CASE STUDY 1

Faulty Assumptions and a Hasty E-mail

Ramesh was working on one of the crucial projects
Summary which had multiple parts to it. Since this was a crucial
project, Srikanth had extended full support to Ramesh.
Mr Ramesh was working as an engineer in ALPHA Ltd.,
Ramesh was responsible for one of the sections. It also
a MNC in the field of automation and engineering. He had
included few sec- tions of the project to be delivered by
worked with the organization for almost 3.5 years. He was
engineers in ALPHA, Norway. After completing the
well versed with the system and processes. Mr Srikanth was
engineering part of the project in India, Ramesh travelled
the group manager for the vertical in which Ramesh was
to Norway to conduct the test- ing and installation with the
working. Ramesh had built good reputation with Srikanth
end customer. He successfully demonstrated his part to the
because of his sincerity and hard work. Ramesh had
customer and everyone was happy. As his job was
delivered projects on time and as a result he recently was
complete, Ramesh delivered his part of the software and
awarded with a certificate of appreciation by the company.
control strategy to Allan Patterson, one of the Norwegian
Srikanth’s team specifically worked for Norwegian clients
engineers. Ramesh assumed that Allan being a senior
and had consistently delivered larger projects for a wide
engineer would be aware of the processes involved in
range of customers. The Norwegian counterpart of ALPHA
implementing the software. Ramesh was back to India
Ltd. was the interface between the Indian arm and the end
after his part was complete.
clients. Thus, all projects, approvals, quotations had to pass
through the Norwegian office to the client. The case Problem
discusses an incident that happened due to lack of effective
communication between the protagonists. There were some internal issues with the application soft-
ware which had to be solved every time the software was
Introduction implemented on the system. Ramesh also assumed that
Allan would know about these issues. There was an
Mr Samuel Vincent was the principal manager at ALPHA,
installa- tion procedure in place, but it did not mention
Norway. He had a team of about ten engineers to support
these minute aberrations.
the activities in Norway. These ten engineers were crucial
After all the sections of the project were complete,
for the organization to provide support to clients based in
Samuel decided to conduct a comprehensive test with the
Norway. The Indian subsidiary was started to cater the
client. Allan was allotted the job to do the test. It normally
requirements of the Indian market and provide cheaper
happens in countries like Norway etc., where people tend
support and solu- tions to other countries. Indian engineers
to follow the installation procedure word by word. Allan
would often travel to Norway and deliver solutions to
also did that and as a result he started getting errors in the
clients. However, at times the engineering or design
logic. Allan was also not aware of the changes which were
activities were conducted in India and the Norwegian
required to be made so as to resolve these issues. As a
engineers would deliver the solution to the end customers.
result he complained about this to Samuel. Samuel
without consulting with the
other senior engineers or Ramesh, sent an email to
Srikanth and some senior managers about the inefficiency
and care- lessness of Ramesh. He also required a quick
response to it. Though Srikanth’s team had done excellent
job over the years and delivered projects on time with
good efficiency, Samuel in his email mentioned about the
couple of small issues which had occurred previously.
The email was a shock to Srikanth and he demanded
an explanation from Ramesh, who was also surprised.
After looking into the problem and the errors, Ramesh
realized that this was not due to negligence but a lack of
communication with Allan. He explained this to Srikanth.
Srikanth had faith in Ramesh and he supported him. As the
problem had escalated, the higher management decided
CASE STUDY 2
The Disturbing E-Mail
Summary
This case is about a situation at an analytics firm called
Wood- peckers Research. The management decided to
change the work-hours policy given the current market
requirements. However, the intent behind the change was
not precisely communicated to the employees. Instead, the
manage- ment employed an underhand method of
communication that created confusion and discontent
among the workers. An aggressive e-mail written by a
manager, triggered fur- ther unhealthy discussions around
the workplace. The HR department tried to save the
situation through a town-hall. The case explores how the
management should go about salvaging the situation, such
that their recent business deci- sions were suited to the
employee-friendly environment that they strived to
maintain.
Introduction
Woodpeckers Research was known for its employee friendly
culture. The management took pride in this and was aware
that its practices were often emulated by its competitors. The
revenue model of the business charged clients on a per hour
basis, which was unlike its nearest competitor, Absolute
Ana- lytics, which billed clients on the basis of number of
days.
The knowledge management industry had recently hit
a slump and growth had slowed down. Though there were
enough projects to staff employees, the group managers
were facing challenges in maintaining the flow of revenues.
Many clients were insisting on quick turnaround and were
ready to hire Woodpeckers for short term projects for less
than a week. Competition in the knowledge management
industry was intensifying too. As a result, the senior
management was contemplating on increasing bill hours per
day to improve the quality of work delivery and hence,
retained maximum num- ber of clients.
to have a meeting and find out the problems. Ramesh was
disappointed as he had worked hard but because of com-
munication gap, he had to face the peril. He and Srikanth
explained the causes and effects to the senior team. The
team was satisfied and a solution was provided to Samuel.
Samuel later accepted that he took the decision hastily and
even Allan should have had talked to Ramesh or Srikanth
before reporting the problem.
Questions
1. What were the reasons behind the fiasco? Could it
have been avoided?
2. What are the key considerations in framing an email?
Problem
As soon as the employees returned after the three day win-
ter break in December, they were all staffed on the latest
cases. Even though, the winter season was considered a
lean season for the analytics business, there were multiple
short term cases this year. However, as noticed by all, the
group managers who were pitching for the case seemed to
be overpromising the final case delivery. The pitch
proposal had changed in format without any intimation to
the project leaders who lead the cases. Hence, the project
leaders were often noticed huddling in the café to discuss
the sudden increase in workload.
The pressure of work trickled down to the junior ana-
lysts. Even though, the number of team members on a case
remained the same, the deliverables per analyst had esca-
lated, leading to longer work hours.
The issue reached its peak when on a certain project
with a high profile client, the final slide loop had a
calculation error. The error was pointed out by the client
which caused extreme embarrassment to Mr Ankush
Sharma, the man- ager of the case. He sent the following e-
mail to the team and copied the director on the e-mail.
Team,
Is this the output you were expected to deliver
to a high profile client such as Mr Mark Bower?
The growth rate is the most basic check and I am
shocked that an error was found in that. I think
efficiency of this team is compromised. Playing
music and visiting the café often is distracting you.
If this behaviour continues and credibility is not
restored in the next case, I am sorry to say that I
will have to request the HR department for a
 new team. This will be appropriately reflected in
your reviews. Shivika, being the Project Leader and
also in a promotion window, you were expected to
be extra careful.

