ashfordalum
The three topics addressed in this assessment are as…
The three topics addressed in this assessment are as follows:
Leadership Skills for the New Manager.
Driving Employee Engagement.
Leading the Digital Age.
. Choose from the three linked pairs of problems and gaps in practice labeled for this assessment, which relate to the assessment topics.
Kensington Auto Parts, based in St. Louis, Missouri, was founded by CEO Kensington Perry’s father in 1978 and has grown from 20 employees to over 82,000 with gross sales revenues of $10.2 million.
Industry/Sector: Auto Parts
Products & Services:
Critical Parts: batteries, carburetors, radiators, alternators, and belts.
Maintenance Parts: windshield wipers, brake pads, headlights, and oil filters.
Financial Data: Annual
Sales: 10.2 million
Cost of Goods Sold: 4.8 million
Gross Profit: 5.4 million
Total Expenses: 3.5 million
Net Income: 1.9 million
Mission, Vision, & Values:
Mission
“Kensington Auto Parts is committed to providing the highest quality auto parts at the lowest price that meets customer expectations.”
Vision
“Kensington Auto Parts strives to be the U.S. industry leader in auto parts and be the company of choice.”
Values
Put customers first
Cares about people
Strives for exceptional performance
Energizes others
Embraces diversity
Helps teams succeed
CEO
Kensington Perry
CFO
Leslie Smith
CIO
Roger Wilson
Don Knots
V.P. Operations
Sammy Weier
VP Marketing
Doug Jordan
VP Sales
Peggy Dean
Director of Business Development and Acquisition
Processes, Procedures, & Infrastructure:
Business model canvas: key partners (parts suppliers, industrials sector group, technology providers), essential resources (brand, stores, inventory and stock, distribution centers), key activities (procurement, inventory, product distribution, sales, store management), value propositions (provide customers with trustworthy advice and real solutions, a wide range of products at low prices, convenience by making life easier for customers), cost structure (cost of components and accessories, distribution costs, sales and marketing, physical assets), revenue streams (product sales, in-store services: battery and alternator tests), customer segments (customers seeking auto part replacements, do-it-yourselfers, side job mechanics), channels (stores, website, retail outlets, video library) and customer relationships (online deals and chat assistance, order online and pick up in stores, DIY repair tips, quality advice).
Business model overview: Kensington Auto Parts’ business is transactional to retail and distributing automotive parts and accessories to customers.
Infrastructure: Product distribution from parts suppliers within online and retail stores. Implement a broadband and mobile solutions suite within stores, call centers, and back-end offices to improve the customer experience.
Internal environment processes and procedures: sales platform is direct sales to customers with no intermediaries.
The company lost 3% market share last year due to various factors including industry competition, operational and supply chain inefficiencies, floundering growth and innovation strategies, poor strategic planning and execution, and ineffective leadership practices. Case in point: Doug Jordan (V.P. Sales) has failed 1 to influence and convince Kensington Perry of the need to start selling highly desirable, higher-margin newer brands in their stores, the absence of which has resulted in shrinking profits. At the core of issue 1 is Kensington’s desire to leave in place his father’s practice of sticking to the same product lines and brands, and as such, Doug has been unsuccessful in advocating for his position.
Along these lines, 2 Sammy Weier (V.P. Marketing) has been unable to move the company’s marketing reach beyond its U.S. brick-and-mortar stores, contributing to its reduced market share as the competition expands into global markets. A key factor here 2 A key factor here is that Sammy has yet to form any relationships with international marketing partners. Moreover, Kensington has remained entrenched 1 in his desire to stay reliant on growing the company’s core auto parts distribution business despite the repeated requests from Peggy Dean (Director of Business Development and Acquisition) to venture into more service-based opportunities. Due to failing to innovate Kensington Auto Parts’ business model while key competitors embrace new service line opportunities, profitable growth has declined. Peggy, who is the latest and youngest member on the Executive Team, one does not have a communication strategy in place to educate Kensington and her peers on the current trends in service-line expansion within the automotive industry and lacks skill sets in how to demonstrate leadership presence while presenting the business case for her recommendations.
Kensington Auto Parts’ reluctance 1 to develop its emerging leaders has created a revolving door of younger talent that has left the company and consequently increased the annual cost of employee turnover. Several of the Executive Team members 1 believe that CEO Kensington’s unwillingness to invest in talent development is a product of trying to honor his father’s philosophy of keeping consistency in the leadership team while failing to realize the long-term leadership pipeline impacts. To that end, another challenge Kensington Auto Parts faces two is leading and managing its multigenerational workforce, as salaries for more tenured employees have put the company over budget on staffing costs tied to total compensation levels. As Leslie Smith (CFO) shared with Kensington 2 at a recent compensation meeting, the root cause of the issue is the lack of recruiting efforts for younger, lower-paid workers who could replace more seasoned workers ready for retirement would in effect, substantially reduce staffing costs. At the same meeting, Roger Wilson (CIO) shared 3 that there are already negative financial impacts of Kensington Auto Parts’ inability to attract and retain the Millennial workforce in the Digital Age, which has resulted in productivity losses across the company’s national store network due to staffing shortages. From Roger’s perspective, 3 Kensington’s insistence on maintaining antiquated systems and refusing to undergo a digital transformation is a red light for younger employees seeking to work in an organization with cutting-edge technology.
Given the staffing shortages and high management turnover 3 in numerous markets that Kensington Auto Parts serves, Don Knots (V.P. Operations) has had to prematurely promote frontline store-level employees to supervisory positions. In turn these inexperienced leaders have increased operational expenses and created additional risk for the company. Don has made it abundantly clear 3 to Kensington that this problem, beyond the staffing and turnover issues, is a direct result of not having any leadership skills development programming for new managers. Furthermore, with fewer people to do the same amount of work, 3 employee engagement has sunk to an all-time low, causing a spike in productivity losses, employee theft, and worker’s comp claims for stress-related illnesses. Don has reminded Kensington 3 as well that failing to make employee engagement a priority at Kensington Auto Parts will continue to adversely affect the company’s fiscal health. Nevertheless, Kensington has seemed almost oblivious 2 to the concerns raised by his trusted leaders and the palpable warning signs. While he continues to cling to the familiarity of doing things the way they have always been done, Kensington Auto Parts in increasingly plagued by rising costs and lower returns. Members of the Executive Team are convinced that Kensington’s clear lack of emotional intelligence, in addition to his shortage of experience in the automotive industry, is a key source of the problems 2 that may jeopardize the company’s future.
State the specific business problem and the gap in practice.
Identify at least two articles (one from the current literature, published within the last 3-5 years, and one from the past literature) that inform your selected problem and gap and discuss how they apply to current trends in the field of leadership, then add these sources to your capstone literature matrix.
Identify a business problem and project related to your selected problem, gap, and the past and current literature you have reviewed for this assessment, using one of three topics appropriate for the field of leadership. Explain why this project would be a good fit to address the problem.
Explain why removing your personal biases from the literature discovery process might help you identify more applicable past and current research to provide supporting evidence for your topic and project.
Reflect on your experience with this assessment and share what you learned.
