10.4 Case A: The team that wasnt

10.4.1 Background

Joyces promotion to manager of Marketing and New Business Developmentwas an exciting move - and welcome, too - after paying her dues working 2years in the field. Now, shed be able to spend more time working at head-quarters on projects that could better utilize her recent MBA degree. Thepromotion came at a time of change for Zimmer Bakelite Technologies; whatwas once a moderately entrepreneurial firm of 400 employees had become morebureaucratic when it doubled in size over 5 years, and top management feltit was time to shake things up and become innovative again. Youngeremployees were seen as a pathway to rejuvenate the company. ZBT special-ized in large-oven capital equipment projects, and management felt somethingwas needed to help cut costs and improve EPS. Again, plenty of HBR articlessuggested innovation was the way out!Marketing and New Business Development was a mixed bag of 5 marketingdepartment employees who had generally been employed at ZBT from itsinception 10 years ago, and a relatively new set of 4 employees who had beenworking custom systems for customers that management felt could becomehot new products. The new hybrid organization was the brainchild of SamDavis, Senior VP of Sales and Marketing. Anyway, Sam was a little tired of theconstant whining by the old marketing department about their workload andfelt the injection of a new product responsibility would energize the teams toinnovatively do more with less, thus freeing up cash to hire more salespeople.The thinking was that a seasoned marketing team would be a key asset in theteam effort to develop exciting, innovative new products. Joyce was thrilledto have the chance to lead a team that could have an impact on ZBTs future;at the same time, Sam was glad the whiners were no longer direct reportsto him.It wasnt long before Joyce concluded that maybe the mixed bag thatSam described could more accurately be described as total drag. Prior tothe new departments inaugural monthly meeting, Joyce made the rounds toher relatively small team to visit 1-on-1 to hear of their concerns, interests,andpersonal goals for the new department. Joyces first stop was Donna, as Donnahad responsibility for all phases of the spare parts and product catalogues.Donna had a reputation for complaining frequently and loudly about everyaspect of her job, but this was generally tolerated since the customers seemedto like her and she always seemed to bring the catalogues out on time andunder budget. Joyce saw the opportunity to not only try to make Donnas jobeasier, but in doing so it might help Joyce herself politically since Donna wasmarried to one of the old-boy service managers - a win with Donna couldbe a win for the reputation of the department.Another key visit was to Jasper Mastick, who was well-known to havewanted (and bid on) Joyces current management position. Jasper had verylimited field experience and seemed to prefer talking to customers on the phone; being in the office was important to him so that he could hang outwith, Roger Crennel VP of Sales. Jasper always worked to appeal to Rogersego in the hope that if he could get the nod by a VP, then he could get thesame promotions (and bonuses) the sales guys got. A challenge here was theoutright hostility of Jasper. Barely 5 minutes into the conversation and Jaspermade it clear that the new organization left him without anyone reporting tohim and this was not only an embarrassment, but a demotion since Joyce hadthe job I am more qualified for anyway.The idea of developing a strategic vision for the new department seemed aworld away after these initial visits, but the good news was that discussionswith the other members of the team were easier. For instance, Chester was adesigner who was brought onto the team since he not only knew the existingproduct line well but also had been a valuable contributor to some recentnew products. He added a clear multi-disciplinary flavor to the team. Onlyodd thing was his strong ties to Donna and their incessant fixation with officegossip.In comparison, Theresa was fairly young and had once been a contractorsupporting the spare parts catalog but was now a full-time employee. Whileshe got along great with Donna, she had an odd way of disagreeing and gettingaway with it. The truth be known, Theresa was actually at the root of manytraditional marketing innovations, but often was fine letting Donna get credit.For instance, it was Theresa who figured out how the cost of printing could belowered and customers served better by producing literature in PDF format.Donna had argued incorrectly that our customers dont have email and dontwant anything in electronic form anyway. (ZBT literature and user manualswere free-of-charge and easily obtained by calling customer service wheneveryou wanted some.) Additionally, Theresa had come up with some ideas tomake a new database-driven catalog system work and had shared these withJoyce, but Theresa was cautious about discussing this since she was concernedthat Jasper and Joyce might not like the change in workflow that would result.At the inaugural meeting of the department, Sam, the Senior VP, was tomake welcoming remarks, but was called away by Roger, the VP of Sales, soJoyce had to self-introduce. The meeting started somewhat civilly but soonyou could have cut the tension with a knife. It did not take long for Donnato announce that she had been lied to about getting a promotion and thiswas going to be a problem because the new digital media strategy simplywas not going to work and anyone who had been with the company longenough would know that. Jasper let it be known that he was excited aboutsome of the product ideas for the new department to consider, but also sharedthat there is a certain way things get done around here and soon youll figurethat out. Joyce noted that she, too, had worked in the field, and a quickcall to several customers suggested that both the modernization of marketingmaterials and the teams work on branding and product support materialsfor the new product ideas were actually welcomed. Despite the moderatelypositive and supportive comments by the other 7 members of the department,the overall tone of the meeting was set by Donnas and Jaspers sarcasm.

Later in the day Joyce was still searching for a positive twist to the de-partments first meeting and felt she was close to creating a positive summarymemo to share with senior management. This, of course, prior to Roger, VPof Sales, stopping by; he seemed eager to share that Jasper thinks you haveyour hands full, so good luck using your MBA to bail you out this time. Hesaid he was joking, but Joyce was not so sure.

10.4.2 Grand challengeInvestigate the following issues:

1. Identify the three top leadership skills that Joyce needs to have goingforward.

2. What are her first and second action steps for the execution of depart-ment strategy?

3. Describe the adaptive learning cycle for ZBT.