KKD

THE VICE PRESIDENT, THE PRODUCT MANAGER,

AND THE MISUNDERSTANDING
In this case we can analyse that, there is a misunderstanding between the vice
president of the Major Tool Works, Inc. named Nick smith and the Tom Brewster.
Here the misunderstanding happens when the Tom is invited to participate in
meeting of product manager, since he is new to product division as a Assistant
Product manager he could not” able to answer the questions that asked by smith
and smith outburst to the tom when he confess that “he did not know” so this made
the Brewster angry and called tom as an example of sloppy work force .By this act
of smith leads to a fear in the minds of the employees that attend the meeting and
also there will be a creation of negative impression in the mind of tom. This will be
affect the overall performance of the company. Later we can see that when smith
called Reynolds the director of marketing and ask about outburst to the tom,
Reynolds told the mistake that nick has done in the meeting .This made the Nick to
apologies about his mistake to the tom of acting cruelly while meeting and
apologised for the act that he done. This can make a difference in the mind of tom
and can improve his performance up to a level.
The major problems in this case is smith outburst to the employee and his
authoritarian way of communicating the in meeting and creating of fear in the
minds of the employees, so there will be not proper feedback from the employee
and employees will not be free to talk with him about the problem facing in the
company that will leads to lack of cooperation between employees and top
managers and also he does not give a chance to tom for explaining what is his real
problem and fails to understand it. Another problem we can see from the part of
Jeff Reynolds that he forget to introduce tom as a new entrance to product
department and also he does not interrupt while smith make wrong comments
about the tom.
SOLUTIONS:- Smith want to take the meeting in such a way that everybody is free
to tell their opinions and he want to react to the employees in a way that will not
reduce their commitment to the work. He should give time to hear the problems
of the employee and about their field and also he should remove his stubborn
attitude towards employees ,he wants to apologies to the person at the moment if
he feels that he does anything wrong , so the performance of employees is does
not affected. Jeff Reynolds timely interruption without degrading the superior can
change the entire scenario.
 GE’S TWO DECADES OF TRANSFORMATION
This case study deals with the problem faced by the company called general
electric. That the CEO of company named jack welch is leaving after his 20 years of
service. Jack welch was an enthusiastic leader which his main objective was make
the company more customer oriented and creating free work culture in the
organisation. He introduced several initiative to have a better growth to the
company, for that he shifted the corporate practise in the company like resisting of
new ideas, conflict averse, bureaucratic organisation to more flexible and dynamic
organisation. To ensure the change in the company Jack welch introduced several
initiatives. One of the initiative that introduced was #1 or #2 : fix, sell or close in a
given market this means closing of non-profitable business and this leads to selling
of different business that GE had and also they acquired different business that
working as a individual small businesses. He also introduced de-staffing process
which make the worst employee to leave the organisation. This changes increased
the profit of the company. He also done some trimming back of the alliance, joint
ventures that had not worked out .he introduced another methodology named as
six sigma methodology and from the Jack welch he introduced e-business in the
company which allowed the company to grow.
The major problem faced by the company is to find a new person as a CEO, who
having the quality of Jack welch and can able to contribute to the growth of the
company as Jack welch do. Several initiative taken by the Jack welch for growth of
the company so that increased the profitability. Because of concentrating on
decentralisation made the company to grow a cop up with new era and GE was
able to the internet as a global platform for the business growth. Since Jack welch
concentrated on main areas like preparing of the company for competition,
Empowering of the employees, Proper communication in the company, etc. Change
in jack welch era made the company to ask the how can they be profitable by
introduction of new CEO and what are polices and norms to be changed when the
change is CEO happens.
As a solution to this problem the company can appoint a person as CEO by the
advice from Jack welch, because this crucial decision affect the stakeholders of the
company. The GE company having diversified business and having a number of
businesses the CEO can be selected internally from the company mangers because
the person knows about the company and its culture and also the way that Jack
welch thinking about the company. As a another solution to it the company can
takes risk for accepting new CEO and making changes in the organisation by
believing him.