Team,
Ankush Sharma

This e-mail quickly circulated to the other teams and became the talking point during lunch that day. Shivika tried
managing the crisis through multiple meetings with Ankush and the Director. The arguments brought up the subject of
increased workload which the employees were not habituated to. Working till 1 AM everyday had led to productivity
decline of some teams. This had created dis- contentment among analysts, associates and project leaders alike.
Realizing the change in office pulse, the HR depart- ment announced an office town-hall where everyone was informed
that the billing policy had been changed to the effect that post-winter, clients have promised a minimum of 9 hours per day,
instead of the 8 hours earlier.

Impact
The HR announcement took the employees by surprise. The new billing policy was not communicated beforehand. Pro-
ject leaders felt tricked into working the extra hour without a clue about the policy change. There was a feeling of disap-
pointment in office reflecting the irresponsibility of the HR in clearly communicating policy changes. This affected the
culture of the workplace which the senior management took pride in. The manipulative communication employed by the
management had affected productivity across divisions. The new projects also required extra effort which made it
imperative for the senior management to take initiatives to lift employee morale.

Questions
1. What would you have done as the manager to manage the situation?
2. What email etiquettes should the manager have kept in mind to manage the team?
CASE STUDY 1
The Worried Sales Manager: Meeting for
Results
Summary
The case describes the busy lifestyle of a sales manager
and how effective meeting skills can help him do his job
better as well as get work done from the team members. It
high- lights the importance of preparing an agenda and the
key role of the team lead in conducting and managing
meetings.
Introduction
The Area Sales Manager of KPG Life Insurance, Samit
Tan- don gazed worriedly at the computer screen. His
hands were full. He was noting down the key tasks for the
day:
1. He had to communicate the results quickly to the team
and also to motivate them. He also planned to hold a
quick meeting to decide the Q2 projections prepared by
him.
2. He wanted a proposal from his team to improve the
brand perception of KPG Life Insurance.
3. He wanted his team to prepare a powerpoint pre-
sentation outlining the Q1 results and strategies for the
future.
4. He wanted to write an email to his distributors to
seek their suggestions.
Problem
The Q1 achievement category and SM wise results were a
disaster! Samit was in no mood to compromise on the sales
results and wanted to get down to the bottom of it all. Spe-
cifically he wanted that the meeting should delineate the
pros and cons, and should result in concrete suggestions.
He wanted to be very specific and straightforward in his
ap- proach in the meeting and wanted the agenda of this
day long meeting to reflect that.
He opened the spread sheet in front of him and started
writing the agenda.
The spreadsheet went something like this:

