Free Leadership Essay Case Study Essay Sample

A successful leader learns from the challenges and crises in their career before achieving the peaks. The decisions and decisive plans a leader makes during difficulties helps him learn more than during controlled times. Leaders bring the company out of the disastrous situations and introduce techniques to give a boost and better market than the past record. They have a targeted approach and clear vision at times of economic failures, public relations or product failure. One such company, the Toro Company, is an example of the disaster it was put into and its amazing outcome because of outstanding leadership traits.
The Toro Company, founded on 1914, is an American private company which manufactures professional and residential turf maintenance equipment and irrigation systems. The company was making business smoothly until 1980, when it suffered from worst sales for the first time in 35 years. They appointed Ken Melrose as CEO of the company in 1983. The time when Ken joined the company was hemorrhaging heavily, and it was believed that the losses could not be recovered. Ken took dramatic actions and applied different tactics to overcome the loss. He cut down the special benefits given to employees, decreased labor by 57% and then brought a change in the company’s culture by making it a place which trusted its customers and employees. He developed an approach called ‘alternate dispute resolution’ to deal with the company’s cost of lawsuits. A team was appointed to approach people who got hurt or were having difficulty using the product especially lawnmower before they file for the legal process. The team sympathetically dealt people and ensured them that the company is really sorry for what happened and paid for medical treatment. The engineer in the team meanwhile repaired the product. The doors to court were open for customers, but the company aimed that this does not happen. Melrose made sure that any fight or complaints were resolved by apologizing and was successful in resolving two-third of the cases at home.
He worked with great determination and a clear vision for years. His efficient leadership qualities changed the company’s fate and it recovered by making $1.7 billion business in 2005 as compared to $250 million in 1983. His ethical leadership was caught the attention of Center for the Public Trust and he was awarded as the first ever recipient of ‘Being a Difference Award’.

References

Company History. (n.d.). Retrieved April 6, 2015, from http://thetorocompany.com/companyinfo/history.html
Experience, hard work, innovation and taking care of employees are typical of the culture at Toro. (n.d.). Retrieved April 6, 2015, from http://www.igin.com/article-773-the_history_of_the_toro_company.html
Ethics. (n.d.). Retrieved April 6, 2015, from http://ethix.org/2007/10/01/caring-about-people-employees-and-customers
Ken Melrose: Being a Difference, Then and Now. (n.d.). Retrieved April 6, 2015, from http://nasba.org/features/ken-melrose-being-a-difference-then-and-now/