Case Study OEC201

The following case study is an excerpt from MBA Management Teaching material created by Karen
Nagle, Associate Professor of Business, Herkimer College, NY. This case study has been curated for
by Vedika Singh for class discussion and teaching purpose only. Replication or sharing of this material
is strictly prohibited.

Azim Premji
Personality traits like perseverance, integrity, planning, vision, and determination have enabled Azim
Premji to transform his family’s vegetable oil business to one of the largest software companies in
India. Premji, Chairman and CEO of Wipro Technologies, was rated by Forbes as the richest person in
the country from 1999 to 2005. Born in Mumbai in 1945, he was forced to discontinue his studies at
Stanford and take over the reins of the family business in India after the untimely death of his father
in 1966. Under Premji’s leadership, the company diversified from vegetable oils to hydraulic
cylinders and fluid power components, soaps, toiletries, and baby care products. After IBM withdrew
from India in 1977, Wipro started manufacturing computer hardware and later moved to software
development after obtaining a licence from Sentinel. An absolute workaholic, Premji believes that
hard work is the only key to be successful in the highly competitive world of business. He is a firm
believer in integrity and values.
Colleagues still remember an incident when Premji flew down to Bangalore for an urgent meeting.
He informed top management gathered for the meeting that a senior manager had been asked to
leave because he had submitted an inflated travel bill. Though the concerned manager’s
contribution to the company had been immense and the bill amount was insignificant, he was fired
as a matter of principle. Premji has great tolerance for dissent and eccentricity and believes that
ordinary people are capable of extraordinary things. He propagates that to be effective in the
business world, one should never compromise on personal values, be highly committed to quality,
play to win, and leave the rest to the forces beyond.
In his visit to Stanford for a commencement address, he emphasised, “It is impossible to generate a
few good ideas without a lot of bad ideas. Failure should be forgiven and forgotten quickly. To that
end, companies must deliberately design a culture of innovation to actively seek feedback from
customers, celebrate all kinds of diversity in their workforces, and also foster an environment in
which workers feel safe taking risks, even when they fail.”
Jeffrey Katzenberg
The ability to rebound professionally after a very public and humiliating dismissal from Walt Disney
Studios, would be a difficult task for almost anybody. Jeffrey Katzenberg went on to become the CEO
of DreamWorks Animation which has outperformed its main competitors (Pixar, Fox, and Sony) in
terms of total revenue since 1995 with the production of successful animated franchises
as Shrek, Madagascar, Kung Fu Panda, and How to Train Your Dragon. But, within his role at Walt
Disney, Katzenberg was viewed as an extremely controlling manager with unwavering ambition.

Today, Katzenberg maintains that the best thing that could have happened to him was being fired
from Disney. Over the years, Katzenberg’s leadership style has evolved and changed. He realizes that
the authoritarian decision-making style he used at Disney was not always the most productive. At
Disney, Katzenberg found that “coming to see me started to get to the point where it’s like going to
see Oz. It scares you to death.” Earlier in his career, Katzenberg was so obsessed with the work ethic
he once said: “If you don’t come to work on Saturday, don’t bother coming on Sunday. And when I
said it, I meant it,” he says. But later he learned that “work/life balance is not just a nice theoretical
thought. There is a moment in time in which you actually have to find those things that make you
whole as a human being, and then make you better at what you’re doing.”

If you want to stay surrounded by great people, Katzenberg explains, then you have to get out of
their way. He insists that the single most important leadership quality is one’s referent power, or the
ability to earn the respect of people who work with you and for you, as well as your customers and
your investors. The definition of a successful leader is one who earns that respect. Katzenberg
acknowledges that respect is a two-way street and that a leader is only as strong as his or her
followers. It is important to gain the respect of those around him and to show value and respect in
return. A manager needs to create an environment where people have the ability to fail and to take
risk, he says. To make it easier for subordinates to approach, he made a point of sharing meals with
them. Katzenberg does that so much, he’s known for eating multiple meals every day. “Suddenly,
the relaxed nature of sitting at a table with somebody coming and bringing food and eating just gave
me an ability to connect with people way, way, way better than I could across a desk in an office or
sitting on the other side of a couch.”

DreamWorks’ success is dependent on the creativity and originality of its employees. But with
creativity comes a level of risk, and in today’s economic volatility people are more risk averse than
ever. Katzenberg attempts to alleviate the fear of risk and to make failure acceptable in his company.
He explains that to be unique and original, a requirement of success in this industry, is to be risky,
and with that comes an inevitable degree of failure. He strives to make his employees feel secure in
their jobs and to understand that risks are expected and encouraged. Katzenberg works hard to
create strong teams, and that process begins during the initial interview process. He always asks
individuals what they are best at doing and what they are worst at doing. This, he believes, forces
self-reflection and a level of honesty. DreamWorks Animation believes in quality over quantity, a
process Jeffrey Katzenberg is dedicated to and which is reflected in his leadership style.

Indra Nooyi

What makes Nooyi one of the top leaders in the business world today? To start with, she has a clear
vision for PepsiCo, which seems to be the right vision for the company at this point in time. Her
vision is framed under the term “performance with purpose,” which is based on two key ideas:
tackling the obesity epidemic by improving the nutritional status of PepsiCo products and making
PepsiCo an environmentally sustainable company. She is an inspirational speaker and rallies people
around her vision for the company. She has the track record to show that she means what she says.
She was instrumental in PepsiCo’s acquisition of the food conglomerate Quaker Oats Company and
the juice maker Tropicana Products Inc., both of which have healthy product lines. She is bent on
reducing PepsiCo’s reliance on high-sugar, high-calorie beverages, and she made sure that PepsiCo
removed trans fats from all its products before its competitors. On the environmental side, she is
striving for a net zero impact on the environment. Among her priorities are plans to reduce the
plastic used in beverage bottles and find biodegradable packaging solutions for PepsiCo products.
Her vision is long term and could be risky for short-term earnings, but it is also timely and important.

Those who work with her feel challenged by her high-performance standards and expectation of
excellence. She is not afraid to give people negative feedback—and with humor, too. She pushes
people until they come up with a solution to a problem and does not take “I don’t know” for an
answer. For example, she insisted that her team find an alternative to the expensive palm oil and did
not stop urging them forward until the alternative arrived: rice bran oil.

Nooyi is well liked and respected because she listens to those around her, even when they disagree
with her. Her background cuts across national boundaries, which gives her a true appreciation for
diversity, and she expects those around her to bring their values to work. In fact, when she
graduated from college, she wore a sari to a job interview at Boston Consulting, where she got the
job. She is an unusually collaborative person in the top suite of a Fortune 500 company, and she
seeks help and information when she needs it. She has friendships with three ex-CEOs of PepsiCo
who serve as her informal advisors, and when she was selected to the top position at PepsiCo, she
made sure that her rival for the position got a pay raise and was given influence in the company so
she did not lose him. She says that the best advice she received was from her father, who taught her
to assume that people have good intentions. Nooyi notes that expecting people to have good
intentions helps her prevent misunderstandings and show empathy for them.
In 2018, Nooyi retired as CEO, and Ramon Laguarta, replaced her. During her tenure, the company's
sales grew 80%. Over a stellar 24 years at PepsicCo—of which 12 were spent at the helm—she
ushered in directional changes such as pushing the company to a version of sustainability as well as
leading the way for its digitisation, alongside initiatives to create a more equal
and diverse workplace.
Questions for Discussion:
According to you, which trait(s) is(are) common to the 3 leaders that contributed to their
organisational effectiveness and success, despite challenges?