EUGENIA DELPONTE

BoldFlash
Analysis
 BACKGROUND & CURRENT PROBLEMS
COMMUNICATION ISSUE

The site has high technical skills but total dysfunctional communication between organizations, working only
trying to achieve their goals, without a real awareness of the difficulties faced by the company. Indeed, there is
a lack of awareness of the downstream and upstream impacts of their activities, as well as limited knowledge
of the processes, tasks and activities that must be performed by each person, due to the fact that most of the
resources have always remained in the same company, or even in the same department.
No culture of service, that is the awareness of serving not only the end customer but also the internal
functions (example: marketing makes too many reports that end up not being read).
Communication happens only top-down and not button up and there isn't any control activities or feasibility
check that can lead to process interruption for some instances (no production capacity check before order
confirmation or product development and manufacturing meeting before trial test that slow down production
or erode margin).
Meeting problems: too long, too dispersive, often missing key people who must present or who must be pilots
of the actions. Moreover, no 5 W process for every problem or every negative result (what, when, where, why,
who) to which How is also added, which allows an analytical approach to problems, but also allows a lean and
analytical creation to each task, with definite deadline and pilot.
 BACKGROUND & CURRENT PROBLEMS
REWARDING & DEPARTMENT ISSUES
The methodology for the reward only increases the gap between departments, since they are evaluated only with function
objectives and not process objectives. Sales targets are only revenue, but without a proper flow of communication with the
plant, this target help to increase capacity problems and gross margin decrease. In parallel also the plants, reward on
inventory management, quality, delivery time, and gross margin, pay for the agreements taken from the Sales dept and for
the wrong feasibility and costs check made by R&D and Marketing. R&D, however, only evaluated by the academic research
done and the patents issued, continues to produce ideas that do not match the real needs of the market.
Manufacturing Department issue: the production plants, the nerve center of companies and also many times the
bottleneck for any process, are not bowed correctly and promptly, as well as being involved enough in every decision-
making phase. Kevin Cheng is involved even when the topics are not related to his function, given his abilities.
Marketing & Sales issues: marketing specialists are newcomers with an excessively wide and undefined role, without
technical skills, dealing with market analysis and sales projections but, above all, in charge of new products, a role that
cannot be absolutely relegated only to Marketing. Sales department pays for high employee turnover and limited liability
and no 360° vision. No real comprehension of customer needs.
R&D issues: only focused on their studies, with no collaboration with other dept. Also, despite a R&D spending increased
by 64% while SG&A remained unchanged, 15 products have been patented and no one has found a customer.
 ACTION PLAN
CULTURAL PRINCIPLES

Pervasiveness of process orientation & Customer-supplier logic: as mentioned in the first slide, the company
has several problems of communication: is mandatory a process orientation to develop a better understanding of
the responsibilities of the various process actors, identify opportunities for improvement and formalize this flow.
Every employee need to know the real problems of the company, the tasks and the role of every dept from
regular monthly meeting. Increasing inner mobility would help to better understand each role and I also strongly
suggest “In his/her/their shoes” initiative, where every employee works for one day in every function of the
company.
ORGANIZATIONAL PRINCIPLES
Redesign of the organizational structure & Job redesign: Marketing & Sales: after mapping the activities that

each entity does and the communication flow, I personally believe it is essential to bring together the Marketing
& Sales business units because the activities are often quite interdependent. Consequently, attributing to people
who operate in the same organizational unit facilitates their coordination and therefore the achievement of
coherent strategies. From Sales, Marketing can have a first and real market feedback, not based on projections. In
addition, sales projections should be made by Sales and not by Marketing. On the other hand, Marketing
specialists should not be in charge of product process development because they lack technical
competencies.
 ACTION PLAN
ORGANIZATIONAL PRINCIPLES

Redesign of the organizational structure & Job redesign: New Product Development Team: We know
that the creation of ad-hoc Team is particularly relevant in developing new ideas and solutions because is
able to maintain an individual specialization while increasing empowerment and contribution of people.
Under Kevin Cheng should be created a product development team having inside: an R&D guy who works
on technical feasibility, marketing specialists who analyze the market trend, representatives of each plant
to evaluate the production feasibility, sales representatives for market projection. The document does not
indicate anything about Industrial Controller, a key figure to carry out correct analysis and costing that
should be on board to avoid any margin erosion problem.
Process ownership: it's crucial that each entity becomes responsible for its own activities, so in each
meeting, people should arrive prepared and share information in advance, following the flow of 5W, with
clear tasks and deadlines. Not only the first line should attend the meeting, but also the pilot of each
action discussed in the meeting, to avoid ping-pong communication and loss of time.
 ACTION PLAN
MANAGEMENT PRINCIPLES

Process documentation & Process measurement: once mapped, each process must be shared with
each employee, and measured, since you can not handle what you do not measure. In order to avoid
the gap between departments, the entire company, and therefore the employees should be evaluated
on a general sum of company targets: revenue, margin, quality claim, and customer service
efficiency.

Process flow optimization: Allowing employees to have full access to information increases efficiency,
and a dedicated team for new product will avoid new ideas not feasible or without market appeal. What
is missing, however, is a process that looks to mass production flow. The orders should be validated
also by Kevin Cheng and not only from the Sales, while Testing and Production must decide together
the calendar for possible R&D tests.
 THE ROLE OF HR AND ROGER CAHILL

As GM, Cahill has the task of analyzing processes, in a neutral manner and without being influenced
by any personal relationships to define (or even eliminate) certain roles. Cahill lacks leadership skills and
360° corporate vision, so it will be crucial in the coming months really understand what people do.
HR dept and Mr.Cahill, once the analysis process has been completed and the balance has been re-
established, should invest in people's training, in order to avoid returning to the previous situation. A
crucial turning point will be the behavior of staff members motivated by Mr.Cahill's example, because
they will have to lead the change and shape the new organization. Mr.Cahill, working on his soft and
managerial skills, should be the role model of the company, pushing all the employees to adopt and
maintain a process-oriented culture.