Leadership Research
Philaiporn Pugliese, Frances Mills, Ivan Ralston,
Richard Shives, Wendell Miller
University of Phoenix
MBA 520 Transformational Leadership
July 7, 2008
Introduction
Gene One has many different issues that it must face to continue to make the company more successful and even have a chance at moving itself from a private company, to a corporation that is going to sell its common shares through an Initial Public Offering (IPO). If Gene One were successful at taking the company public, this would be a way to raise capital for expansion.
This paper will discuss the scenario in which Gene One finds itself. Our team will look at companies or organizations that have had or are currently going through some of the issues faced by this company. The companies other than Gene One that we will focus on within this paper are Toyota, Google, 3M, Southwest Airlines, Big 5 Sporting Goods, Nike, Starbucks, Lockheed Martin, Eli Lilly and Company, and VISA. We will benchmark Gene One against the above companies in the areas of organizational culture change, self managed teams, teamwork, team building and ethics and values.
Some of the underlying themes and recurring problems throughout our study of Gene one revolved around the mindset of the leadership as well as the employees. Gene one must realize that one of the Board of Directors goals is to take this company public and the leadership within Gene One must be able to sell this to the employees and make them feel a part of the plan. Feedback from the employees to the Board of Directors prior to making this announcement could have been used to identify some key indicators as to why it may not be a good idea to take this company public.
A company such as Gene One cannot operate independently of each other within the company. Although they have been very successful while a private company, there are new rules and regulations that they must abide by prior to and after they become a publicly traded company. Employees’ timelines become managed at a higher level and their timelines and timetables become someone else’s. They must meet these goals set by management and the board of directors.
Benchmarked Companies/ Key Leadership Concepts
Toyota – Influence Others Through Team Interaction - Philaiporn Pugliese
A good automaker must keep up with the latest trends of vehicles in the automobile market. To achieve this successfully, the research and development manager used influencing techniques in order to persuade the designing team, the marketing team, along with the sales team with a proposal of newly developed prototypes. The sales team works independently, informally and believes that the customer is most important. Customer survey reports put together by an expert marketing consultant were presented to the team. By knowing the culture of each team, it was easier to convince them by using tactics that supported their culture. “Persuasion is described as the use of logical arguments, facts, and emotional appeals to encourage people to accept a request or message. It is also considered an important characteristic of leader effectiveness”, (McShane & Von Glinow, 2005).
Toyota is a company that follows the same cultural beliefs of the logic customer comes first. “The Toyota Way has two main pillars: continuous improvement and respect for people”, (Stewart & Raman, 2007). Toyota realizes that their success is attributed to the customers and to continually improving processes. In continuous improvement, Toyota forms long-term visions, meets challenges with courage and creativity in order to achieve their goals and dreams. They also strive to improve business operations driving for innovation and evolution, (Stewart & Raman, 2007).
As for respecting people, Toyota makes every effort to understand each other and take responsibility to build trust within the organization. According to Toyota’s president, Katsuaki Watanabe, he states that respecting people includes employees, supply partners and customers. “Customer first is one of the company’s core tenets. We don’t mean just the end customer; on the assembly line the person at the next workstation is also your customer. That leads to teamwork”, (Stewart & Raman, 2007). If the president of the company states that the customer is first, the rest of the organization knows this is part of the culture, which creates alignment and clarity.
Google—Leadership and Ethics - Philaiporn Pugliese
Two years after establishing an IPO, Google, the world’s largest search engine, still remains a very successful organization, even after the blunders that surrounded the IPO. The success of a company is mostly due to the efforts of the entire organization to transition from private to public. Employees must be managed well and educated on the importance and benefits of going public. Google’s strong management and unusual benefits, such as meals free of charge, doctors, and even washing machines at the office (Gaffin, 2004), had no problems transitioning employees through the IPO process. Most of this success is attributed to not changing the mission of bringing new or better technology to the public. Gene One should follow Google’s example in this respect. However, Taulli (2004) remarked that although Google’s “management techniques have been hugely successful for its search engine business…these skills do not translate well to the tricky business of raising billions of dollars.” Google needed help managing the entire IPO process.
