Joline Godfrey and the Polaroid Corporation Essay

Executive SummaryThe detailed problems Polaroid faced in the Joline Godfrey and the Polaroid slew (A) case are the lack of structures to contain innovations and the absence of mechanisms to develop talents. Polaroids business rrised around a single product category, which had been under the threat of emerging technologies. The company had retrenched to a narrow focus on profit with and through with(predicate) cost-cutting and pathetic-term sales promotions instead of business innovations for strategical repositioning. The companys engineering orientation and respect for rising-through-the-ranks made it knotty for innovative endeavors and talents from a different range (particularly females) to bring ab come in strategic tilts. The organizational deficiencies at Polaroid manifested themselves through a series of unorthodox choices and manoeuvres of Joline Godfrey and her t each(prenominal) Jerry Sudbey, which tried to circumvent familiar limitations to obtain financia l and human resources for the exploration of a strategic alternative. With limited trust and regards for imposing processes, Joline turned her Odysseum jump out into a private look into and failed to compromise tactically with key corporal stakeholders to pull in backup man and legitimacy.The depict gradually lost its direction and internal support and the failed initiative cumulated in Jolines derailment as an agent of reposition and a young talent with promising creativity. To prevent failures like Joline and her Odysseum determine from repeating themselves, we recommend from Polaroids organizational perspective to 1)Introduce a project precaution office to supply guidelines, assess viability, range resources and build milestones and deliverables to pass off innovative ideas 2)Introduce a mentorship program to provide high potential stave with structured training, line exposure, project exposure and strategic guidance for them to flourish.The Problems and How They A roseThe critical problems Polaroid faced in the Joline Godfrey and the Polaroid Corporation (A) case are the lack of structures to support innovations and the absence of mechanisms to develop talents.Polaroids business revolved around a single product category, which had been under the threat of emerging technologies. After the solitude of its founder, the company had retrenched to a narrow focus on profit through cost-cutting and short-term sales promotions instead of business innovations for strategic repositioning. The companys engineering orientation and respect for rising-through-the-ranks had built a collection of like-minds which reinforce this lack of openness, making it difficult for innovative endeavors and talents from a different background (particularly females) to bring about strategic changes.The Negative ConsequencesThe organizational deficiencies at Polaroid manifested themselves through an unorthodox mentor-apprentice relationship between Jerry Sudbey and Joline Godfrey. In an attempt to explore a strategic alternative to cope with external changes, they took a series of choices and manoeuvres that circumvented Polaroids internal limitations. Jolines Odysseum project took on a private experiment flavour and gradually lost its direction and support from Polaroids corporate structure. To Polaroid, the failure of the Odysseum initiative not only cumulated in the derailment of Joline as a young talent with promising creativity, exclusively also spelled an opportunity helpless perhaps for a critical corporate change.What Went Wrong?While Polaroids senior management claimed to embrace innovation, they did not walk the talk. As much as Jerry saw the need for Polaroid to evolve with its environment through Jolines Odysseum project, the initiative lived on a patch do work reckon. Financial support needed to be solicited from different functions, most of which through personal relationships sort of than formal authority and endorsement. The proje ct team had been assembled from volunteers who worked during private hours. Without stand-alone budget and resources, Jolines drive for innovation faced tremendous pressure and took a hit in times of cost-cutting. The strategic instinct and personal sonority that Jerry had with peers and top management could only carry the initiative through a short distance, but not to the end where a fundamental change in the way Polaroid does business might have come about. Jolines career at Polaroid had revolved around ad-hoc projects initiated by senior management (e.g. corporate downsizingand the Spetra launch).Through these highly unstructured opportunities, Joline had developed a knack for thinking out-of-the-box and taking on challenges at her own initiative. Joline was creative, strenuous and highly driven. She had the charisma not only to attract followers but also elicit the best out of them. However, without well-structured training and guidance from Polaroids hierarchy, Joline remain ed a dreamer with no hand-on experience in line functions that are essential for creditability and respect in Polaroids conservative culture. With few opportunities to work through and appreciate the formal structures and processes in Polaroid, she had developed a inclination to go her own way, unimpeded and even to a degree of stubbornness that she simply refused to compromise tactically with key corporate stakeholders (e.g. the grocery storeing department) to garner support and legitimacy for her Odysseum project (see Exhibit 1).What Can Be make to Avoid a Repeat?While it may be snug to pin the failure of Odysseum, the mentor-apprentice relationship, and Jolines derailment on the personal ineffectiveness of herself and Jerry, it would be far more meaningful rather for Polaroid to address innovation and administrator development from an organizational perspective (see Exhibit 2). Firstly, we suggest the introduction of a project management office (PMO) to consolidate, support and control innovative endeavors. Individuals and teams are encouraged to formulate ideas into structured proposals with clear objectives, benefit and cost assessments, milestones, deliverables and word sense and cut-loss thresholds. The PMO go away evaluate the proposals in terms of strategic fit, potential impacts and viability, prioritize the chosen ones, and procure resources and support for their incubation. The PMO allow foring take projects with promising impermanent results to line departments for critique and validation, then formalize them as corporate initiatives and monitor lizard their implementation progress.The cost of a PMO would likely be a check of executives with good knowledge of organizational structure and business and financial processes to extend new ideas moving along. The key benefits of a PMO are the pronounced perpetration to and structural support for intrapreneurship, which would foster innovation while keeping initiatives possible and realist ic to yield profits for the organization over bothshort and long terms. Secondly, to protect talented but inexperienced executives from failing through derailment cracks, we recommend the establishment of a training and mentorship program. Staff with potentials will each be assigned to a mentor from senior management, who will provide strategic guidance and help the rung develop key networks.The mentorship will be coupled with short-to-medium term assignments to business and functional lines to help the staff acquire hard-skills conforming to company standards and values. This balance of top-down and bottom-up approaches will help the staff understand business processes from strategic planning through to procedural execution. Cost of the program will likely be excess time spent by senior managers (as mentors) and line managers (as trainers). But rewards will be long-term and plentiful it will help the organization establish talent pipelines and solidify succession plans, which wi ll enhance its long-term sustainability.1. The market (external environment) is changing evolving from film to electronic photography. 2. Sudbey as a corporate loss leader had a vision for Polaroid to reposition to a service orientation. 3. Project Odysseum was carried out mostly through informal structures and lost track in the end. 4. Polaroid lacked the formal structures to support innovation (e.g. financing, human resources, strategic guidance, etc.). 5. Changes are needed in formal structures(introduction of Project Management Office and Mentorship Program). 6. The new formal structures would cancel changes in how different components of the organizational architecture interact with each other(a) (e.g. leadership involvement, work process for incubation of innovative ideas, etc.). 7. Polaroid would benefit as an organization and its staff would have venues to materialize their innovative ideas and develop skills to evolve into competent executives.