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Question 1 (What are the forces that favor change at Cargill?)

As described in this case, change at Cargill, just as it would be in any large company is slow to occur. The new CEO Warren Staley is the driving force in creating a clear plan of action for the company to reach the goals of higher profitability and decreasing the numbers of unprofitable divisions. The main driving force for change in this case is the CEO himself. Staley is creating a new array of opportunities for his company by reorganizing, selling off and replacing management when needed. However, the members of the founding family that still own 88% of this privately held company favor this particular path of change at Cargill and are confident that Staley is taking their company in the right direction.
Question 2 (What are the reasons for resistance to change at Cargill? What can Cargill managers do to overcome this resistance? In your opinion, are these actions likely to be successful in overcoming resistance to change?)

Although many businesses today must adhere to frequent change, it is the single most difficult task within an organization. Often time’s change within an organization is meet with resistance, skepticism and simple unwillingness by management to comply. This case seems to be no different. According to the Cargill case, although the owners backed the CEO’s vision for the company the management within various divisions was slow and reluctant to respond. It seems that the reason for this resistance to change was simply management’s lack of foresight and perhaps lack of understanding of the new vision that CEO Staley was executing. Also this case mentions that implementation of Staley’s vision meant that management within various divisions work as a team instead of working as though they were competitors only worrying about their business. Cargill managers can overcome this resistance by simply having an open mind and accepting that change in the workplace is something that is becoming more and more frequent. Although I believe that approaching the vision laid out by CEO Staley with open mind will help some managers to overcome their resistance to change, some managers will simply not be able to do that. There are many variables that could play part in manager’s unwillingness to adhere to organizational change, some are easy to overcome and with time they would no longer play a role in the decision making process. However, some managers would simply not be able to do that and the only option I see in solving this problem is replacing those managers that are not able to deal with corporate change in the organization. I see a potentially large problem in leaving managers that are unwilling to change as they might only jeopardize successfully completing organization’s goals. I believe that if managers understand the process and realize the benefits that will be realized once the company is on the right path they will be more likely to support the top administration in implementing the changes throughout the company.

Question 3 (What areas of Cargill need to be changed? On the basis of your response, predict how easy or how hard it will be to make the required changes. Then predict some outcomes that are likely for Cargill if the changes do not succeed.)

According to the case Cargill needs to change it’s business structure to be more profitable. As CEO Staley demonstrated, in some cases that might be selling of unprofitable businesses, participating in joint ventures, increasing research and development. In essence Cargill needs to focus on its strengths and opportunities and capitalize on those. It seems as though in the past company engaged in buying up businesses that were somewhat related and was expanding by adding more divisions under its name. However, I think that Cargill will be more successful if the company capitalizes on a smaller number of segments and maximizes it’s earning potential by eliminating investment in divisions that bring losses. The needed change will most likely be difficult due to the fact that change of such large scale requires complete management participation and it is hard to teach managers, especially those that have been accustomed to doing things “the old way” for many years. If Cargill is not successful in implementing the changes proposed, company will most likely begin seeing stagnant growth and will most likely begin to loose money in more of it’s divisions. Further, if Cargill does not successfully implement the organizational change the company will not be able to compete in today’s dynamic marketplace.