This research paper is about how Rackspace shows agility and stewardship through the changes in the cloud computing industry. They treat their employees very well and work hard to keep loyalty in the company. The transparent leadership style they have makes it easy for members to communicate within a team or with leaders. Focusing in on individuals’ strengths allows them to utilize team members in the best way. They have excellent programs within the facility for employees to move up within the company. The company is about helping other companies stay agile. All around they show examples of great leadership and employee success proves it.
Rackspace is an ideal company to work for because they see the importance of communicating with all levels inside and outside of the company. From recruitment to sales, they exemplify a style of dedication and commitment to students, employees, administration, and customers. It’s evident Rackspace is an agile company in helping relieve consumers of IT issues and practices stewardship with a main investment in employee growth. Rackspace keeps up with the larger cloud tech companies by providing excellent service using core values like transparent leadership and agility that helps all teams stay on course to meet customers’ needs.
Cloud technical companies are important because they allow businesses to access information securely through the internet. Before cloud companies, the main way to access a business’ private database was to be at the actual location where the data servers hosted the private information. Now, private and public information can be stored securely on the web thanks to companies like Rackspace. They provide ease and comfort for companies, so they don’t have to worry about huge technical problems such as storing information when the systems crash and data recovery solutions if it does happen. They use a managed cloud system so companies will not need a large in-house IT team to run the infrastructure, (“RACKSPACE,” 2018). Cloud computing companies allow businesses to work closer with each other while being far away.
Rackspace takes their employees into consideration first. In a personal interview, Rackspace employee, McClean (2019), states “they used team outings as a team building experience”. Rackspace hosts company gatherings in which they pay for their employees to have a fun day off to relax and build stronger relationships amongst peers. They believe this makes employees happier and more likely to succeed. By making sure they meet the needs of their employees they contribute to the productivity of the company. A happy employee will go out and be more confident in dealing with a customer. This is a great example of leadership because it shows that Rackspace understands how idle employees can become while working eight to five desk jobs. They want to enhance their employees view of the company and they can help them achieve personal and professional goals.
Rackspace ran into an employee shortage problem and needed to come up with a solution so they could prosper. To get the type of employee Rackspace needed, they strategically came up with a local program that could mold students into the business model they wanted to create. This saved them time and money on recruiting. “The program serves the dual purpose of growing the company’s brand awareness generally — among job seekers specifically — while creating a pool of qualified applicants locally to simplify recruiting efforts.” TOTA, J. (“LEARNING for sale,” 2015) Rackspace put themselves out into the community to find the benefits around them to succeed. This shows agility in how they realized all the potential to improve and adapted to their environment to remain purposeful.
Chairman Weston, G. (“Tricks of a master motivator,” 2009) discloses that the main strategy Rackspace uses is employee engagement. This is where the company assesses every individuals’ strengths and utilizes them. Upon employment, new hires must take a test to figure out their strengths. This helps the employee grow with the company. An employer can get a lot more out of their team by investing into personal and professional issues. Rackspace must take a dominant approach to keep up with other tech companies to maintain a reputable reputation as a business. They work hard to improve client service by paying attention to the employee first. They like to show clients they can trust them well before they handle any secure information. Chairman Weston hands out his personal phone number to clients so they can reach him 24/7. This shows a very personal transparent leadership style that has improved customer relations. They believe it is important to have the trust of their employees before ever maintaining trust with consumers.
They use strong discipline to remain on top of their game. During the internet bubble, many companies had to adapt quickly to the revolution of the internet. After the dotcom era, from almost 1000 cloud companies, only 200 survived. Rackspace Chairman, Graham Weston, had to take critical action to stay in business so he cut 10% of the workforce and 70% of the 12 million-dollar annual budget to focus on more concise methods of service, Malik, O. (“How the smallest survive,” 2004) This allowed them to trim the fat from the company and rely on core strengths for customer service. He focused more of his efforts on allowing the company to have all the resources for customer service and only what was necessary costs for in house issues. Even though it was a tough time period for the cloud tech industry the company showed stewardship in evaluating their priorities. Rackspace has grown from this currently, however staying agile and recognizing what was more important kept Rackspace relevant.
Once students graduate and move onto the next step of finding a beneficial career, it’s critical for them to discover the benefits and complications that come with selecting a career. They must know what traits they want from a manager or company overall. Collecting information on company’s leadership style and mission statement is important in this development. Rackspace has exemplified being a steward leader by managing resources and finding a greater return. They help other companies stay up to date on all IT updates and give them unlimited customer service in an industry that’s always changing.