Corning Glass Works

Introduction

Tensions in Corning developed from external and internal factors. However, I argue that internal factors such as change in leadership style, poor communication, lack of focus, and inter-department distrust worked as the major drivers of this tension. And that the external factors simply helped by lowering the morale of the different divisions and their respective employees. The underlying problem of inadequate communication dissemination of Corning has led the managers, workers and committees to focus on different goals. This is in line with Rogers' statement of his view on the current situation that the major problem they face now is division growth. After all, how is EPD supposed to grow when there is dissent, distrust and miscommunication within the internal systems of EPD?

Environmental (External & Internal) Analysis and Reasons for Tension

-Strong Tech capability in invention and manufacture of glass products

-Established position in market -Uncertainty in new Leadership under Rogers

-Good brand recognition -High Expectations can be a double edged sword

-High Expectations -Poor Service to Customers

-Always tries new things - Entrepreneurial -Missed commitments were high prior to Rogers

-Missed commitments reduced under Rogers - Inter-department distrust

-New information system developed by Sales Service -Poor communication in corporation

Strengths Weaknesses

Opportunities Threats

-Color TV emerging as a significant market -New competition Fiercely competitive

-Growth of data processing industry -Prices fell sharply putting pressures on cost

-Market starting to seem like a commodities market

-Declining economy

Corning SWOT Analysis 1968

There were a couple main external and internal problems which Corning faced at the time. Market conditions in the 60s were changing. The technology industry was becoming more and more like a commodities based market. This meant that there was not only more competition, but that the market was changing faster as well. In recent years, Corning had come under heavy external pressure from competition by other companies and the market uncertainty of the technology industry. Corning also had internal problems such as poor communication and lack of planning between the departments.

Top managers at Corning were evaluating if they could position themselves away from this market by claiming that they produced highly technical products. However, sales and marketing were attempting to make head way into these markets disregarding the fact that Corning's current system was unable to cope with a market. The people in EPD did not have a common understanding of division objectives, strategies and business philosophy. Management and employees in the different divisions alike could not agree about what their primary markets are. They were also unable to agree on realistic profit and growth projections. This disagreement contributes to poor horizontal and vertical integration which would then also contribute to rising tensions within EPD and Corning.

Another key problem the Corning management faced was the lack of focus internally. The new leadership style which Don Rogers has brought to Corning's EPD department differed greatly from his predecessors strong order style of leadership. The culture of EPD that Rogers inherited from Benett was one in which differences were ignored or resolved by pressuring one party to the other's will. Open dialogue and cooperative problem solving is rarely used (if ever) to overcome disagreements. This has caused a dire form of miscommunication within the divisions which then led to a blurred vision and goal for the rest of the period. Simply put, the different divisions were constantly unsure if they should be cost-cutting or innovating. This then lead into another problem where all employee levels of Corning, be it manager or staff , have overlapping work causing a lack of focus and thus a lack of efficiency.

As Corning's sales started decreasing, inter-department tension surfaced as morale waned within the employee population. Corning as a company had very little competition in the past, and with the new threats abound, Corning started to lose sales. Corning relied far too heavily on their strengths to survive - strengths such as patents and high technology capabilities. However, they failed to realize one of their biggest weaknesses was reaching a boiling point internally. The different departments in Corning simply had no trust or respect for each other's work. Sales were overly concerned with their sales goals and were pretty much "giving away the store" according to the folks at the manufacturing department. They were also not able to meet most customer demands. Manufacturing, which was traditionally the most powerful and influential division in the department and in Corning, had viewed the marketing division as sales oriented and incompetent. Manufacturing deemed marketing unfit to lead integration works within the department. The marketing team rebutted stating that the manufacturing team was simply too slow in reacting to the fast changing market conditions. Marketing also argued that product development was wasting too much time in developing a process as opposed to developing a product. The bickering and constant blame shifting within Corning created strong tension among the different departments. Don Rogers act of splitting the sales and marketing division into two entities may have contributed to this dissent as well. Splitting the marketing and sales teams into two departments may have created further barriers in communication. If this was indeed the case, it can then explain the above described situation.

As described by Rogers, the main problem is division growth and the achievement of budgeted operation management. It would be no stretch to say that the declining morale and poor communication and coordination were key contributing factors to this situation. This is a fundamental problem of mechanisms (or lack of) within Corning and EPD.

Proposing & Setting the Action Plan

An action plan I would suggest to Don Rogers would first have him to organize a task force to undertake a study of the divisions in order to pin-point