Transcript of Holden Outwear video on Change

Adapted from source: http://www.cengage.com/introbusiness/book_content/kelly_busn5_9781111826734/video/holden.txt accessed April 26, 2017

>> Michael LeBlanc: I was definitely interested in stylistic garments and, you know, the fashion forward side of things, but I love snowboarding. It's my passion, and being outdoors and all, you know. So to put them together seemed like that's a real idea, and, you know, you go snowboarding or skiing, or you might just be in New York City in a, on a rainy day or it's negative 20 in Quebec, and you just want to feel good. Hi.I'm Michael LeBlanc. I'm the founder of Holden and I'm one of the guys who helps with marketing around here.

>> Nikki:I had a friend that her dad was a footwear designer, and I was just, like, super inspired by that and just in awe of, you know, how he would sketch by hand and just turn these, like, insane detailed drawings into an actual, like, 3D model. Hi. I'm Nikki.I'm the design and development manager at Holden Outerwear. I just knew I had to do something creative and something that was never the same and that always changed.

>> Michael LeBlanc: Well, definitely when Holden came out, we were the new and improved outerwear. For the first five or six years, it was people just waiting to see, and they still do. I mean, a lot of our accounts come in, and they say I can't wait to see the collection. What have you done this year? What new fabrics, what new designs do you have? So, yeah, and it really affected the industry as well. I mean, we had competitors at our big shows showing pieces in their line. [Inaudible] this is our Holden piece. This is our Holden-esque garment. We've been kind of labeled as the person or the brand that pushes that, the style portion of technical outerwear.

>> Nikki:That's probably what I love most about Holden is the fact that they take cues from fashion, and that they're not looking at what everyone else in the outerwear market is doing. They're looking at high fashion and figuring out a way to apply it to, you know, a garment that someone would wear up on the hill.

>> Michael LeBlanc: We've brought an element of Old World tailoring into our stuff. So we really deal with paper patterns and fit. I think we stand out on the floor in women's especially because we are designing for women. I think most of our competitors is designing for girls. So they're designing for a 10 to 12 or 15 year old girl whereas we're designing for someone who's 18 to 50 years old.

>> Nikki:You know, the pants especially are extremely slimming, and that's really rare to put on a pair of snowboard pants and actually make your butt look good and not look like you're wearing a diaper.I have a pretty solid background in both development and design. So I actually do really get excited about technology and working, you know, whether it's with the fabric mill or with a, a garment manufacturing on, man, manufacturer on, you know, taking something that everyone does every day and doing it slightly different and how are we going to do it different and how are we going to present it to the market in a way that's still acceptable and functional -

>> Michael LeBlanc: And when we started the company in 2002, Scott and I wanted to make a natural fiber waterproof breathable fabric, which didn't exist. So we had a ton of vendors. Every time we meet with a fabric supplier, we would say do you have anything natural waterproof breathable. They're, like, look at you like you're crazy. So basically we had to put the pieces together. We developed the world's first natural fiber waterproof breathable fabric in 2005, which was a hemp poly mix fabric. We won a ton of awards for it, and, you know, we had our major competitors, again, chasing us right after that.

>> Nikki:I think our denim that we're doing is really exciting. You know, a lot of companies in outer market are doing, you know, cheap nylons that are printed to look like denim, and we're actually doing a, a true cotton twill that it denim and, you know, laminated with a 20K waterproofing and as performing on the mountain as, you know, high-performance outerwear, and also looking like a real, true jean [inaudible].

>> Michael LeBlanc: Yeah.We're a small brand, and we, we aren't able to, you know, have all pieces of the puzzle. We don't own factories. We don't own fabric mills. We can't fill a factory so we got to have really great relationships with all of our vendors.

>> This is a 100 percent polyester twill two layer.

>> Nikki:It's definitely getting harder and harder to be able to push our vendors to do new developments. Costs are going up, you know, and they don't want to develop something that may enter, not get used.