IPOs are not necessarily bought; they are sold. To “sell” their shares, companies need to market themselves in a way that makes ownership desirable by investors. Investors commit because they are confident their investment will make a profit. This confidence comes from sufficient information such as business plans, annual reports. Company founders can best explain this type of information during the company’s road show. Unfortunately, Google’s executives failed to share enough information about the company during the road show, including important information about “third party relationships and expectations for future revenue growth” (Association, 2004). Google’s uninformative road show could have contributed to their lower-than-expected IPO. Google was also in violation of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) quiet period when Playboy magazine published the interview with Google’s co-founders just before the IPO was about to be priced (Taulli, 2004). For Gene One to avoid the same fate of violations and a low IPO return, management’s best interest is to promote and market the company and not withhold information during the company road shows.
Google used a descending-price auction more commonly known as a Dutch auction for their IPO. In a Dutch auction, investors who wish to participate are asked to meet a target price, then bid and specify the number of shares they wish to purchase. The shares will then be allocated to those bidders once the auction closes, but the price they pay for them will be the lowest successful bid price on the last remaining shares. This type of IPO benefits both large and small investors because it greatly limits the influence an investment bank has on the opening price of the stock, and therefore puts “more shares in the hands of ordinary investors” (Kawamoto, 2004). The disadvantage with this type of auction is the complexity involved as well as the uncertainty of the final share price being much higher or lower than expected (Kopytoff, 2004). In Google’s case, they set the price range a little too high at $135, which scared individual investors and resulted in a final opening share price of $85, which only raised $1.67 billion, half of what they have estimated (Weisman, 2004). The positive side is that the company was well positioned for modest gains.
Finally, a big part of a company’s success is attributed to the ethics and integrity of the leaders and the company as a whole. Google is well known for having a “do-good image” and they have proven they can be successful while remaining ethical. For example, from Google (2008), the company has found that “you can make money without doing evil.” The company prides itself on never compromising the integrity of their search results or manipulating the rankings so their partners will show higher results.
Southwest Airlines – Teamwork and Shared Culture – Frances Mills
Southwest Airlines is a company that began very small and was not highly regarded. Since its inception it has grown quickly and is now a major airlines and a model of consistency. One of the major views people have of the company is the quality of the customer service offered by the employees of the company. Many professionals believe that this top level of customer service is due to the way the company treats its employees. By offering a quality work environment and working as a partner with the employees, Southwest has created a positive work place and has allowed their employees and company to thrive. The quality of customer service and quality of the work environment are part of the corporate culture the leads to the teamwork shared by the employees, (
http://www.southwest.com).
One issue facing Gene One and its CEO Don Ruiz is how to grow and still take care of their employees in the way in which they have become accustomed. Gene One has been in business for only eight years, and is trying to prepare itself for major growth and to become public. The concern of many of the employees and even the board members is how this growth will affect the company’s relationship with the employees. The issue stems from the push that will be placed on the research team to produce new concepts on a very short timeline. This has caused concern as to what the focus of the company will be as it grows. There is also concern among top executives on where they fit in and whether or not some people should be let go.
In the scenario there is no true outcome that is explained. While it seems that Don Ruiz has worked through the difficulties that the company was facing, it does not detail what was done and how it was accomplished. It seems Don Ruiz placed the relationship with his employees at a higher level than the immediate growth of the company. As the Southwest model shows, having top notch employee relationships can create long term success for a company. By giving the employees a say in the business and a feeling of being needed, companies can operate at very high levels.
3M – Organizational Culture Change – Frances Mills
3M is a company which placed its future in the hands of people inventing new procedures and products. It started in 1902 to mine a mineral deposit for grinding-wheel abrasives. This material was not profitable and the company was forced to look for alternatives. The company began working on sandpaper products and technical and marketing innovations began to produce successes. The company was in business for 14 years before it paid its first dividends for their stockholders.
From this point, the company continued to invent new products and ideas and moved into making tape and glues. As they continued to do research they have moved into many new arenas with their products and continue to grow, (
http://solutions.3m.com/wps/portal/3M/en_US/our/companu/information/history/).
The issue 3M and Gene One share is the reliance on products or services not yet invented, or unproven products. Gene One placed a great deal of faith and hope in the ability of their researchers to come up with new innovative ideas that will keep them at the cutting edge of their profession. The current trend has been profitable and successful, but if the innovations do not continue to come as quickly or are not as successful, the company may find itself in trouble. This is the risk a company faces when it commits to becoming and staying very profitable.
3M has been able to keep up with the challenges of a changing society and increased competition. They have been able to do this by staying ahead of everyone else and always having new ideas. Gene One must do the same thing within the company’s field of work.
