Most of the Fortune 500 companies, are arguably complex systems that require different leadership styles. Companies like Morning Star, Apple, Wal-Mart and Amazon are complex organisms that are not simple linear diagrams. A good company model that demonstrates the CAS model is number 18 on the Fortune 500 list, Kroger (Fortune 500, 2018). Kroger is one of the nation's largest grocery retailer. This giant company was founded in 1883 by Benard Kroger, a loud mouth entrepreneur who wanted to lower the price of groceries (Mancini, 2015). It is now the top twenty Fortune company that owns everything from Kwiki-Stops and Littman jewelry stores. The Kroger Company owns 38 manufacturing plants and has coast to coast partnership with other grocery companies. This is a complex system that requires key strategies to focus down from the large mega-company to the store owners.
The current CEO of Kroger Rodeny McCullen was named as one of the best CEO's in 2014 by CNN. His humble demeanor and customer first strategies have made Kroger a War-Mart competitor. McCullen was the first to introduce loyalty cards for customers, enticing them to come back. Kroger and McCullen introduced a new culture, forging new strategies but focused on the fundamentals. Kroger's empire is not just about the bottom-line, on their main home page the Kroger company is committed to the the customers health, the environment and ease of the experience, in an attempt to be different in their strategy. Kroger has also made way for technological adaptions in their grocery stores like ClickList (on-line shopping and pickup service) and grocery delivery (Factbook, 2018). In fact, just this morning I used ClickList and then bought gas at a discounted rate from a Kroger store.
The Kroger values include, honesty, diversity, integrity, value (pricing), and inclusion. These terms as a fundamental plane stabilize the shopping experience. They keep the associates grounded in moral responsibilities inside of the complex. The strategy that Kroger has defined is uniquely different from that of other discounted services in that it wants the customer feedback and accepts the challenge to change from the normal and the known to the unknown and the different.
In my experience in the Air Force, change is not fast and the roadmap did not allow for logical off-ramps and strategy was built in stove-pipe linear systems and programs. Change was made slowly and different is an anomaly. The military does not do different fast, changes in strategy is made very slowly, especially in Air Force Space Command. The scars of paralysis by analysis still torment the command’s functionality. This is further illustrated in Martin-Reeves TED talk, he discusses the highly insufficient strategies that are narrowly focused, and are not adaptive, visionary and stagnate. For example, it was not until the post-9/11 world that AFSPC stop having a Cold War mentality about acquisitions, this continued for decades. Until recently, AFSPC had been a supporting role in others domains, a sudo service provider. Since 2016, AFSPC has been trying to change its image, to change its mentality, to change its culture. AFSPC is trying to establish a new “roadmap” to ensure deliberately develop new Airman and new systems in the new domain (Space, 2016).
In conclusion, Complex Adaptive System is a new leadership model that applies advanced mathematics to new modern markets. Modern technological leaps have catapulted companies, militaries, governments into complex organisms with multiple touch points are cross, bend and intertwine. Arguably all of the Fortune 500 companies fall into the CAS model. Companies like Kroger, whose reach includes everything from manufacturing and produce to jewelry companies. The Kroger Company as a whole attempts to stay ahead of technological advances, consumers and even environmental trends by building stores and values that are centered on these three things. The company has short and long term strategies that guide around these three things in a SMART manner. The US military, specifically AFSPC did not move like that. The strategies took time and caught many people off guard, the results meant that the systems, people and logistics did not keep up with the adversary. I hope with a new outlook and a adaptive strategy we will be better prepared for the future.
References
"Kroger Company." Gale Encyclopedia of U.S. Economic History, edited by Thomas Riggs, 2nd ed., vol. 2,Gale, 2015, pp. 698-699. Gale Virtual Reference Library,
Facebook, Kroger (2018) https://www.thekrogerco.com/wp content/uploads/2017/08/TheKrogerFactBook_2016.pdf
Fortune 500: Number 18 Kroger http://fortune.com/fortune500/kroger/
Mancini, C., Salamie, D., & Steinke, R. (2015). The kroger co
Space Command Public Affairs. (2016). Hyten announces space enterprise vision.
(). Washington: Federal Information & News Dispatch, Inc.
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