>> Michael LeBlanc: We might go on with a new design they've never seen, and they're, like, well, that's not possible, and then you say, yes, and they say no, and you say yes, this is how, and then they're, like, wow, cool. And then their brains start working, and they're, like, wow, this is great. This is something new our factory can do and offer to other people.

>> Nikki:That's how we do our business is to be able to, you know, push our manufacturers, our vendors in ways that they aren't pushed. That's how we come up with something new -

>> Michael LeBlanc: The industry loves change, especially the shops and the kids. So the shops and the kids are psyched about Holden. It meant, wow, this is something that looks radically different. The industry really embraced it, and also the brands embraced it. They've all basically followed suit. If you look at Burton to Bomb Fire to Sulliman and see what, you know, in the ski garage [inaudible], a lot of brands have fallen to Holden's lead and gone down that fashion route. Yeah. There are a lot of ways people can rip you off. So we're very secretive as much as we can be.

We don't want to be too paranoid, but we don't hand out catalogs to anybody that's not a certified Holden dealer or distributor, and we don't do a lot with PDF imaging just because that starts to float around. One brand in particular that really copied a lot of our stuff, and I didn't [inaudible]. Their conscious wore on them. They came up to me at a major trade show and, literally, the girl started crying.She's like, oh, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to, but I gave all your designs and some pieces that you gave me to one of our designers and they copied it exactly. Her punishment was her own remorse. Definitely!Her punishment was her own torture.Like I said, we turn over designs so much, and that's the fun thing about Holden, I think, is we design a collection rather than reacting to the current business. We're actually creating stuff every year new things. So that'll always be a part of Holden, and then, and then if people want to copy us, they're probably going to sell a lot of pieces so I don't blame them.

Part 1 SOR: In the subject line stated list the external/internal factor, one creative organizational characteristic, and the implementation tactic explain in the response.

(Example of Subject line: Weather,Reward System, Manipulation)

Part 2SOR:Given Holden Outerwear's missionandstrategies (of Growth & Differentiation), briefly explain why one internal factororexternal opportunity or threat creates theneed for Holden to innovate/change. Refer to a factor &/or competency

