For this Case Study in Chapter 7, read the information about the case below. Remember, you DO NOT have to agree with what Seth decided! Consulting can have many different ways/approaches to help a client. Be creative.

1. What is the client requesting?
2. What goal does the client have for this project?
3. What are the presenting problems?
4. What do you think may be any underlying problems?
5. Which method of data gathering would you use and why? (Consider using the method of analysis shown in Table 7.2.) Which of the five types of data gathering discussed in this chapter do you think is most effective?
6. What is the proposal that explains what data you will gather through what means (interview, surveys, focus groups, observations, and/or unobtrusive measures). Include any questions you might ask, observations you would undertake, and/or documents you would want to gather.
7. What are the advantages and disadvantages of your data gathering choice(s)? Include a rationale and proposed timeline for your approach and any details about the data gathering method itself, including possible interview or survey questions, documents to gather, or observations you would conduct.

-Case-

"I'm glad you're here, and I have something important to discuss with you. Have a seat."

Seth Burke had been called to Michelle Greenfield's office. Just 18 months ago, Michelle had accepted the role of chief learning officer at TLG Solutions, a fast-growing provider of global human resources software for Fortune 1000 companies. Seth and Michelle had worked together in a previous company, and now that Seth was working as an independent external organization development consultant, Michelle was anxious to make use of his skills.

"Hey, I was really glad to get your call. It's been too long," Seth exclaimed as he took a seat at a round table in Michelle's office while Michelle closed the door. TLG Solutions headquarters was located in a six-story building just outside of downtown in a suburban area for expanding technology companies. Michelle's office had a panoramic view of the lake. "What great scenery," Seth added. "How long has the company been in this location?"

"Just 6 months," Michelle admitted. "We've been expanding so rapidly we outgrew the small office space that we had rented on the east side of town. Now that we are among the tech companies in this hub area on this side of town, we have a solid presence in the community and are showing that we are here to stay."

"And how have things been going in your new role?" Seth asked, transitioning to the reason for his visit.

"It's been crazy. The rapid growth means great things, but it's also stressful sometimes. It's really different from what we knew back with our old company. You and I were part of a very hierarchical, controlled, consistent, static company in a pretty stable industry. Everyone followed the process and the plan. A big change was when they replaced the carpet in the lobby. But here it feels like it's just the opposite. It's all about visionary innovation, constant change, reinvention. No 2 days are the same, and you get used to feeling like you're on a roller coaster. Just yesterday our CEO announced publicly that we would use our expertise in HR to create new products for marketers. And our product groups didn't even know that announcement was coming," Michelle pointed out.

"Yes, that does sound very different from the experience we shared a few years back," Seth laughed.

"The thing is, from my perspective we have changed things so fast, I don't think we have created the ideal organization to help launch us into the next phase. I've definitely learned a lot managing this department, and I think there may be some opportunities for improvement," Michelle said. "Basically, this training organization is a mess, and our chief HR officer, Vivienne, has told me that if I can't get it cleaned up soon she'll find someone who will. We are spending a ton of money on training and yet it's not getting us the improvement we need. But I should back up. I'm getting ahead of myself."

"Yes, maybe start at the beginning. Tell me a little more about TLG Solutions," Seth asked.

"Well, the company was essentially founded on our flagship product, NewHireScan, a software program that can scan thousands of rsums for key indicators and predict whether the new hire will be successful in the job. Our proprietary big data approach means that we can save companies tons of money by hiring the best person for the job the first time, which we can tell by a number of data points. In the last few years, we have added or expanded products every few months so that we now have hundreds of products and variations on them for different industries. Since I've been here, revenue has almost doubled, if that tells you anything, and we are growing at a rate that is easily twice that of our nearest competitors. We just got a fantastic write-up in an industry-leading publication, and our CEO was just on the front page of the Wall Street Journal," Michelle stated.

"I saw that article," Seth added. "That was really impressive and had a lot of people talking. I bet that did a lot for employee morale as well."

"It sure did. People around here are very motivated, driven, and work a ton of hours. It's a competitive environment, and they pour themselves into their work," Michelle said. "We are adding a lot of products to our portfolio over the next year since our goal is to expand into other areas of HR technology beyond hiring, and apparently we have this new marketing focus coming. Everyone seems to feel the urgency, and we all want to see it succeed. But the clouds are forming in our sunny skies. It's like the theme from Jaws is always playing in the background. We have competitors that are ready to take us out, and we can all see that our cost models are not sustainable. Investors are getting nervous. We are looking to the next year or two and we know that we must be successful getting our new products to market quickly. We probably need to reduce costs as well. It's not a crisis, but the leadership team is paying careful attention to the financials, as you would expect."

"Sure, that makes sense in your industry," Seth said. "Tell me more about where you think problems might exist on the horizon."

"I'll give you a list from my point of view, because there are a lot of them," Michelle said. "We have many loyal customers and excellent customer relationships. Some of them have been with us since the beginning. But lately we are starting to hear customer complaints, even from our loyal base. Products aren't working as promised. Salespeople are promising one thing and not delivering. I've even heard situations where salespeople have promised features outright that we never intended to put in the product just to make a sale. I've heard that sales reps can't even demo the products accurately. The service department is getting complaints because they can't accurately pinpoint the root cause of the problems the customer is experiencing. Those are common problems in many organizations, but we've done some investigating and it seems that time and time again the problem is training. Our salespeople and service reps

don't know enough about the products. Customer service technicians lack some of the foundational problem-solving knowledge to help them troubleshoot. And training, as you know, is my responsibility, so I am under a lot of pressure to get this right."

"Tell me more about your department," Seth asked.

"Let me give you the training organization chart and I can walk through it," Michelle added, and handed Seth a piece of paper.

Michelle Greenfield, CTO Regional HR Leaders (4) Regional Sales Shauna, Training Glenn, Jack, Global Carolyn, Global Global Global Sales Customer Service Learning Technology Training Training and Operations Training Regional Customer Training Regional Service Training