COURSE: LEADERSHIP, ENGAGEMENT, AND PEOPLE PERFORMANCE

CASE STUDY: THE TEAM THAT WASN’T

Project Submission Template

Student Name: Amit Shah

Question I 1. A brief summary of the major problem areas at FireArt

Jack Derry, CEO, has recruited Eric Holt, Director, Strategy to

fix the issue of sales hitting at bottom since last 18 months.

Randy Louderback, Director, Sales and marketing, is the major

hurdle in team alignment and strategizing the future direction as
felt by most of the team members.

Maureen Turner, Senior Manager, Design division, has her own

concerns about not getting noticed of her good work in
organization since many years.

Eric Holt is finding it very difficult to find synergy within team

to get common call for re-strategizing the company future.
Question I 2. List and elaborate on the reasons, responsible for sub-standard
business results at FireArt, associated with the below-
mentioned people:
2a. The FireArt Team led by Eric

Each reason shall be evaluated under the following criteria:

• Clarity of thought - 40%

• Depth of understanding - 40%
• Ability to articulate - 20%

Note: Mention any assumption(s) that enhance the understanding of the

rationale behind your proposal to the reader.

Eric Holt was introduced to team as director of strategy by Jack Derry,

CEO of company, to understand challenges within business units and
to overcome them by introducing new strategy to again gain business
sales to its prior level (at least). However, there are disputes within
team members such as Maureen (design department), Carl
(distribution/logistics department) and Ray (manufacturing department)
with Randy (sales and marketing department) which resulted in
creating departmental silos i.e. barriers in communication between
them. Unfortunately, Eric struggled to get them sync on common
business goal yet, thanks to Randy who seems main roadblock in
generating team synergy.
Question I 2. List and elaborate on the reasons, responsible for sub-standard
business results at FireArt, associated with the below-mentioned
people:

2b. Randy Louderback

Each reason shall be evaluated under the following criteria:

• Clarity of thought - 40%

• Depth of understanding - 40%
• Ability to articulate - 20%

Note: Mention any assumption(s) that enhance the understanding of the

rationale behind your proposal to the reader.

Randy Louderback is director of sales and marketing at FireArt. He is

senior professional and having very good image especially in mind of
CEO. “If Randy can’t help, unfortunately no one can help!” kind of
impression! Anyway, even though, he is excellent in his contribution to
business, his murky smiles and intelligent comments to his teammates
are becoming more common over the period of time and those became
key aspects why other team mates are not liking him. Moreover, his
casual approach/attitude towards work by commenting like “sometimes
bear will eat you and sometimes you will eat bear” and like “please
approach my assistant to get further help on your topic” made other
colleagues started avoiding him. He also said that ideas are brainchild
of individuals and not of group/team i.e. he is not believing at all in
team!
Question I 2. List and elaborate on the reasons, responsible for sub-standard
business results at FireArt, associated with the below-mentioned
people:

2c. Eric Holt

Each reason shall be evaluated under the following criteria:

• Clarity of thought - 40%

• Depth of understanding - 40%
• Ability to articulate - 20%

Note: Mention any assumption(s) that enhance the understanding of the

rationale behind your proposal to the reader.

Eric Holt was introduced to team as director of strategy by Jack Derry,

CEO of company, to understand challenges within business units and
to overcome them by introducing new strategy to again gain business
sales to its prior level (at least). However, there are disputes within
team members which resulted in creating departmental silos, barriers in
communication between them. Unfortunately, Eric struggled to get
them sync on common business goal yet, thanks to Randy who seems
main roadblock in generating team synergy.
Question II 1. Steps that Eric should adopt as the next course of action divided
under the following timelines:

1a) Short-term (1-3 months)

Eric should plan one-to-one meeting with each team member and
gather concerns of each team member and probable solution for
each of these concerns so that immediate follow-up actions can be
planned.

Moreover, Eric should immediately talk to Jack, CEO, about

behaviour of Randy and his attitude towards work and team
members. This might be helpful in resolving conflicts between
Randy and other teammates by getting some useful hints/tips from
Jack as he knew Randy since quite a while by now.
Question II 1. Steps that Eric should adopt as the next course of action divided
under the following timelines:

1b) Medium-term (beyond 3 months)

Eric should see the progress on planned actions in short-term duration

made in first stage and convey it to Jack, CEO.

Based on outcome of this, he should plan in detail, revised business

strategy on how to regain market position in industry for FireArt. This
needs to be discussed with his teammates and Jack prior to release so
that any feedback/suggestions can be added.

Effective implementation of strategy needs to be ensured by approaching

relevant stake holders in organization.
 2. Pick any three recommendations and elaborate on their
Question II importance and relevance.
a. Recommendation 1

Each recommendation shall be evaluated under the following

criteria:

Sequence and structure -20%

Feasibility - 20%

Depth of understanding - 40%

Ability to articulate - 20%

Note: Mention any assumption(s) that enhance the understanding of the

rationale behind your proposal to the reader.

Eric should plan one-to-one meeting with each team member and
gather concerns of each team member and probable solution for each of
these concerns so that immediate follow-up actions can be planned.

