Dryden Services Students PDF

Preview

Summary

sdfgsdfgsd fgsdfg sdfgs fgsd fgsd gsdf gadfg s...

Description

BUSM 1115 Dryden Services – Human Resources Kristina Campbell, founder of Dryden Services, a packaging design firm, stepped out of a warm diner and began walking back to her office. The wind made this summer’s day a lot colder than was forecast and Campbell held her coffee cup with both hands as she crossed the street to her office, which was just off of Bank Street in Ottawa. On July 20th, 2010, Campbell had made a significant change to her operations, transferring more responsibility to her senior manager, Sam Borre. On August 20th, 2010, Borre extended employment offers to candidates for two account management positions, giving them a week to respond. The same day, Campbell happened to meet with one of the two candidates at a fundraiser, and her initial reaction was negative. Even though she gave herself a day to mull it over, her opinion hadn’t changed. She disagreed with Borre’s decision to extend an offer to this candidate but wanted to think about how – or if - she should convey her thoughts to him. Campbell had worked for the Toronto office of a large Chicago-based advertising firm and had left in 2003 following the dotcom bust. She started Dryden Services to provide industrial and consumer packaging design services to North American firms, taking advantage of the (then) low Canadian dollar to win contracts. To retain clients, Campbell worked on offering additional services such as focus group testing of concepts and brand management advice. By 2009, Campbell had 15 employees and a healthy backlog of projects. When business increased by 30% in 2010, Campbell – who had been working 70-80 hours a week in the firm – looked for ways to lighten her workload. As an owner-operator, she had been involved with every step of the process, from client presentations, to concept development, creative execution, and client management. She was answering emails constantly and was spending at least 50% of her time on the road. Sensing that she needed to step back a little, Campbell started training a promising employee – Borre – to assume an operations role in her firm. Borre had joined Dryden Services after graduating from the Ontario College of Art & Design in 2005, and had been part of several major projects over the years. She started preparing Borre – who was strong in visual design - to take on more responsibilities, rotating him through the various roles such as account management and office manager. Borre was respected by all of Dryden Services’ employees. In particular, as he had a creative background, he worked well with the firm’s creative staff. Campbell promoted Borre to senior manager in July 2010, and his first task was to help Dryden Services fill two vacant account manager positions. Campbell was scheduled to be involved with the August interviews but was asked to attend a Seattle conference. She asked Borre to proceed without her. Borre kept her in the loop by emailing her the resumes of the top six candidates. He arranged for the candidates to meet Dryden Services’ team and then followed up with

BUSM 1115 team members for their feedback on the candidates. A week later, he extended two employment offers, copying Campbell on the email. Campbell happened to meet one of the two candidates, Sally Rowe, at a local fundraiser. Rowe, who was graduating from a U.S. design school, had found out about the position because her brother was a friend of Borre’s. As she chatted with Rowe, Campbell began to sense that while Rowe could fit well in a creative’s role, she was not well-suited to be an account manager, at least not yet. And Dryden Services needed two candidates who could step into the account managers’s role immediately, with minimal guidance. Rowe had great ideas for creative concepts and was passionate in defending her position, but lacked diplomatic skills, as far as Campbell could tell. In addition, Campbell learned that Rowe was interested in pursuing a masters degree in art, and that the Dryden Services opportunity would be instrumental in helping her save for her education. On the outside, Campbell was smiling. Inside, she was questioning her staff’s judgment. Two days later, as she walked into the lobby of her office building, Campbell thought about what she should do with the Rowe situation. She wanted her staff to be empowered, to treat the business as their own. She wanted them to make key decisions for the benefit of the firm. But if she refrained from saying anything, and did nothing, hiring Rowe could end up costing the firm $15,000 or more, if she were to be let go after the three month probation period, not to mention the opportunity cost of training her, and then having to restart the hiring process. Campbell did not feel that Rowe could be placed in front of a client without training and, or, supervision. On the other hand, her emotions were telling her to intervene. She could pull Borre into a meeting – or several meetings – and convince him to recall the offer and restart the interview process. But doing so might risk demoralizing a key employee too soon after promoting him. If she intervened at this juncture, she feared that her stated commitment to employee empowerment would be, henceforth, seen as an empty promise. She pressed the elevator button to take her up to the 3rd floor, where Dryden Services was located. As Campbell walked out of the elevator, she was hit by the realization that her “issue” could be worse than she believed: two offers had been extended and she had not met the 2nd candidate yet. 1) How critical is the position that Campbell is concerned about in the case?

2) What immediate actions would you take in this case as Campbell? If you were Borre, how would you react?

3) What structural changes would you consider making to the organization?...