About the case The case revolves around OLAM International which was a company established for exporting cashews in Nigeria. Later, the company also exported multiple products such as peanuts, cocoa, and coffee. Verghese, the co-founder, believed in personally getting involved in each department to develop a strong culture in the company that he wanted. Over the period of 20 years, Olam had developed strong core values which employees followed, and all the new recruits were also recruited after checking the organization fit. This core-values can be depicted as below: 1. Ambition and stretch. 2. Entrepreneurship 3. Ownership 4. Teamwork and Mutual respect 5. Absence of fear of Failure Soon after this, the company launched an IPO and grew rapidly thereafter acquiring 13 new companies. It was constantly maintaining values and cultural integrity in a currently expanding organization. The case also quotes “If you are going to build world-class managers, you have to incorporate humility. In a business when you define an attribute, you need to find a link between the attribute and the organizational outcome. For most other attributes, you find a link but for humility it is embedded into a lot of competencies. It is more about recognizing, learning, leading others, and driving teamwork”. Olam was running on such a strong base of values and ethics since last 23 years. Case Problem Suddenly one day, Carson Block, short seller, and the director of research at Muddy waters claimed that he was “betting against Olam”. As quoted in the case “A week later they released a 133-page report on Olam with a Strong sell rating, highlighting the four major areas of concern which includes – solvency Issues, Sustainability of its business model, noncash accounting gains and its off-the rails capital expenditure”. Now the problem is the ethics and the core values that Verghese has established are all challenged at once. Verghese initially lose its calm and thought of it as a personal attack. But then he took it as a crisis which he must solve and gain back the trust and the respect of all stakeholders. Behavioural Approach The behavioural approach as stated above is focused on what leaders should do rather than what leader are all about. It focuses on two major fronts: task behaviour and relationship behaviour. In this case, relationship behaviour is the one that needs to take into consideration. The reason for that is relationship behaviour is about making the followers feel comfortable with themselves, with each other, and with the situation in which they find themselves. Based on the research, the below figures show five different leadership style a leader can take up based on the need and requirement of the organization. The types are broadly distributed based on the (concern of the people) on the y-axis and the (concern for result) on x-axis. Based on this situation, as per my opinion the leadership style of the “Team Management (9,9)” suits the best to Varghese because he wants to achieve the maximum trust of his people and wants to take his company’s dropping share at least back to its exiting price before the crisis. So, he should take up the Team Management type of the Leadership style. Team Management - (9,9) Leadership Style This type of leadership plays a strong emphasis both to task as well as the interpersonal relationships. It also promotes that the maximum level of participation happens and the teamwork in the organization is maintained. 5 key Essential Leadership Skills 1. Engage others in shared Meaning. 2. A distinctive, compelling voice 3. Integrity 4. Adaptive Capacity 5. Hardiness This are 5 key important leadership skills which Verghese can follow the solve the issues he is currently facing at hand.
