CASE STUDY The Case of the Aluminum Cans When George decided to recommend to his father that they change from tin to aluminum cans he did not fully account for the fallout that would occur. He knew that his uncle would argue against it, but he was confident that he could make a strong marketing and production case for the change. The harder discussion would be to get his father to insist on building a new plant rather than retrofitting his uncle's plant. He knew that the ROI (return on investment) arguments concerning the change and plant location ultimately would not matter, even though they were very much in his favor. His father (W) and his uncle (X) run two semi-independent divisions of the family company with a \"team\" philosophy of \"we should generally agree on major issues but basically each of us has control over our own divisions.\" This approach worked fine in the past, but now that the third generation cousins have gotten involved, things between the brothers have gotten more and more tense. It seems like every decision creates conflict and pits them against one another. The aluminum can decision is just the latest of these conflicts. The $500M, third generation company has three \"family branches\" represented in the group. There are 16 cousins from the three original brothers. Brother (W) has 7 children with 5 working in his division of the company; brother (X) has 4 children with 3 working in his division of the company; brother (Y) is dead with 5 children, only one of which is working in the company.The two active uncles each own 35% of the company with the third branch owning 30%. The two uncles (W and X) have managed as if they have the \"voting stock,\" though it is actually assigned to the shares according to percentages. There is a board of directors comprised of the two uncles, one non-family member, and the eldest son of brother (Y) to represent his deceased father. The board never meets, primarily because uncle (W) does not think that the eldest son of his brother should have a vote in decisions. Uncle (X), however, feels like more decisions should come to the board, especially because the eldest son of brother (Y) should have a voice now that his father is dead. Brother W Brother X Brother Y Involvement Distribution Production Deceased Division Division % Shares 35 % 35 % 30 % Children Total 7 4 5 Children 5 3 1 involved The case of the aluminum cans is one such example. Uncle (X) believes the aluminum/tin decision represents a major change in the company direction, from a production to marketing based company. In fact, uncle (X) feels that George, as Executive VP of Marketing, is driving the company in "his direction" by wanting the whole company to go to aluminum cans as a marketing response to what other companies are doing. The aluminum can issue is by George's admission reflective of his desire to have a unified marketing strategy rather than letting the two divisions each do their own marketing. The other cousins in family branches (X, Y) all agree with uncle (X) that George is consolidating power. George's siblings disagree with their cousins and uncle (X). They feel that George is clearly the most qualified person to make these types of decisions and that, not only the cousins, but uncle (X) himselfshould just let George do his job. George's father (W) does not understand why his brother (X) is ma king such a big deal out of everything. It seems like he is always exploding in fact he did it the other day when the aluminum can issue came up and ended up complaining about George's new marketing strategy and accused him of consolidating power