Big 5 Sporting Goods - Change in Organizational Culture – Wendell Miller
Big Five Sporting Goods Corporation located in El Segundo California is based in a regional chain with approximately 275 value outlets of sporting goods positioned in ten western states. At the same time, approximately 60 percent of outlets are founded in California. Big 5 store are also located in Texas, Utah, Washington Arizona Colorado, Idaho, Nevada, New Mexico and Oregon. Big 5 is a niche performer that is able to effectively complete against superstores. The way Big 5 kept pace with demand was that the corporation relied on annual growth using their units in the 11,000 square foot range usually located in the strip centers as opposed to 40,000 square foot units standing alone as a big box operation. They saved money by utilizing a smaller amount of space. Big 5 was able to take a local approach and contemplate a number of stores in a particular market instead of attempting to match prices by popular brands such as Nike, Reebok, and to budget price merchandise for lesser brand such as Brooks, Pony Spalding and Riddell, augmented by inventory acquired in closeout. As a result of this approach, sales associates do not have to become knowledgeable about an unnecessary number of items, and Big 5 also reduces its display to markdowns taken on more expensive shoes and attire.
Throughout the late 1990’s, Big 5 took steps to expand its information technology infrastructure. In 1999, the company introduced a project to replace its decade old point of sale registers and software with new hardware and a system establish on a Microsoft windows application while improving system speed and stability.
In 1995, Big 5 installed and implemented a new merchandising, distribution and financial system allowing management to complete the organization’s inventory reduction strategy, a move instrumental in maintaining the company’s constant fiscal health. To preserve strong growth at existing stores, management also pursued a remodeling agenda. When California economy slowed down in the 1990’s, Big 5 cut back the tempo of expansion totaling only a few stores in 1996. Annual revenue for the year reached $404.3 million. In 2001, Big 5 entered a new market in the state of Colorado opening two new stores. For that year, sales grew to nearly $622.5 million with net income totaling approximately $15 million, (Big 5 Sporting Goods Corporation (2003). International Directory of Company Histories, Vol. 55, St. James Press. Retrieved from Apollo Library, University of Phoenix, July 1, 2008).
Nike Corporation - Inspiration and Innovation through Technology -Wendell Miller
System and Integator, UPP Business System, working with select partners supports the Nike mission with supportive web application development in correlation with the Nike PDM or product Data Management program. The PDM supports the company’s product line management process, comprised of production merchandising, marketing and distribution of Nike footwear and apparel. Business efforts support the PDM including JAVA/J2EE, Windchill web application development of footwear Materials system in an alternate of a client server system, C+and Oracle. The footwear resource system was intended to handle the lifecycle footwear manufacture and distribution process that begins with shoe requirements design to sample submission for scientific testing. These results of evaluating this design should make a Parametric design to support a complex distribution of product development. Streamline processing can eventually improved products. It includes such tools as rational rose for rapid application development, JSP Processor and XML processor.
According to McShane and Glinow (2005,) (Pg 7) “an Effective self directed work team consists of members who share leadership responsibilities or otherwise allocate the role to a responsible coordinator.” Working with a team, UPP Business System is assisting with n-tier Web application development, including continuing development, modification, enhancement, implementation, testing debugging for performance optimization of an existing application. The applications a gateway for data synchronization and features heavy XML, abstraction layers and a flexible object oriented data model using Wind-chill Rational Rose tools, extensive XML coding, managing data objects using the XML processor, placing XML tags into JSPs. Continuing development duties entail working with Nike management and stakeholders to understand requirements, evaluate options, estimate development efforts, and design and develop solutions for application performance improvement. Optimization efforts have included the development of additional functionality, modification of existing XML and abstraction layers, simplifying data and objects models, synchronizing or reducing the number of threads, reducing tiers, and modifying resources intensive code for faster and more efficient processing.
“According to Mcshane & Ginlow (2005) (Pg.31) Path Goal Leadership Theory is base on a contingency theory of leadership and expectancy theory of motivation that relate to several leadership styles to specific employees and situational contingencies.” Nike has explicit goals, strategic initiatives and exclusive challenges that will be implemented. Nike along with UPP will offer their with expertise with the dedication to high performance solutions and high level of results. This team knows their industry because they have excelled in it for years no matter the market. UPP is resilient and successful as Nike consultants. Their reputation rests on their diversity of education and work experiences. While each brings a unique mix of skills, all thrive on challenges. Nike and UPP technology have only two assets, clients and consultants and will go the distance for both offering relocation and continuous support of corporate staff whose care and responsiveness is truly exceptional.