Importance and relevance: This is very important recommendation and

hence kept as recommendation 1 as this will help in gathering detailed
information on what exactly is going on at base level in company and
what needs to be corrected to achieve desired outcome.
 2. Pick any three recommendations and elaborate on their importance
Question II and relevance.
b. Recommendation 2

Each recommendation shall be evaluated under the following

criteria:

Sequence and structure -20%

Feasibility - 20%

Depth of understanding - 40%

Ability to articulate - 20%

Note: Mention any assumption(s) that enhance the understanding of the

rationale behind your proposal to the reader.

Eric should see the progress on planned actions in short-term duration

made in first stage and convey it to Jack, CEO.

Importance and relevance: Unless Eric will not check how planned
actions during short-term is working well for him, he can’t take a call on
what finally needs for business growth and regain market position.
 2. Pick any three recommendations and elaborate on their importance
Question II and relevance.
c. Recommendation 3

Each recommendation shall be evaluated under the following

criteria:

Sequence and structure -20%

Feasibility - 20%

Depth of understanding - 40%

Ability to articulate - 20%

Note: Mention any assumption(s) that enhance the understanding of the

rationale behind your proposal to the reader.

Based on outcome of this, he should plan in detail, revised business

strategy on how to regain market position in industry for FireArt. This
needs to be discussed with his teammates and Jack prior to release so
that any feedback/suggestions can be added.

Importance and relevance: As mentioned, revising business strategy is

the need of an hour to sustain this business of glass manufacturing. If
Eric needs to pull momentum back on track for FireArt, he should do
detailed analysis of impact of revamped strategy on business further to
avoid any negative surprises later.
 3. Analyse Jack Derry as an inspirational leader of his
Question III
organisation under the following headers, based on your
learnings from Module 3:
a. Sensing

Understanding and processing information: Fair

(Jack is fair as he has fairly managed information.)

Hiring the right teams: Good

(Jack is good in selecting right people for his team for desired
outcome.)

Propagating and managing the right culture and set of values: Poor

(Jack is poor in managing discipline within team and setting an

example. Good example is Randy’s behaviour towards others.)

Orchestrating productive use of time: Fair

(Jack should improve upon giving his time to his colleagues to know
them better and to resolve internal conflicts.)

Being up to date with the happenings in the organization: Good

(Jack knew that FireArt is not doing well and hence immediately took
decision to appoint Eric to work on business strategy to survive and
regain market position.)
 3. Analyse Jack Derry as an inspirational leader of his
Question III
organisation under the following headers, based on your
learnings from Module 3:
b. relating

Networking: Good

(Jack was good at networking in industry.)

Understanding the emotions and feelings of others: Fair

(Jack has to improve upon understanding the culture and his team
mates more closely to avoid gap between them.)

Connecting and working with leaders outside the industry: Good

(Jack was good in making connections even outside the industry.)

 3. Analyse Jack Derry as an inspirational leader of his
Question III
organisation under the following headers, based on your
learnings from Module 3
c. visioning

Predicting outcomes of actions: Fair

(Jack was assuming that his decision on hiring Eric will resolve
business loss at earliest has not seen good results.)

Working for company’s growth: Good

(Jack knew business is in loss and hence immediately took action to

regain growth by hiring new professional who can help by introducing
new business strategy to survive and regain the market position.)

Foreseeing challenges and ways to handle them: Good

(Jack foresee that there is huge decline in sales in last 18 months and
hence he has immediately hired new professional, Eric, who can help
rebuild the business.)
 3. Analyse Jack Derry as an inspirational leader of his
Question III
organisation under the following headers, based on your
learnings from Module 3:
d. Executing

Putting a plan to action: Good

(Jack has correctly made decision to introduce Eric, a strategist, to a

team to align within and modify current strategy and enhance sales.)

Taking appropriate steps to achieve intended outcomes: Fair

(Jack has hired Eric with assumption that business will again grow by
implementing new business strategy. Actually, he also should focus in
analyzing past sales data and should infer what went wrong in last 18
months and also discuss with Randy, a sales director, on this matter in
detail.)

Organizing and mobilizing teams: Fair

(Jack is not that good in organizing and providing flexibility in teams.)

 Recommend any changes or alternative steps that Jack Derry could
Question III
have taken to be a more effective leader.

Note: You could also cite a few real-life based actions taken by leaders
around the world (or in your experience) to suggest alternatives.

As discussed in above answer itself (3d, executing), Jack should

thoroughly review sales data of past 5 years to understand what went
wrong. He should summarize his reviewed points/comments and
discuss all of them with Randy in very detail. He also should get some
insights from Randy that what can be done to improve this sales figures
rather than only taking decision on changing business strategy by
hiring one more person, like Eric and leaving with hope that everything
will be fine soon.

Business can’t be driven by only hope. It must be acknowledged with

sound judgement, strategy as well as skills to survive and grow in
market. He did just one step but can further enhance his leadership
skills by closely working with other teammates, getting inputs from
them, gaining trust of each teammate and deciding few more action
items to get business back on track.