Pierre Frankel in Moscow: Unfreezing Change Essay

The case describes the conundrum of Pierre Frankel, a devoted employee of H-IT which is a global IT company. He was sent to the Russian subordinate of H-IT in Moscow, to improve the subsidiarys performance and increase profitability. The milieu that greeted Pierre on reaching the Moscow office is not at all told welcoming (i) Lebedev, who is the MD for the Russian subsidiary tried to deal a number two for himself plainly his move was rejected by the upper circumspection. He knew that Pierre was the replacement and considers him a threat. (ii) The subsidiarys 450 odd workforce considered Pierre as an outsider who is trying to tot up with him a lot of structural changes and break the status quo. (iii) Many guidelines were in place, to ensure efficient functioning of the organization and were followed globally.But they were hardly ever implemented here, in the Russian subsidiary. (iv) The atmosphere that had been a result of Lebedevs micromanagement discouraged teamwork and expr ession of new ideas. Not a single institutionalise could move from one desk to another without the knowledge of the MD. (v) All this can as well as be seen as a direct cultural implication of the looseness of the Soviet Union in 1991, as a result of which, the Trust, but verify ideology had been instilled into the Russian way of thinking. Essentially, Frankel had to act as a change catalyst and unfreeze the current state of affairs at the Russian subsidiary. If he is able to change the status quo, he forget be able to reveal the drawbacks of the current situation. This is needed because if the Russians were to improve their ways, it was necessary for them to believe that change is needed.Some constructive steps that he took to hold the Russian ways were (i) In the first few weeks, he met all the relevent leaders in the organization including the line of business leaders to attend more nigh the subsidiarys operations and laying the realm work for change. (ii) He tried to get into the good books of Nadia Abramova, the head of HR and who was rumored to be very close to Lebedev. (iii) He tried to identify good deal who were open to learn and willing to change. (iv) He tried to hire a native Russian to assist him with his agenda for change. He was opposed by Lebedev in this endeavor butFrankel managed to get some resumes with the dish out of Nadia Abramova.Suggested root wordThe priority areas identified by Frankel were increasing business predictability, improve sales efficiency and focus on strategic internal processes. To bring about a change in the organization, he had to change the way the employees image and worked. He had to make the work environment full of energy, collaboration and aver for each other. To bring about this, Frankel had to change himself because the Russians were not going to work their ways at the command of an outsider. It was just how they had become culturally. To do this, Frankel was turn in looking to hire a Russian gu y who could help him connect with the other employees better. He should then try and communicate with Lebedev with a clear-cut agenda and get him on board. Lebedevs change of spotter is key if productivity is to be increased at H-ITs Russian subsidiary, otherwise, his services can be done away with. However large(p) his connections may be and however good his communication skills may be, if his management style is proving detrimental to the company, he is no good.