Eli Lilly and Company – Team Building – Ivan Ralston
Marietta Stalcup, medical liaison team leader at Eli Lilly, created a teambuilding dynamic for her team to be part of while at a company meeting. There had been some conflict among the team members due to different styles and personalities. Ms. Stalcup identified that everyone in her team enjoyed cooking and eating, so she coordinated a culinary experience that would break down barriers and create a bond between team members who usually avoided contact with each other. After the team building exercise was over, everyone convened to discuss the experience and to voice any frustrations. People were much more open with their feelings and were joking about the experience. The next day, much more time was spent in group dynamic, stating how the exercise was pertinent to forming a successful team in the office environment. Oftentimes, individuals in the office environment disconnect from one another; not always a mutually beneficial interaction or exchange of ideas and knowledge. By conducting team building and team bonding exercises, individuals with diverse skills and knowledge are placed in a situation where they need to work together to create the best possible outcome. Catherine Margles, president and founder of the Creative Cooking School, understands that “people need to get along to boost the bottom line of a company” (Amer, 2005). Ms. Margles can create competitive or noncompetitive exercises. In the end, the ultimate goal is to either dissolve conflicts, or strengthen the bond between coworkers and colleagues. Eli Lilly is not the only company to recognize the importance of conducting teambuilding or team bonding exercises for its employees. Other large corporations have engaged employees in these exercises for various reasons, whether there have been mergers, acquisitions, or expanding to be a global competitor.
One of the toughest barriers to become minimized by these exercises is communication. When people need to come together and build better working relationships, doing so in an environment that creates a level platform for everyone, enables the participants to enjoy the experience and get to know one another on a whole different level.
To build trust form senior executives, a new plan had to include soft tactics of approach and play to the personalities of the individuals to convince them to work and support the company’s goals. Group and team dynamics are part of the corporate politics that have to be maneuvered to become a successful leader. At Eli Lilly, because there were differences among skill and rank of team members, there were definite style and personality conflicts. For all team members to acknowledge each other’s capabilities, build trust, and have everyone trust that they are in a position of power, a teambuilding exercise was planned. Once team members learned of the array of skills they all contributed to the team effort, they realized a heightened success level achieved by the team. Individuals who were not necessarily “designated leaders” were given the opportunity to become fluid leaders when the skills needed might not have been possessed by the “designated leader”. Face-to-face communication was a significant factor in opening lines of communication and providing immediate feedback (Kinicki, 2004). When organizations address cultural deficiencies and barriers, creating a more dynamic culture by building strong team cohesiveness becomes possible. When employees get along and work well together, it creates a stronger commitment to doing well and achieving the best results possible.
Visa Inc. – Team Effectiveness – Ivan Ralston
Visa Inc., the world’s largest retail electronic payment network, has been at the forefront of electronic payments since its inception 50 years ago. In 1958, Bank of America launched an innovative “revolving credit” card called BankAmerica. In 1976, the Bank Americard was renamed Visa. The name was simple, memorable, and pronounced the same way in any language. From the first revolving credit card platform to neural networks and mobile payments, Visa has pioneered the growth and development of this fast-moving industry. Visa’s payment platforms are increasingly the backbone of global commerce, enabling the swift and secure transfer of value and information among financial institutions, individuals, businesses and government entities (Visa, 2008)
In November 2007, Visa filed for a $10 billion IPO. Hoping to cash in on it massive credit and debit card network, if their goal is reached, Visa would raise the second largest amount generated in U.S. history for an initial public offering. Visa’s next largest rival, MasterCard Inc., went public just 18 months prior and had raised the seventeenth largest IPO of $2.4 billion (Associated Press, 2007).
The biggest issue that Visa is facing is the timing of their IPO. Visa’s filing came just two days after they rid themselves of a lawsuit filed by American Express which alleged that Visa was engaging in illegal practices to stifle competition. Visa agreed to settle the dispute by paying American Express $2.25 billion. Visa is still fighting a similar battle with Discover Financial Services, which is set to go to trial in September 2008 (Associated Press, 2007).
Another major issue that Visa is faced with is sensitivity to consumer spending. Stocks are shaky, credit is light, and the economy may be tipping into a recession. Visa is taking a huge gamble; however, if it works, it could encourage the stock markets, and could even help to loosen the credit knot. Banks are expected to see a windfall of more than $10 billion, which might keep them from pulling back credit lines and raising rates (Read, 2008).
Starbucks – Loosing Sight of the Vision – Richard Shives
When Howard Schultz took over as CEO of Starbucks the company was content in selling whole coffee beans. Schultz had a vision of building Starbucks into a nationwide retail powerhouse. He knew the way to realize that vision was to build a leadership team capable of being independent while sharing his vision.
