Hemang Chauhan

P40015

OSD Assignment
BoldFlash is a producer of flash memory components for electronic devices, and Dr. Roger
Cahill had been appointed for Vice President for the mobile division. The company focuses
on flash memory for comupters and has a significant market share in both direct-to-consumer
markets and OEM (original equipment manufacturer) sectors. Flash memory is a solid-state
drive that keeps data storage without moving parts. It is commonly used in cameras, mobile
phones, tablets, and MP3 players. Currently, BoldFlash has fallen behind its competitors on
several fronts and has been missing critical deadlines,

Problem is the mismanagement between all the departments which has led to other issues
cropping up. Harrison managed the departments like autocrat fostered a complaint culture in
which people protected themselves and their territory from his strong top down derivatives,
leaving them on their on devices without any supervision. Since the company didn’t
manufacture anything at the headquarters (hence no involvement of top management), there
was a lack of interaction of the plant employees with the employees at the headquarters.
There also no coordination between the functional teams. The sales team didn’t consult the
manufacturing team about the new product to be manufactured and made promises to the
customers which were difficult to fulfil. Unsure of exact job roles, the marketing team’s new
recruits were busy making reports instead of interacting with the clients and understanding
their needs. Loose form of leadership did not help in integrating these cross functional teams.

The current organization design is based on several divisions which are divided further on the
basis of the functions. The lack of communication at divisional and functional level is
fostering problems in the organization. The horizontal communication is negligible leading to
lack of coordination across functional departments in a division. This is reflected in the
mobile division where all the functional departments are performing below the potential
because of lack of co-ordination among them.

Cahill has made changes, but there are not sufficient. In the marketing department, clear job
roles need to be given to the members focusing on identifying the needs of the customers.
Further, in the sales department, the incentive plan should be changed to encompass more
components apart from revenue targets. Lack of communication is still present. Finally,
efforts should be made to recognizing commitment and consistency of the employees through
monetary and non-monetary ways.