326 Part 4 Organizing 8.2a Exploration Exploration is the stage where ideas for new products and tech- nologies are born. Managers design the organization for explo- ration by establishing conditions that encourage creativity and allow new ideas to spring forth. Creativity refers to the genera- tion of novel ideas that might meet perceived needs or res or respond to opportunities for the organization.32 People noted for their goto ativity include Edwin Land, who invented the Polaroid camera, Robyn Twomey/Corbis Outline and Swiss engineer George de Mestral, who created Velcro affar noticing the tiny hooks on some burrs caught on his wool socks. These people saw unique and creative opportunities in familiar Innovative situations. CONCEPT companies Characteristics of highly creative people are illustrated in the CONNECTION such as left column of Exhibit 8.2. Creative people often are known for Intuit want everyone to be coming up with their originality, open-mindedness, curiosity, focused approach new ideas continually. Managers encourage to problem solving, persistence, relaxed and playful attitude, and creativity during the exploration phase by embracing failure as readily as they do receptiveness to new ideas.33 Creativity can also be designed into success. "I've had my share of really bad organizations. Most companies want more creative employees ideas," founder Scott Cook, pictured here and often seek to hire creative individuals. However, the indi- with former CEO Steve Bennett, admits. Yet vidual is only part of the story, and each of us has some potential failure can have hidden possibilities. Sticky notes, such as those shown here on Intuit's for creativity. Managers are responsible for creating a work envi board, were invented at 3M Corporation ronment that allows creativity to flourish. 34 based on a failed product-a not-very-sticky The characteristics of creative organizations correspond to those adhesive that resulted from a chemist's of individuals, as illustrated in the right column of Exhibit 8.2. attempts to create a superglue. The resulting product, Post-it Notes, became one of the Creative organizations are loosely structured. People find themselves best-selling office supplies ever. in a situation of ambiguity, assignments are vague, territories overlap, tasks are loosely defined, and much work is done by teams. Managers EXHIBIT 8.2 Characteristics of Creative People and Organizations The Creative Individual The Creative Organization Persistence . Conceptual fluency . Resources allocated to creative . Commitment Open-mindedness . Focused approach personnel and projects without . Open channels of communication immediate payoff . Contact with outside sources . Reward system encourages . Overlapping territories; cross- innovation pollination of ideas across . Originality . Absolution of peripheral disciplines 1. 2. responsibilities . Suggestion systems, brainstorm.. 1. 2. freewheeling discussions . Assigning nonspecialists to 5. problems Eccentricity allowed Freedom to choose and Hiring outside your comfort zone Playfulness pursue problems . Undisciplined . Less authority . Not a tight ship, playful Decentralization, loosely defined exploration . Independence culture, doing the impractical positions, loose control . Curiosity . Self-confidence . Freedom to discuss ideas; Acceptance of mistakes; rewarding long time horizon risk -taking . People encouraged to challenge SOURCES: Based on Gary A. Steiner, ed., The Creative Organization (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1965), pp. 16-18; Rosabeth Moss Kanter, "The Middle Manager as Innovator," Harvard Business Harvard their bosses (July-August 1982): 104-105; James Brian Quinn, "Managing Innovation: Controlled Chaos," Harvard Business Review (May-June 1985): 73-84: Robert L. Sutton, "The Weird Rules of Creativity, " Business Review (September 2001): 94-103; and Bridget Finn, "Playbook: Brainstorming for Better Brainstorming," Business 2.0 (April 2005), 109-114.uninspected parts. Union resistance was overcome by ag ers no lon- ger needed for maintaining inventory to jobs in another plant. With the restraining force reduced, the driving forces were sufficient to allow the JIT system to be implemented, 8.4c Use Implementation Tactics Managers can use specific tactics to overcome resistance and more smoothly put changes into action. Researchers have studied various methods for dealing with resistance to change, The following five tactics, summarized in Exhibit 8.7, have proven successful.101 Top Management Support One survey found that 80 percent of companies that are successful innovators have top executives who frequently reinforce the importance of inno- vation both verbally and symbolically.102 The visible support of top management makes people aware of the importance of the change. For instance, one of the primary correlates of the success of new business ventures is the strong support of top managers, which gives EXHIBIT 8.7 Tactics for Implementing Change Approach When to Use Top management support . Change involves multiple departments or reallocation of resources. . Users doubt legitimacy of change. Communication, education . Change is technical. . Users need accurate information and analysis to understand change. Participation . Users need to feel involved. . Design requires information from others. . Users have power to resist. Negotiation . Group has power over implementation. . Group will lose out in the change. Coercion . A crisis exists. Initiators clearly have power. . Other implementation techniques have failed. SOURCE: Based on J. P. Kotter and L. A. Schlesinger, "Choosing Strategies for Change," Harvard Business Review 57 (March-April 1979): 106-114.Holden Outerwear Holden Outerwear was founded in 2002 by professional Snowboarder Mikey LeBlanc & designer Scott Zergebel. Holden's mission is to make stylish performance outerwear for the unconventional adventure. Designed with an elevated, urban aesthetic, our focus is to redefine the natural order of outerwear. We create iconic and versatile pieces of unrivaled quality-for life on and beyond the mountains. We strive to create fashionable technical garments that function in the harshest mountain environments but also look great around town. Our passion has been answering the needs of explorers adventuring worldwide for garments that fit their active lifestyles and fashion sensibilities. We create products built on values of Timeless QualityTM, Functional-Style, Tailored Fits, & Eco-Friendlier attributes. Holden has been "eco-friendlier" since its inception. Since day one, we've tried to improve our environmental impact by evaluating our whole process. Source: https://holdenouterwear.com accessed April 2015 and March 2020Strategies/tactics for dealing with resistance to change p.344+ Communication and education Participation and involvement Negotiation and agreement Explicit and implicit coercion o MGT Facilitation and support Manipulation (NEW-tricking people into changing) . Which Implementation Strategies/Tactics are used by Holden Outerwear? . Are they effective? Might other tactics add to the effectiveness of the changes