Leadership in Implementing Change – Evidence from Meg Whitman at eBay Case

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Table of Contents

Introduction
First Steps
First Success
New Challenges
Conclusion
Works Cited

Introduction

Modern times are sometimes called The Age of Change similar to the Dark Ages or the Renaissance. The volume and speed of changes increase, and business has to adjust to them to stay profitable. Still, there is always a resistance to the changes inside a company, as all the innovations seem to cause the loss of confidence among the employees. A leader may succeed in overcoming resistance by following certain rules. There is an elaborated manual of helping a company through a change in the book The Art of Leadership, by George Manning. One could research the implementation of these rules in the case of Meg Whitman at eBay; this CEO managed to drive the company to rapid growth.

First Steps

Meg Whitman came to the CEO position at eBay in 1998. For a couple of weeks, she conducted one meeting after another with the senior executives to fully understand the culture of the company, its goals, merits, and flaws. It allowed her to define short time priorities such as investments in system capacity, developing the marketing strategy, getting the company ready to IPO. Those were the steps of “establishing a sense of urgency” and “identifying potential crises” (Manning 167).

A team-based approach to problem-solving as part of eBay’s internal corporate culture aided Whitman to set the company on a new course. She wanted to gain respect and trust, to rally the team, so every week she held up to a 4-hours meeting with the management paying no attention to the pressure of the constant daily tasks and the crazy work tempo of an internet company. When people seemed ready to follow a new leader, Whitman decided it was time for a team to develop a marketing strategy. During a well-prepared off-site meeting, a new brand positioning was defined. According to Manning, e-Bay CEO worked on “getting the group to work together as a team” and “creating a vision” (167).

First Success

Whitman and her team were conscious of how important the wide communication of a vision among employees was. She personally and the senior managers thoroughly transmitted the ideas to the lower levels. Meanwhile, the CEO restructured the engineering department. It was made in contravention of the corporate culture and special eBay magic, but Whitman believed that the current system did not enforce the capacity of the company and with the growth of users “was going to present even more of a challenge” (Hill and Farkas 280). Also, she hired a few experienced executives for key directions. Despite breaking some basic principles of the company, all the streamlining actions allowed it to go public successfully. “Getting rid of obstacles” and “changing systems that undermine change vision” appeared to be the right steps as the innovations helped eBay make the business profitable (Manning 167).

The safety issues became the new challenges eBay came across. The fraud cases were defeated with the help of stricter trade rules. The company, early trying to be an invisible facilitator between customers and buyers, started to play a more active role as a regulative, restrictive agent. The serious step in the restriction policy was made by Whitman in 1999. After a long period of hesitations, the CEO eliminated all the firearms auctions. As a responsible leader, she took an of losing some heavy users. Still, there was no decline in the clients’ level of loyalty, and the industry analysts supported the move that led to the stock growth. Change implementation on eBay continued with “generating short-term wins” and “consolidating gains and producing more change” (Manning 167).

New Challenges

While Whitman dealt with everyday challenges on eBay, the marketplace was getting more competitive. The pressure of new internet auctions players required doing business differently. Marketing efforts were pointed on heavy users, who got some serious privileges including access to 24-hour customer support. The capabilities of this service were expanded by hiring several hundred employees. By implementing those innovations, eBay tried to maintain a high level of retention. According to Manning, the efforts promoted “creating better performance through customer – and productivity-oriented behavior” (167).

Another benchmark was the attraction of new customers. Whitman said: “We have to grow faster than our competitors and get people to come to eBay first” (Hill and Farkas 286). A period of strategic partnerships and global acquisitions started. The company cooperated with one of the biggest web providers America Online, purchased the prestigious auction house “Butterfield & Butterfield” to gain new users. Taking growth as a number one priority, Whitman caused some blurring of the external company culture which was earlier communicated from customer to customer. The too fast pace of activity prevents the system from adjusting to the innovations.

Conclusion

In modern times a capability of a leader to create changes is a survival point for a company. One could learn how to deal with a change successfully. Certain rules that proved to be effective were elaborated by George Manning. Whitman eBay case demonstrates that a leader following the steps summarized by Manning could achieve the company’s purpose and goals helping it through a change.

Works Cited

Hill, Linda A., and Maria T. Farkas. Meg Whitman at eBay, Inc.(A). Harvard Business School, 2005.

Manning, George. The Art of Leadership. Tata McGraw-Hill Education, 2012.

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Leadership in Implementing Change – Evidence from Meg Whitman at eBay Case

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