This course has major project assignments that will be due in Weeks 3 and 5. It will take more than a week’s effort to adequately complete them. Plan time to start the research and other work for those assignments earlier than the week in which they are due.

The Positive Leadership Behavior Assignment

Choose a well-known leader who is considered an exemplar of good leadership or among the most admired in the country. You may use the same leader that you are using in your major project or you may choose a different leader. Conduct research to find out how the leader’s company inspires the workers and managers to emulate the positive attributes reported in the leader’s profile. If possible, call the corporate headquarters of the leader’s company and ask how the company develops leadership skills among its high potential managers.
In a three- to four-page paper, address the following:

Briefly discuss the leader, explain what organization the leader works for and what position within that organization the leader holds, and provide a brief biography of your chosen leader.
What are this leader’s positive attributes? What makes him or her the exemplar of ethical leadership?
How does this leader model positive, ethical leadership behavior for others?
Based on what you’ve learned about the leader, how would you model positive, ethical leadership behavior for others as a leader?
How does modeling positive, ethical leadership behavior allow leaders in general to set the standards of the organization?
Based on the reading and research you have done, what do you believe are the three most important qualities a leader who models positive, ethical leadership behavior must possess? Why?

Introduction
The bankruptcy and collapse of British Home Stores (BHS), a departmental store formed in the year 1928, is one of the most contentious retail business failures reported in the recent past. The company was formed in the year 1928 to compete with Woolworths in the low-cost retail market. In its early stages of operations, the organization did not only report higher sales and revenue, but also developed a strong brand in the industry. However, major performance issues were reported following the purchase of the company by Sir Phillip Green in the year 2000 who only reported short-term increase in profits for the 14 years of his management (Meek, 2016). He opted to sell out the company to Dominic Chapel in the year 2015, before its collapse in the year 2016. The collapse of the business led to the closure of more than 164 stores, loss of more than 11000 jobs and significant pension deficits (Ruddick, 2016). As much as the intense competition rivalry in the industry following the emergence of new players may have contributed to the BHS failure, the poor management of the company by the previous leaders is largely to be blamed for the business failure and its consequent fall into administration. This paper is an analysis of the underlying causes of the business failure followed with a discussion of the strategic decision that can be implemented by the management to recover from the failure.

Positive Leadership Behavior

The Root Cause Analysis of BHS Business Failure
According to Everett & Watson (1993) the analysis of the root cause of a business failure is identified based on the risks associated with the economy (macro factors), the industry (meso factors) and risks that are unique to the business. While the internal factors are considered the major causes of business failure, the external factors also play a vital role in the failures reported (Shepherd, Douglas & Shanley, 2000). In the retail sector, 26% of the variation in the income and profitability of the firm is explained by the exogenous factors that includes the industry and economic factors (Shepherd, Douglas & Shanley, 2000). However, the industry factors accounts for 17% of the changes thus more important in explaining the variations that may lead to success or failure of the business (Everett & Watson, 1993). Both industry and economic factors can result in business failures, nevertheless, the variations in the performance of the business are largely explained by the firm-based factors.

SWOT analysis of BHS shows the weaknesses and threats of the company that are considered the major factors leading to the failure of the business. Poor leadership is one of the weaknesses of the company that led to its collapse (Hawsons, 2016). According to the UK parliament report, personal greed of the previous leader of the retail outlet led to its massive losses and consequent closure (UK Parliament 2016). It is reported that Sir Phillip Green drawn huge sums of money before selling it out to Domnic Chapel, who was incompetent and inexperienced in the field. Before the sale of the retail outlet, Phillip Green and other shareholders received more than 580 million in dividends, loan interest and rental payment, leaving the company with minimal operational capital (Laurent, 2016). The decision to sell the company was seen as malice and an approach adopted by Sir Phillip to dispose a failing company.
The limited online presence of BHS is another weakness of the company that led to its failure. The underinvestment decision made by the company that barred them from implementing the e-retailing strategy and engaging in e-commerce business resulted in the failure reported. According to Laurent (2016) the changes in the customer’s need demanded for the retailers to increase their online presence to reach a wide customer base. BHS was reluctant to implement the strategy leading to their ineffectiveness in the competitive arena. The implementation of the ineffective strategies led to significant reduction in the company’s sales revenue and profitability. As indicated below, the company made loses for the five consecutive years between the year 2009 and 2014 (UK Parliament 2016).
Chosen Leader
Figure 2 BHS Net profit (UK Parliament report 2016)
A comparative analysis of the performance of the company with other players also shows that intense competition within the industry is a threat that led to the failure of the company. In addition, the presence of the substitutes goods offered by other players in the market also resulted in BHS loosing clients causing a negative effect on its revenue and sales (Hawsons, 2016). The constant reduction in the sales and profitability of BHS in the last six years leading to its failure, were thus attributed to the intense competition evident in the industry and the availability of substitutes that offer near similar benefits to the customers.

Figure 3: The performance of BHS in relation to other players (UK Parliament report 2016)
Richardson et al (1994) also proposed a framework that can be used in the analysis of internal factors that results in business failure. Termed the frog typology, the framework explains the failure of organizations in four main scenarios, the boiled frog, drowned frog, bull frog and tadpole. A boiled frog organization refers to the mature companies that starts with a strong financial health but fall repeatedly over the years while a drowned frog scenario refers to a company that has reported an increasing turnover at the expense of an enhanced profitability (Richardson et al (1994). The bullfrog scenario describes an organization marred with ethical issues following the entrepreneur spendthrift nature. Lastly, a tadpole scenario refers to an over-optimistic firm that fails to accomplish its set goals due to inadequacy in contingency planning. BHS failure case is best explained by the bull frog scenario, a case where the business owners mismanages the company’s firm for personal gains (Richardson et al., 1994). As evident from the case, poor leadership and mismanagement of funds by the previous owner of BHS, Sir Phillip, is believed to be the major cause of the business failure. Serious ethical issues have been raised following the claim justifying the BHS case as that of a bull frog scenario.