Gene One

Problem Solution: Gene One Inc.

Jesus Christ, Adolph Hitler, Napoleon Bonaparte, Genghis Khan, Mother Teresa, Mohammed, Buddha, Gandhi, George Washington, William the Conqueror, Martin Luther, Thomas Jefferson, Joseph Stalin, Douglas MacArthur, George Patton, Abraham Lincoln, Margaret Thatcher, Mao Tse-Tung and the list goes on and on. What do all of these people have in common? Some accomplished phenomenal things for mankind. Others are remembered for some of the most horrendous acts ever committed by a human being. The common characteristic of all, however, is that they were leaders.

The qualities that it takes to make a leader stay the same regardless of what purpose their leadership will ultimately serve. While we remember some leaders honorably we remember others with disdain. Some are obviously on a different plane than those who are noble, successful, and altruistic but their leadership qualities are still admirable and worthy of study. All are transformational leaders. The direction of that transformation, however, can obviously be radically different.

Transformation that comes about as a product of leadership can take variable directions as well. Effective leaders have what is termed "situation control", the ability to change the situation according to their own strengths and weaknesses (Biographical Dictionary of Management, 2001). Consider, for example, the leadership of men like John D. Rockefeller, J.P. Morgan, Henry Ford, and Bill Gates. Each have phenomenal leadership skills. Are their skills any different, however, than those that have convinced people to invest billions in pyramid schemes, those that have led people to invest in shady land deals, or ethical nightmares like the Enron scandal? The direction that business leaders turn their leadership skills, obviously, can be either good or bad. The purpose of this paper is to provide a situation analysis of the leadership skills that are at play in a contemporary business venture, a venture involving the biotech industry Gene One.

Issue and Opportunity Identification

Gene One has only recently become a leader in gene technology. Their success is attributable to the development of a gene technology that makes pesticide use when growing tomatoes and potatoes obsolete. Starting with only a shoestring budget provided by only a few of its internal player, Gene One achieved a value of $400 million in only eight years. They are currently facing a problem, however, in that they must secure IPO capital for new development, advertising and marketing. They intend to go public within three years to address this need. This move, however, is associated with several issues of concern.

The internal management at Gene One, along with their Board of Directors, has established a goal of forty percent growth. To meet that goal they must go public.

Going public offers many opportunities in terms of fund procurement for Gene One. Ruiz's reasoning is that:

"Public companies have more credibility than do private companies and can gain required capital for growth of technologies, product and marketing"

Stakeholder Perspectives/Ethical Dilemmas

The main players at Gene One are Don Ruiz (Chief Executive Officer and one of the original funders of the company's startup), Michele Houghton (Chief Financial Officer and original investor), Charles Jones (marketing officer), Teri Robertson (Chief Technology Officer, primary researcher with patents on the genetic breakthroughs that have made Gene One a success, Don's niece), Greg Thoman (Chief Human Resource Officer), John Kirby (Executive Director Board Member: CEO of Nuke, Inc., a nuclear medicine company), and Susan Wells (Executive Board Member with extensive community, political, and media ties). Each of these players are stakeholders in the company in one regard or another. Most have invested money into the company. All have invested their time and expertise. There are certain possibilities, however, for ethical dilemmas to arise in this organization. This is a science-based company but it is one that affects humans as a whole. When the primary drive of a company is profit, ethical dilemmas are a very real possibility. Two of the stakeholders, Teri Robertson and John Kirby are scientists and their primary incentives are scientific in nature. Most of the rest of the stakeholders have a likelihood of being drive more by financial concerns than by science.

Problem Definition

Despite many internal and external assurances, there are some concerns surrounding Gene One's move to go public. There is particular concern about the timing. Michele, in particular, is concerned about some negative publicity that has arisen around the industry because of a scandal perpetuated by another company. Ruiz, however, expertly addresses each concern and uses his leadership skills to further assure his stakeholders that the move that he is proposing is a sound one. He counters concerns over negative publicity, for example, by pointing to the positive publicity recently focused on the company and more specifically on Teri Robertson's work in crop genetic research. Ruiz has a press release in hand, in fact, that counters the concerns that are presented to him in a staff meeting.

Ruiz must counter another type of problem that emerges in this meeting as well, however. That is tension between Robertson (his niece and primary researcher) and Michelle. When Michelle congratulates Terri on the PR and jokingly suggests that they should use it to climb into "really hot areas with a lot of growth opportunity, like cancer research", Terri rebuffs her and reminds her somewhat callously that her focus is finance and not research, a point that Terri basically says is obvious since she doesn't know the difference in crop and cancer research. Terri also uses that opportunity to criticize other company players, observing:

"If I produce new technologies and products, you all need to bring them to market. Unfortunately, that's not always been the case".

When Charles tries to intercede in the banter, reminding