Integrated Leadership Paper

Background

The events discussed in this paper took place in early 2014 at VSEL, the second-largest mobile telecommunication service provider in Country X. The leader whose actions will be analyzed is John, the Vice President of the Revenue Management Division.

The telecommunication industry in Country X is very competitive, with an intense price war among the three largest companies: STel, VSEL, and Lsat. VSEL was the first to initiate the war in 2008, which attracted many new users from the middle-low income segment. A big bonus was given to all of VSEL’s employees due to a fantastic increase in revenue.

After this move, however, VSEL’s brand perception changed from a high-quality brand for professionals to a low-quality brand for the masses. In 2014, VSEL’s customer base consisted of 80% unprofitable low-spending customers and 20% profitable ones. Although revenue continued increasing, profit was declining sharply due to repeated unprofitable new plan launches. The company was operating under a sales-focused, revenue-driven approach as opposed to a customer-focused, profit-driven approach.

John was brought in from STel because of his track record of successful profit-turnaround strategy using analytics. The following hierarchy was in place when he joined the company:

Figure 1: VSEL’s Marketing Department’s Organizational Structure - 2014

Note: Analysis will be done within this division

The leader’s social style and versatility

From the beginning, John showed his driver social style. In every meeting, he mentioned the urgency of taking action and achieving immediate results. He insisted that we know the numbers quickly and generate innovative ideas to improve them. His posture was very formal; he spoke very quickly and had a very direct communication style. He enjoyed constant challenges as he gave us new targets to achieve every week. However, judging from the four aspects of image, presentation, competence, and feedback, his overall versatility...