Lowe’s employs the seven critical success factors of virtual team collaboration to influence and ensure the success of its virtual teams. The company is not equally successful in all aspects, but it has been able to demonstrate competence in all. The seven success factors include human resource policies, training and development, standard organizational processes, communication and technology, organizational culture, leadership, and competence. Lowe’s has successfully adapted several human resource policies, including changes to its Talent Management and Employee Recognition System, to recognize virtual team member performance. The company, however, still struggles to find ways to celebrate virtual team successes. Lowe’s provides virtual teams with exceptional technical and infrastructure …show more content…
support, in part due to overlaps between its distributed store model and virtual teams. Training and development offered to office workers at Lowe’s are also available to virtual team members. The company offers training in many integrated communication technologies, but has not developed effective training materials in virtual team collaboration. The tools provide to virtual teams are effective in facilitating the sharing of information across teams, functions, projects, and the organization. Lowe’s is still developing standard organizational processes to support virtual team collaboration.
During the last year, significant time and resources were allocated to develop the Lowe’s Iterative Project Development Methodology (IPDM). Once completed, the IPDM will provide co-located and virtual teams with standardized organizational processes and execution methodologies. Lowe’s excels in providing workers with the necessary communication and collaboration tools, and offer the support needed to maximize its effectiveness. Workers not only have access to the latest software and hardware, but the company also maintains its software and hardware to optimal service levels. In addition, virtual team members also have access to the company’s established and well-funded tiered support organizations. The organizational culture of Lowe’s facilitates trust between the company and its partners. The company has a history of collaborating with external teams, which has been key to its success. Unfortunately, the Lowe’s culture relies too much on meetings to reach team consensus and that slows down decision-making and is sometimes counter-productive to virtual team
collaboration. Leadership at Lowe’s has been the driving force for the adoption and success of virtual team collaboration. Leaders have been effective in demonstrating that virtual teams are the new norm and that its adoption is essential to the ongoing success of the corporation. Lowe’s leaders have also demonstrated their commitment by offering equal opportunities to office and virtual teams. Business acceptance was gained by including key business partners in virtual teams. The successful implementation of virtual teams does not happen by chance. At Lowe’s, leaders took deliberate action to ensure its success and to maximize outcomes. Leaders selected effective information collaboration tools and developed new methods and processes for virtual team collaboration. This also required team members to adjust to the paradigm shift in virtual team collaboration, which exposed them to new challenges and opportunities. Teams greatly benefitted from industry best practices and shared knowledge. Virtual team collaboration, like ever shrinking global distances, is a given in the modern economy. Companies who best figure out how to maximize virtual team effectiveness will become economic leaders, while those who resist will likely suffer. It is, therefore, essential that business leaders understand the seven critical success factors to virtual team performance and have the ability to apply it within their own organizations. After all, the future of the company might just depend on it.
Lowe’s tries to foster collaboration and strength in a variety of methods; many are through leadership training tracks and supporting employees and their families. During times economic uncertainty, it is important that individuals know that they an organization that cares and supports them. In a comprehensive report released by Lowes, the company detailed improvements Lowe’s achieved in important focus areas, including the health, safety and engagement of employees, the company’s advancement towards its 2020 goals and its partnership with suppliers to maintain the highest ethical standards and improve the products it sells (Lowe’s Companies, 2015a). According to Lowe’s Companies (2015a), “For the first time in Lowe’s annual Employee Opinion Survey, all of its U.S. stores, distribution centers and customer support centers all reached the company’s benchmark engagement goal of 65 percent, indicating a highly engaged and satisfied staff” (para 4).. “Career Bliss recognized Lowe’s as one of the 10 happiest retailers to work for in 2014” (Lowe’s Companies, 2015, para 5). To keep an organization running efficiently and effectively, you need a good customer base; you cannot achieve this without helpful, courteous and willing employees. Lowe’s understand that to keep up in the industry, they need to ensure they employees are taken care of
In the early 2000’s Lowe’s was rapidly intensifying its presence nationwide. The company carried a varied assortment of home improvement products and catered to the needs of retail as well as commercial business customers. Lowe’s expanded their reach by acquiring a 41-store chain, Eagle Hardware and Garden, and engaging in a strategic alliance with HGTV to obtain a more profound existence in their market (Rouse, 2005). By 2004, Lowe’s operated almost 1,000 stores with plans to continue expansion across the nation (Rouse, 2005). The company has a core competency in helping customers meet their home improvement needs at a low price. In order to use this core competency to gain a competitive advantage, the company has focused on key functional strategies. To continue their success, Lowe’s must specifically focus on marketing, logistics, and human resource management strategies.
Their mission: ‘Customer service and community service are core commitments at Lowe's — and they have been for more than 60 years. Being a good neighbor means being committed to improving the places our employees and customers call home. We see that as an investment in our future. We've grown that investment as Lowe's has grown from a small-town hardware store in North Wilkesboro, N.C., to the second-largest home improvement retailer in the world.’
