projects and partnerships with companies that rely on what they provide, like automotive brand Audi, for example.

This is because of the level of management they put in on monitoring the quality of products and services they provide to the clients. Despite internal and external issues and concerns that they have to face and address, they remain consistent in the quality of their products and services which allows their clients to trust them consistently. This is an important management strength of RMIG that they can build from. Besides this, another noticeable strength found in the company is the management strength when it comes to business strategies.

Looking at RMIG, they offer perforated metal, definitely not one of the most highly in-demand products that consumers worldwide are in desperate need of. However, because of their business strategy, they manage to expand the breadth and depth of their products and create demands which they answer to. Because of their strength in managing business strategies, they are able to come up with ways and means on how to best sell what they provide to the client, and to expand that client base by creating more demands in other sectors which they have the potential to penetrate especially with their exploitation of possible need and demand.

While others may say this is scheming, for others, this is a sound business strategy to go along with other business strategies RMIG has in its arsenal that continues to be a factor why they remain stable in this very competitive and very volatile industry. b. Weaknesses – Expansion and distribution of sections of the supply line all across different locations is always a very tempting idea especially for a company that continues to grow, a company like RMIG.

What the company should know is that one of its weaknesses in the recent past is its inability to solidly manage its assets, in particular its units, leading to the closure of two of its production units recently. RMIG showed that it is weak in utilizing these units and in preserving their operational ability and role in the company productivity. In the future, for this mistake not to happen again it is important that management focus more on making the most of what asset they have and to be cautious in any efforts to expand and acquire.

While this move maybe important in the present, the costs maybe too expensive for the company in the long term especially if these units will close down. Another important weakness in management is the lack of vision of the management when it comes to the importance of being visible via the mass media. Management has handled poorly the public relations aspect of promotion of the company which places the company under the radar of traditional and digital media, hence, under the radar as well of the public, which includes many prospective customers.

The management should reconsider its position in publicity, promotions and public relations to improve and enhance the image of the company as a corporate citizen and corporate entity and perhaps make it impact positively on the productivity of the company. c. Areas for improvement – RMIG can use the benefits that will result from several different improvement found in some of RMIG's operational components. For example, the management of R;D should improve so that it can be the catalyst towards the exploration and expansion of the company's product lines and product offerings.

It is also important to delve into technological developments that could not only open new products to complement the existing core of RMIG's product offering but also to be consistently a step ahead in technology and to use it to continuously improve and develop the products at par with the world's best and what the world is expecting from a company like RMIG. There is much that they can discover with the studying not just of perforated metal but also the study of how they can expand towards other products that is somewhat related to or complementary to what they offer now.

The company should also improve on other management aspects, like the decision making of the CEO and the management strategy involving acquisition of property and employee relations. It is in these aspects that RMIG appears to have significant chinks and blind spots. If they continue to skid on these components, it is safe to assume that they are risking an imminent collapse in overall operation, which will be viewed in the future as a direct result of mismanagement from every important focal point of management.

III. Conclusion RMIG is a company that should be commended considering the longevity of the company and its ability to survive, undergoing different economic conditions and different changes in the economic as well as political and social-cultural climate. Today, RMIG stands as one of the trusted brands when it comes to perforated metals. It has sold its products all around the world and to many different clients who are also important industry players in automotive, food technology, industrial, etc.

Despite what appears to be a seamless management of the company, a closer scrutiny will reflect the weaknesses in the management and leadership style of the company and its leaders. For the company to be able to move forward, it should be able to identify these problems and resolve them in the soonest possible time. References Gilmore, T. N. (2003). Making a Leadership Change: How Organizations and Leaders Can Handle Leadership Transitions Successfully. Nebraska: iUniverse. Narayan, B. (1999). Industrial Management. New Delhi: APH Publishing.

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