Personal Interview of Leader

Posted: March 26th, 2020

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Personal Interview of Leader

            The Baldrige Excellence Framework is away to promote the alignment and integration throughout the organizational structures. The results expected include an improved workforce culture and a better customer experience which will in turn enhance the loyalty levels. The framework includes core values, criteria for performance excellence and a scoring system. Core values emphasize the qualities of a good organization. The criteria for performance excellence provide reflective questions that enable an assessment of the company. The scoring system assigns marks to the questions of the assessment. The criteria for performance of Baldrige Excellence Framework is therefore, very important in gauging the business practices of an organization.  I used this criterion to asses Air Force One Company.

            Air Force One corporation was ranked the third best by Forbes in America’s best small companies. Air force is a business supplies company in Columbus, Ohio. The company earned 30$ million per year in revenue sales and it has one hundred and sixty employees (Burmingham). The company provides heating, ventilation and air conditioning services to large commercial buildings. I chose to research on Air Force One because it was easier to access the leader as compared to other large organizations. I also chose it because of its rank in Forbes Americas best small company. The rank of third shows that the company is doing very well but still some improvements can be done. I spoke with the company CEO Greg Guy.

            The first question I asked him was how his personal acts as a leader sustain the organization. His answer was that his leadership philosophy is pegged on teamwork and he does not view himself as a supreme leader, his position is that of a captain of a very talented team. As a captain his main emphasis is on motivating the employees to improve the output while at the same time pulling his weight as a member of the team. He has to work harder and show more commitment than his employees in order to set an example of how things should be done.  The second question was on strategy. I asked how the organization develops its strategies. His answer was that they try to come up with innovative solutions that are practical to the company. He gave an example with how the company abolished sales commission because it brought intense rivalry between employees. In exchange the profits were shared equally. This strategy caused an increase of 20% in annual sales.

            The next question I asked is how they engaged the customers. The reply was that they attach a lot of value on customer feedback and they try to act upon it as soon as possible. The next question I asked was how on the selection and improvement of their information technology. On this, the CEO said that the company has an excellent Information Technology department who asses the companies needs. The board of management trusts the department and it is very supportive of any recommendation that may arise. I asked how the organization assesses the workforce capabilities. His answer was that the output of the organization is measured as a team performance. Therefore, the output of an individual worker is assessed on the individuals’ ability to contribute to the team effort. I then asked how the organization improves its work processes. His answer was that the organization benchmarks with the best corporations such as Microsoft in order to better its ways. The final question I asked is how the company improves in key areas. The CEO said that the company improves by doing an analysis of their systems on a regular basis. This helps to detect any failures or complacencies in the system.

            The gap that I noted in Air Force One is complacency by the company CEO to assert his role as the Leader. This position should provide clear direction to the company employees. The productivity of each employee should be assessed individually. It is better than looking at it in the perspective of a team effort. This will make the employees to increase their efforts in improving the company. According to the criteria for assessment I used the company is doing very well. It is certainly on its way to becoming the best Forbes American small companies.

Works cited:

Burmingham, Bo. “The Best Small Companies In America, 2016.” Forbes. Forbes Magazine, 21 Jan. 2016, pp. 14.