Lowe’s employs more than 260,000 people in more than 1830 stores; these employees are trained to provide exceptional customer service as well as receiving up-to-date product knowledge to assist customers with their improvement needs. In addition, Lowe’s has upgraded store information technology infrastructure to assist employees in accessing product data faster and easier. This is accomplished by providing the sales team with computers that have Internet access, and Ipad’s and Iphone’s loaded with specialized apps (Lowes, 2014).
The 3 percent decline in sales causing a 21 percent decline in profits can be attributed to the identification of the accounting concept of operating leverage. Operating leverage is what business managers apply to boost small changes in revenue into sizable changes in profitability. Fixed cost is the force managers use to attain disproportionate changes between revenue and profitability. Therefore, when all costs are fixed every sales dollar contributes one dollar toward the potential profitability of a project. Once sales dollars cover fixed costs, each additional sales dollar represents pure profit. A small change in sales volume can significantly affect profitability (Edmonds, Tsay, & Olds, 2011). So, therefore, if sales volume increases,
Lowe’s is leading the way by example. Lowe’s believes that creating long-term partnerships is a win-win situation for both sides of the deal. Lowe’s is the second largest home appliance retailer in the country, by working hand in hand for twenty-six years with Whirlpool, the largest marketer and manufacturer of home appliances. Whirlpool and Lowe’s have worked together to become unmatched in bringing their customers a high quality product and a very low competitive price. Through a tremendous logistical effort Whirlpool and Lowe’s have created a one of a kind Innovation Tour. A semi-trailer transforms itself into a functioning kitchen to show customers cutting edge appliances that will be available at Lowe’s in the future from Whirlpool and Kitchen Aid. As Lowe’s motto states, Lowe’s truly is “Improving Home Improvement”. (http://www.businesswire.com/)
According to Northouse (2012), team leadership has become one of the most popular theories of leadership research. A team refers to a group of employees within an organization, who are interdependent of each, and share a common goal which can only be realized through coordination of their activities. Actually, this can be attributed to the fact that team members typically have dissimilar and unique roles that represent critical contributions to collective action. It goes without mentioning that a team can either be virtual or non-virtual (Tiffan, 2014).
Lin, C., Standing, C., & Liu, Y. (2008). A model to develop effective virtual teams.
It should capitalize on the cost-leadership strategy and improve its customer service to edge out Ace and steal a chunk of its market share. Lowe’s should also seek to negotiate for favorable contracts with the major Australian suppliers on a cost-advantage level and thus increase its bargaining power. Moreover, such a strategy would create an entry barrier for Australian start-up competitors who might seek to use their home advantage to outcompete
Case Study of The Home Depot Preface This Essentials of Strategic Management assignment has been made by three persons which have been working together and individually to finish the assignment properly and in time. Secondly, we would like to thank the company whose websites we were able to visit and use, to get additional information that we could use for leading the assignment of Home Depot to a successful ending. We can say, that it was a pleasure to work on this assignment and would, in the third place, like to thank each other. The persons who worked on this assignment, for the effort and time that is put in the assignment, that brought us to this finished version.
By being a customer oriented company Lowe’s uses the information that is given to them to help build upon their great reputation. To help show that Lowe’s is willing to help others they continue to help with disaster relief not only by donating money and supplies but also help rebuilding. Compared to its rivals I am certain that Lowe’s will be able to carry out its goals and missions. With having one of the best customer service programs in its market Lowe’s does its best to not only help its customers out as a whole but also on an individual level. Lowe’s will continue to grow across the nation to ensure to help you with your every home improvement need.
Thomas, D., & Bostrom, R. (2008). Building trust and cooperation through technology adaptation in virtual teams: Empirical field evidence. Information Systems Management, 25(1), 45-56. Retrieved June 13, 2008, from EBSCOhost database.
assertiveness and responsiveness) of how team members describe and perceive each other; and Corporate Culture (C) is the business climate in which teams operate in an organization; combined with their relationship with Adams, Simon & Ruiz’ (2002) Seven Constructs of Effective Teaming namely, clearly defined goals, common purpose, role clarity, psychological safety, mature communication, productive conflict resolution, and accountable interdependence (Ross, Jones and Adams, 2008).
Organizations use teamwork because it increases productivity. This concept was used in corporations as early as the 1920s, but it has become increasingly important in recent years as employ...
Team approach shrinks a large complex issue or opportunity into several smaller parts where it can be solved in parallel. Once fall fragments into individual tasks, and are appointed for individuals to carry out assigned tasks, but where are the systems in place to keep track of the work done by the members of the team mode. This approach will allow the project manager to focus on the project as a whole and ensure that all tasks are being integrated