Wolfgang Keller at

Konigsbrau-TAK

Group Members
Name

Id

Md. Asif, Sultanul Arefeen

11-18454-1

Who, what, where?

Company: Konigsbrau-TAK (Ukrainian subsidiary) of
Konigsbrau A.G., German based brewery of premium
beer.
Key Players: Haussler (CEO equivalent), Vladimir
Antonov (Chairman), Wolfgang Keller (Managing
Director), and Dmitri Brodsky (Commercial Director)

Partial Organizational Chart

Main Issues
Brodsky and Keller have conflicting management styles
Keller is: hands on, impatient, unable to delegate tasks,
distrustful of employees.
Brodsky: lacks motivation, emotional when faced with
criticism, needs to improve negotiation skills, and lacks
ability to learn from mistakes.

Options
Fire Brodsky
Help improve Brodsky's performance
Reorganize around Brodsky to compensate for his
inadequacies.

Main Issues
Motivation
Negotiation
Insubordination
Procrastination

Motivation
Several instances where Brodsky would quickly give
up if situations did not go the way he planned
Ex: Collection of bad debts

Self-Determination Theory
Brodsky enjoys his power role in the company and his
part in the marketing and sales, but when told by Keller
on how to essentially do the job, he becomes resentful.

Recommendation & Implementation

Give Brodsky more autonomy over his department.

Communicate differently with Brodskyi.e. dont let personal feeling
get in the way.
Give verbal rewards/praise when deserved.
Emphasize importance of Brodskys department to the success of th
ompany as a whole.

Negotiation
Lack of negotiation skill
Failing to complete tasks to prove his weakness of
negotiation:
the resolution of a pending lawsuit by a top distributor
to collect the debt from a distributor

Solution & Implementation

Keller and Brodsky can do:
Go to negotiation classes
Practice
Improve communication skill
Discuss together and Observe Kellers negotiation skills

Insubordination

Situational Leadership Theory: Capable but unwilling

Excellent analytical skills, maturity and
experiences
Knowledge and skills needed to performer a
specific task
Seem like unwilling to follow his leader

Solution and implementation:

If Keller followed the situational leadership process he
would try:
To focus on his relationship with Brodsky instead of the
task at first
Instead of criticizing, discuss the issues
If he finds Brodsky continues to keep him at a distance
then it confirms that the two are too far apart

Problem

Recommendation

His formal and distant management style doesn't support the

new marketing strategy

He focuses only on his part of the work rather than caring for
the whole company

He cares more about the sales analytical part and not the
person relations

He needs to recognize that the new commercial strategy

requires hands-on management style

He needs to learn how to build relationship with distributors

Task significance - Concentrate on improving the

meaningfulness of work

Implementation
Job rotation He will see how co-dependent all jobs are

Procrastination
Redesigning the sales force organization took him over
six months to complete

Recommendation
Simply Ask!
Empower Brodsky to complete his job by
setting
specific, measurable, attainable, and
timely goals
Increase Brodskys self-confidence

Implementation
Weekly / monthly goals that are
public
More likely to accomplish goals that
are public
Reward the person who completed
the most goals
Simple congratulations and thankyou for your hard work or have a
small party thrown at work
Goals must be challenging and be

Keller's Issues

Over-confident
Better to have taken advice from Mr. Antonov, an
older Ukrainian man
Does not consult with Brodsky about issues related to
his department

Recommendation
Increase cohesiveness
Develop trust

Implementation
Bonding events At work they can have meetings
where they learn to trust and like each other
For example, they can spend an hour watching a
movie or playing a game.
Give workers more responsibilities & if they are not
doing something correctly, coach them rather than
doing it yourself.

Problem:
Cultural and Personality differences
Keller Ukrainian-style management, mixes business
life with personal life
Brodsky German-style management, keeps business
and personal lives separate

Conclusion

Learn from each

other
Keller needs to learn how to delegate tasks like Brodsky

Brodsky needs to form closer relationships with distributors like Keller

Needs a balance of German-style management and Ukrainian-style management

Learn the values

Learn what Brodskys values are in order to set the right goals for Brodsky to achieve
Let Brodsky feel like he is in control of his own actions (stop interfering)
Learn the companys values

Remove the halo effect

Needs to work with the differences in their managing
styles and stop thinking from the start that his (Kellers)
way is the better way to handle things
Even if his way is better, Keller needs to explain to
Brodsky why instead of just ordering him to do things
his way

Final Verdict:
Do not fire Brodsky
Give Brodsky a 6 month grace period
Give a pay raise and bonus at 6th month if he improves

QUESTIONS?