 WHY GOOD PEOPLE ARE LEAVING HBR CASE
This case begins when several talented people leaving the company Sambian
Partners. The problem arise when the Tom Forsythe, assistant director of
commercial design leave the organisation and a exit interview is conducted by the
HR head Mary Donillo, he resisted the Tom not to leave the organisation but he
does not telling his reason for going, he made the decision and goes to the
competitors firm called J&U and rumours spread in the company .when the number
of people leaving the organisation increased made the CEO of the firm Helen
Gasbarian to give the promotion to Adrianne, without further investigation about
her qualification, since Adrianne was a important asset to the organisation and
while hearing that she is following the path of Tom made the Helen to give her a
promotion and Helen insisted Mary to make study on the employee turnover and
Mary come to a conclusion that because of not challenging jobs and inappropriate
working condition make the employees to leave.
The major problems in this case is employee turnover that the Tom resigns and
goes to the rival company and other employees are following his step. In this we
can see that lack of proper communication and relationship between the
employees and the management leads to this situation. The CEO of the company
called Helen gives a promotion to Adrianne as motivating factor but it can make
problems in the company itself. The main reason for employee turnover is because
of lack of challenging environment the employees is not able to perform their full
potential and also we can see that the company having a HR Department to handle
the complaints and problems of employees is not functioning properly because of
lack of employee feedback to the HR department allow the situation to arise. We
can see that Helen is lacking of leadership qualities as a CEO of the company, she
does not handles the case smoothly and giving promotion directly to Adrianne for
making her not to leave the company. She is not trying to understand the issue why
employees are leaving and she is not investigating the root cause of it.
As a solution to the problem the company can appoint efficient employees in HR
department for understanding the problem and cause to these problems. Getting
of feedback from other employees about the reason of turnover. Creating a good
organisation culture where employees are free to tell their problems to
management. The company can introduce a new efficient consultation team for
the problem arises and appointing of good CEO to the company.
 THE TEAM THAT WASN’T.
The CEO of the FireArt’s insisted the director Eric to put together a team of
people from various division to create a comprehensive plan for the company’s
strategic realignment and given a time limit of six months to achieve their
objective and come back with a plan , so that Eric created a team of people
consisting from different department. The opportunity given to Eric was an
interesting and challenging but the team messed it up. One of the team member
called Randy, was talented and have great experience in the company and he
was closely related to the CEO. The CEO belives that randy is the reason for the
development of the company and he is an asset to the company, but randy
refused to act in a group and made negative attitude towards the team work.
Eric try to convince him and also goes to him for understanding him about his
attitude towards team ,before Eric convincing him he outburst to eric.
The major problems in this case is lack of cooperation between team members.
The FireArts company is not prepared to use the “team ” concept , it is first time
which they are implementing the team concept in the organisation and also
assigned objective was not clearly defined by the company and given a time limit
to come up with a plan. The team lead Eric also does not have the an idea about
how a group want to perform. There was no clearly stated the common
attainment goal of the team, there was only meetings happening ,which result
in conflicts. Eric fails to create a culture of group working among the members.
The group members does not have the proper understanding among them and
superiority complex had between them. Randy seems to work efficient but
when he acts as a group he made negative statement and made personnel
interest more valuable which he criticizes others opinions this leads to decrease
the motivational level of others. Eric does not disclose all information about the
objective to members and he does not take effective leadership. Jack as the CEO
supports the randy for his wrong doing by thinking that he is valuable asset to
the company.
The problem can be solved by taking corrective actions by Eric .he can evaluate
the team performance and clarify the information to team members and also
understanding them about the importance of everybody’s opinion. He can have
conversation with randy about his performance and value of his opinion. He can
acts as a effective leader by eliminating the members those who does not
obeying and demotivating other members and being gentle to others and seeing
all members as equal in team.
KENT CHEMICALS