Johnsonville Sausage By Ralph Stayer

It is also very important to build an appropriate network of all of the stakeholders in which the primary firm creates a well interconnected net of nodal firms (suppliers, distributors, etc.), which should also be connected to the individual consumer, who is at the same time connected to consumer communities. Prahalad and Ramaswamy (2004) named this approach an “individual-centric experience perspective” in which a personalized co-creation experience represents an exclusive value to individual consumers; by connecting all the important dots from suppliers, distributers, producers and the individual consumer all the way to consumer communities in order to create an environment in which a true co-creation is possible (Chapter 6). On the other

For example, the CEO of Johnsonville Sausage, Ralph Stayer went through a myriad of changes - some of them on his personal level, but many others on the company level in order to not only make everyone happier, but also to grow the market share and to increase profits (Stayer, 1990). He first realized that there is the problem (high competition, unmotivated employees, declining quality of products and no noticeable growth), then he realized that the one that acknowledges the problem (himself) is most likely the source of it and finally he decided to let go of too much of the responsibility/control for himself. The results were astonishing… The company went through its own sort of Renaissance where employees got motivated, quality of products increased immensely, profits and market share sky-rocketed and the feeling of overall happiness emanated throughout the company. Stayer realized that by giving employees more responsibility, they got more enthusiastic, involved and in the end perceived the company goals as their own. On the other side, Hamel (2011) writes about the obsoleteness of the managerial functions. Examining the case of successful tomato sauce producer Morning Star Ketchup that implemented the so-called self-management organizational changes, Hamel proves us that managers are just one too expensive overhead. They move away the whole process of important decision-making too far from the really important individuals (high managers make decisions, instead of bottom line employees who are in the direct contact with customers) and they compromise the company effectiveness, which becomes overwhelmed with too many unimportant layers of bureaucracy; all of which lead to a “high hierarchy syndrome”: - less enthusiasm, less creativeness, no initiative and no contribution to overall well being of the company. With a successful implementation of more responsibility, more initiative, more