Andrew Thornton- Putting Heart into Business

By:
Group 2
Name Roll No.
170103040 Arjun Prasad
170101030 Harshita Sahu
170103087 Ishmeet Singh
170103136 Nidhin K.P.
170103211 Shashank Raj
170103219 Shivangi Gupta
170101008 Anam Qamar
170101013 Annika Jotshi

Intro
The Case talks about the journey of Andrew Thornton who was facing a turmoil
both in his personal as well as professional life and how he turned it all around
by using a heart centric approach in his new venture. The problem starts when he
is 42 after the 9/11 incident where he is in a midlife crisis. The consultancy
industry loses half its clients, he loses his self-confidence and then faces a divorce
after all this turmoil how he overcomes this by being Emotionally intelligent is
what is talked in the case
Analysis
Andrew Thornton through the initial part of the case was a manager focused
solely on profits and was not an authentic leader, circumstances led him to regain
that authenticity. Hence, leading the organization to perform better than others.
People work best when they work with their hearts in the job and even better
when their emotions have been taken care of. This clearly visible in the case of
Andrew Thornton. After suffering turmoil in his own life and becoming
disillusioned with a heart-less business model. Andrew set up a turnaround
company which displayed sustainable success when the creative energies of the
employees were put to use.
So, we see instances of employees who initially were awkward in some sense
become happier at workplace and also grow physically healthier. The whole
process cannot be negated because a control was carried out in another store.
It is fair to say that Andrew and Daniel are emotionally intelligent and have shown
fair signs of competence in the subject matter throughout the case, For e.g.
 We are made aware that there is open communication between employees
and Andrews as well as the line managers
 Empowering of employees can be seen in the case the vision of making
people work on what they love and not what they are good at, helps in this
regard also the examples of Sealan (Tomato Display) and Paola (sandwich
counter) stand out as examples of empowering employees.
 I guess the subtle aim was to make employees feel at home and create a
family like environment both Andrews and Daniel tried to nurture this
relationship with their employees.
 We see in a lot of organisations that departments in the companies work in
silos and only think about their concerned departments, but this was not
the case in the heart centred approach, here every department took care of
the impact the change would bring to the other department
 Setting up of change and promotion team was a master stroke as it
stimulated the creativity of the employees as well as gave the store an
innovative edge
It is amply clear through the case that for change to be successful in the company
that change must be applied to every nook and corner of the company not just a
single part or department of the firm.
Also, for a firm to be prosperous and for employees to love that firm the firm
must have psychological safety for its employees. It must have clear and
transparent communication policy amongst employees and managements. The
departments must work in sync and internal branding must be done in a manner
that makes people believe in the company and the bond that they have with it and
the people working in it.
 EI analysis of Andrew

Definition Tools Used Examples

Self-Awareness Medium Self-assessmentNot very confident about himself at
but low
the beginning if he can reinvent
confidence himself but he did succeed in doing
initially so
Self-Regulation High Patient and
Worked with integrity and patiently
willing to
to bring change in employees
experiment without ever loosing cool
Motivation High Wanted the firmDid not want to copy but set an
to change example
Empathy High Hear Centred
Focused on how to maximise the
approach, caring
potential for employees, motivated
for employees the employees to do what they loved
doing
Social Skills High Bonding, Close Emphasised the importance of
knit company harmony amongst departments and
wanted a collaborative company.
Created a personal and close
relationship with his employees