Case Study 1, BMGT 464
Reach for the Stars—Developing Salespeople, Achieving
Organizational Success
As he read the email from his
company’s CEO, Ravi Verghese rolls his eyes and whispers to himself, “Oh
boy, here we go again….”:
To celebrate PRME’s fortieth year
in business, and our successful customer expansion from “seniors” to
all ages served by a burgeoning sports and active lifestyle market through our
new PRMESport line, I invite you, our invincible, “take-charge”
marketing and sales units, to REACH FOR THE STARS! The goal is to
increase PRMESport sales by 10% by the end of this year….
Ravi, sales director at New
Jersey-based Providence Rehabilitation and Medical Equipment (PRME, or
“Prime” as employees liked to say) remembers all too well the
challenges he and his coworkers weathered 18 months ago when PRME expanded its
product line from aging-related to sports injury-related medical supplies and
equipment. The new products are branded PRMESport, developed to grab a
share of a fast-growing medical and rehabilitation supply and equipment market
segment. To achieve this, PRME bought a small, thriving manufacturing
enterprise created by a couple of sports orthopedic surgeons—however no
salespeople came with the acquisition. PRME executives decided to
up-skill and retrain its existing sales force—”no sales associate will
jobs will be lost because of PRMESport,” they reassured—rather than
recruit additional people. Ravi, whose stellar sales performance caught the attention
of company executives, was promoted to director of the sales unit, a group of
twenty-five people. Task one, executives said, is to reorganize the unit,
establishing self-managed teams to penetrate the new market segment rapidly,
efficiently, and effectively.
In spite of Ravi’s initial
eye-rolling reaction to the CEO’s email, he rereads the message with an open
mind and restored positive attitude. We can do this, Ravi acclaims. Bottom
line, he is grateful that at age 35—young for a PRME senior manager—he has the
opportunity to hone new management skills, focus more on his interest in
strengthening PRME’s human/intellectual capital, solve harder problems, and do
his part to make his organization a top competitor. He was proud to work
for PRME. The company’s rags-to-riches founder, James Cleavon Jefferson, who
started the business in a run down New Jersey warehouse with Chapter 8 support
in 1974 and grew it into today’s well-respected, successful global supplier,
serves on the board as a conscience to the new owner, a multinational
company. Ravi’s own hard working parents, immigrated from southern India
to the US, opening a family-run restaurant in Trenton—also with Chapter 8
help—that flourished in their diverse community.
While he loses no time moving
forward with a strategy to reorganize into self-managed teams, he’s determined
to know more about the individual associates that make up his sales force
before making final decisions. Right off, he conducts an all-hands
meeting to brief the unit on the impending reorg, and, under the circumstances,
he thinks it went well. Ravi’s known as a straight shooter and consensus
builder, although rapid company growth, headquarters relocation, top-down
pressure to implement an electronic enterprise data system, along with
increased travel to meet new customer needs, are taking a toll on the sales
staff. He needs to identify and tackle—individual by individual—PRME’s
sales force “soft spots” (his gentle way of saying “weak
links”) before forming teams, hoping to optimize human capital and
meet—hey, maybe exceed!—the CEO’s sales goals.
After reviewing annual appraisals
and quarterly reviews, talking to trusted senior sales associates who report
directly to him, examining statistical reports sales records, observing the unit’s
daily activities, and collecting his thoughts and checking his instincts (his
MBTI “N” makes this easy), Ravi’s can-do enthusiasm is tempered by
reality. He calls his close colleague and friend, Portia Kingston, a
fellow MBA student at Rutgers, presently teaching organizational behavior at a
college in Boston, to advise him on where to begin. Portia laughs saying
he surely knows how to manage the reorg from reading the first five chapters of
her just-published OB e-textbook! Always an appreciator of Portia’s sharp
wit, dynamic intelligence, ambition, and immigrant roots and experience (she
was born in Jamaica), Ravi laughs too, congratulating his friend on her
publication and promising to download the information as soon as they hang up.
“Seriously,” Portia continues, “look at the stuff on
analyzing—by that I meanunderstanding
better—the individuals in your unit. Get a handle on how they act,
what they do ordon’tdo—in other words, on their behavior
within the organization. For example, my friend, examine learning styles,
generational, demographic, cultural and fault line factors, and the role of
perception, attribution, personality, motivation, emotion, values, attitude,
and ethics.” “Will do, Portia. And thanks a million,”
Ravi signs off, deciding to begin with his notes and records on the lowest
sales performers, described below.
Tom
-Mid 50s
-Introverted, yet good listener,
speaking up when prodded
-Jokes about being “the
token old white guy”
-Over lunch recently shared his
resentment about PRME’s latest “bonus” programs, employee wellness
and counseling, and sales incentive awards, sales incentive awards, free gym
memberships and Knicks tickets
-Not a natural networker, can be
temperamental, moody
-More than held his own in
company until higher tech systems introduced
-Last couple of years,
productivity flat lined
Lydia
-Late 20s
-Cut sales teeth in
pharmaceutical sales
-Gun-ho when hired, exceeded
sales goals
-Passionate marathoner
-Proactive, confident, ambitious,
competitive
-Bristled when company
implemented more formal HR policies regarding work hours, telecommuting,
regular staff meetings, and dress code performance began to falter
Jamal
-Mid 20s
-James Jefferson’s grandson
-Star athlete in college
-Outgoing, thrives on immediate
interaction
-Well educated, razor sharp mind,
gifted sales communicator
-Consistently falls behind in
record keeping, customer data collecting, and monthly reports
Carmen
-Late 50s
-Worked up through the ranks at
PRME, starting as an admin temp when PRME first founded
-Superb customer service skills,
widely recognized as solid organizational citizen
-Warm, convivial,
conciliatory—”Oh, ask Carmen to handle that customer’s complaints—she
never says no”
-Quick learner—consciously
compensates for no college education
-Increasingly heavy care-taking
responsibilities of extended family resulting in absenteeism, frequent
rescheduling, declining productivity and performance
Brad
-Early 40s
-Promising engineering-oriented
career selling precision medical equipment and service in Iowa before moving
“back East” with a young family because his spouse got an coveted
promotion in -VP at a large hospital
-Hired two years ago, just before
company announced the PRMESport acquisition
-Good naturedly teased by
co-workers about being a “techie geek”
-Strong work ethic,
conscientious, though takes full advantage of PRME’s work-life balance options
-Overly meticulous, uncomfortable
dealing with big picture concepts, strategy, ambiguity, and rapid change
-Struggled to get a foothold with
new product line—”I assumed I’d be working more with customers through the
new software system than cold calling and pounding the pavement….”