Schultz began to hire MBAs and corporate executives with experience running chain franchises, creating complex computer systems, and training employees nation-wide to deliver standardized consumer goods. He recruited many of them in the early 1990s from fast food companies like Kentucky Fried Chicken, Wendy’s, McDonald’s, Burger King, Pepsi, and Taco Bell, and they brought professional management to the pre-existing coffee idealism. By the end of 1991, there were just over 100 stores with $57 million in sales.
Starbucks employees, called “partners,” were indoctrinated with 25 hours of course work that imprinted company rules. Among them: Thou shalt brew a double espresso shot between 18 and 23 seconds and serve within 10 seconds of brewing it, or throw it out. The courses, called Coffee Knowledge 101, Retail Skills, Brewing the Perfect Cup and Customer Service, were taught by ultra-earnest, peppy young instructors. “Lovely! Fabulous foam!” they would burble as students created lattes. Hip, young Generation Xers had to remove studs or rings from nose, lip, or tongue, nor could any employee wear cologne or perfume that might interfere with the roast aroma. For the same reason, smoking was forbidden. (Tea and Coffee Trade Journal)
Schultz left the company in 2000 and over the last ten years the Starbucks’ leadership team slowly lost sight of his vision. The company started introducing food products in stores, discontinuing employee training sessions, and has lost most of its stock value. In 1992 Starbucks issued an IPO with an initial value of $.62, the stock grew to a high of $39.63 in 2003, today it closed at $14.95. Early in 2008 Howard Schultz regained the CEO position of Starbucks and has stated the company needs to return to the basics that made the retail store great. He discontinued most of the food products and has begun closing stores that have bloated the retail chain’s costs.
Lockheed Martin – The Advantage of Diversity – Richard Shives
In 2004 Lockheed Martin faced a major demographic problem. According to The Washington Post, “About 100,000 of the company's 135,000 workers would be retiring in 10 years. To keep its edge, Lockheed would have to replenish a workforce heavily recruited from the military with young engineers, scientists and managers drawn from all backgrounds and able to think across traditional borders.” Bob Stephens took over the CEO position facing this problem and set about solving it as all engineers do, with precision and calculated risks.
Stevens rethought the issue of diversity from the ground up, commissioning the expected studies of best practices but also trying to move beyond a philosophy that treated race or gender as an end in itself. The first result was a mathematical model meant to measure such seeming intangibles as how effectively managers create an inclusive atmosphere. (The Washington Post) Bob Stephens knew that talented engineers were the key to Lockheed Martin’s future success. Because of the limited pool of engineers within the United States and the diverse locations of Lockheed Martin’s locations he knew that future engineers would be a diverse group and that they, along with the current employees, would need well rounded and well thought-out training to become cohesive teams working toward Lockheed Martin’s vision.
According to The Washington Post, “The notion of "inclusion," not numbers of diverse hires, is gaining prominence. Executives say that they can hire thousands of people from diverse backgrounds out of college but that if the company's management cannot really listen and respond to their unique voices, those employees will move to a company whose management can.” (The Washington Post)
Bob Stephens created the Diversity Maturity Model which is a program the measures improvements in governmental compliance, employee satisfaction and culture training. Lockheed Martin uses this model as a core management tool and its top executives’ bonuses are tied to how well they rate on the scale. These measures have allowed Lockheed Martin to continue its competitive edge in the engineering industry and will continue to serve its employees with cultural understanding and team cohesiveness.
Conclusion
Researching and benchmarking how dynamic companies have embraced the task of changing an organization’s culture to become more competitive has provided insight and direction on how to implement leading-edge business management concepts. Creating natural work teams and managing knowledge and skill development helps to retain experienced employees, cross-train, and allow the enterprise to continue growing. Without engaging employees and mentoring to encourage leadership potential and developing managerial capabilities, company leaders become stagnant and must rely on external resources when internal resources are no longer viable. Discovering the strengths and weaknesses that subcultures play within the organizational structure can aid in the decision making process and if maneuvered skillfully, can alleviate internal competition which otherwise might prove detrimental to the organization’s profitability and viability. New and innovative leaders and managers must use the business management concepts that can increase productivity, maintain or raise employee morale, and lead to cost cutting advantages. Successful companies already engaging these concepts have paved the way and have demonstrated how to achieve these results with the highest levels of success. By conducting through research and learning about best practices, companies struggling to make the next step in growth can implement learned strategies and achieve their corporate goals.
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