Category Target FY 2014-15 Target Q1 Achieved Q1 % Achievement

A1 45 5.63 2.66 47
B1 20 2.50 5.1 204
B2 45 5.63 2.9 52
Total 110 13.75 10.66 78

SM Wise Break up
SM/ABDM Category Target 2014-15 Target Q1 Achieved Q1 % Achievement
Samit Tandon B1+B2 30 3.75 8 177
Amit Sinha A1 45 5.63 2.66 47
Diwakar Sharma B2 35 4.38 – –

All figures converted to APE

The July Performance

Category Target-July Achieved-July % Achievement
A1 2.7 5.96 221
B1 1.2 1.83 153
B2 2.7 1.34 72
B3 6.6 9.73 147

SM Category Target-July Achieved-July % Achievement

Amit A1 2.7 5.96 221
Samit B1+B2 3.9 3.77 97
Diwakar B2
 Category Commitment July Achieved July % Achievement
A1 3.5 5.6 160
B1 2.5 1.77 71
B2 2 1.71 86
Total 8 9.08 114

SM Category Target July Achieved July % Achievement

Amit A1 3.5 5.6 160
Samit B1+B2 3.5 2.85 81
Diwakar B2 1 0.63 63
Total 8 9.08 114

Q1-2014
Q1 Budget Vs Actual
Budget (%) Actual (%) % Achievement
Throughput % 90 80 88
ECS Penetration % 60 43 72
Free look cancellation % 5 2 40
Complaint % 5 3 60
Complaints only from FY 2014-15 business 2 0 0
Cheque bounced % 7 11 157
Attrition % 10 0 0
Surrender 419 0

B2 Break up-Business
Total number of B2 Target FY Average business /
Branch/ABDM B2 Target Q1 Achievement Q1 % Achievement
active distributors 2014-15 Distributor
Agra 3 45 6.75 2.9 0.42962963 0.96666

SM Wise Break Up
Total number of B2 Target FY Average business/
SM name B2 Target Q1 Achievement Q1 % Achievement
active distributors 2014-15 Distributor
Samit 2 10 1.5 2.9 1.9333 1.45
Diwakar 1 35 5 0 0 0
(DOJ: June)

B2 Break Up-PHF Licence

Branch/ABDM Q1 PHF logged Q1 Licenses downloaded July PHF logged July Licences downloaded
Agra 7 0 2 0
SM Wise Break up
Branch/ABDM Q1 PHF logged Q1 Licenses July PHF logged July Licences
downloaded downloaded
Samit 1 0 1 0
Diwakar 5 0 1 0

B1 Update
BI Target FY 2014-15 APE Target
Bajaj Capital 13
Netambit 3
Reliance Capital 3
Anand Rathi 1
Total 20

Achieved Q1
Q1 Total business done
Channel Q1 Business-KPG LI Share of KPG LI
tacross all insurers
Bajaj Capital 4.1 10 41
Netambit 4 7 6
Reliance Capital 0 3 0
Anand Rathi 0 0 0

All figure converted APE; BB-15; Casa-160

Q2 PROJECTIONS

Plan for Q2 Category and SM Wise

SM/ABDM A1 B1 B2 B3 Total
Samit 4 2 6
Amit 9 9
Diwakar 7 7
Total 9 4 9 22

Plan for Q2 SM and Distributor Wise

Diwakar Q2 Plan Q1 Achieved
Rohit 2 0
Inderjit 1 0
Raghav 1 0
Bipan 0.5 0.2
Raj 0.5 0
Self 2 0.6
Total 7 0.8
 Samit Q2 Plan Q1 Achieved
SPA 2 1.94
Self 1 0.5
Ipsika 1.5 0
Shalini 0.5 0
Total 5 2.44

Amit Q2 Plan Q1 Achieved

Arvinda 2 0
Haya 1 0
Kamaal 0.5 0
Total 3.5 0

Impact
The result of this morning exercise had positive results, Sumit could frame a SWOT analysis that could reflect his concerns
(see the table below):

A SWOT ANALYSIS
Strengths
Old client base
Good relationship with RO/RM
Good data base of existing policy holders
Agra has come up with the BBG - Business Banking Group for loan of upto 30 lacs to 5 crore: chance to hit big ticket
with HNI accounts

Weaknesses
Cut throat competition
Product comparison support required from back end
Least focus for LI products which will impact the lead generation

Opportunities
Advisor should be rewarded for training and on license with login of 3 NOP which will motivate and foresee the income from the
insurance industry
Vast database untouched
Low penetration rate
Existing customers having only ULIP so opportunity to sell them traditional plan

Threats
Brand recognition is poor in Agra
Clients ask for short term investment rather than long term Savings plan
Lack of interest in Insurance as a career due to ULIPs return
Questions
1. Compose a detailed one page agenda on behalf of Samit to the team members.
2. What are the important attributes of an effective team leader, especially in conducting strategic
meetings?