Wolfgang Keller Case Analysis free essay sample

Wolfgang Keller Case Analysis MBA-6120 Abstract Wolfgang Keller is a 34 year old graduate of the Harvard Business School. After a fast moving career building a reputation for turning around failing businesses, Wolfgang Keller once again found himself facing the challenge of turning around a losing business. This time it was as managing director of the Ukrainian subsidy of the Konigsbrau Brewery. The company was experiencing â‚ ¬2. 9 million per year with annual sales of â‚ ¬116 million, (Gabarro, 2008). Even though this was a bigger company that he was used to dealing with, he seemed to be well on his way to success after just three years. Sales had increased to â‚ ¬145 million and the company was finally turning a â‚ ¬7 million profit, (Gabarro, 2008). Wolfgang Keller’s boss, Dr. Hans Haussler, appeared to have confidence in his abilities, but Keller was still new and needed to continually prove himself. To add to his confidence, the Haussler was sending him off to Brazil to head up a start-up task force for a joint venture between Konigsbrau and a Brazilian brewer. We will write a custom essay sample on Wolfgang Keller Case Analysis or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Still Wolgang Keller was smart enough to know that things were not quite right. There were still a few problems remaining that could derail the expansion of the Ukrainian Division. Not the least of which was Dmitri Brodsky, Konigsbrau’s commercial director. There were serious differences in philosophy between Keller and Brodsky that needed to be resolved before they damaged the company. Before Keller returned home from Brazil, he was going to have to decide how to handle this problem. Situation Wolfgang Keller was a hands-on manager that was used to taking over small companies and making all of the decisions necessary to turn them around as fast as possible. He turned a failing German food products manufacturer into a profitable company and then saved another subsidy of the company in under two years. In less than three years Keller changed the marketing strategy, restructured the sales force, hired new top management, and acquired an additional brewery for Konigsbrau’s Ukrainian Division. Keller’s predecessor was replaced due to his inability to get along with Vladimir Antinov, the companies Ukrainian partner and for all intents and purposes, Keller’s counterpart who handled many of the local relationships with banks, trade associations and government agencies. In fact, Keller’s ability to relate to people may have been a large part of why he was chosen for the position. Keller introduced an aggressive marketing strategy that was heavily dependent on developing and maintaining personal relationships with Konigsbrau’s distributers all the way down to the retail level. Because there was not much differentiation among premium beers, it was important that Konigsbrau stands out from the competition. Keller believed that the close relationship with their distributors and sales team was just what they needed. He felt that the upper management needed to be seen out in the field with the sales force supporting them at all times. Dmitri Brodsky, Konigsbrau’s commercial director, did not share Keller’s enthusiasm for developing close relationships with the sales force and the distributors. He was more of an analytical type who preferred an arms-length relationship. Brodsky was extremely thorough and had excellent technical skills. He was very good at organizing and developing controls. He had recently redesigned the sales force organization and the information and control systems. However, Keller felt he took much too long to do it, and that it only got finished because Keller put a hiring freeze on sales staff until it was completed. Brodsky was more of an â€Å"old guard† type manager that felt it was important to keep a distant relationship between his subordinates and that getting too close would undermine his authority to get things done. Keller believed that this was all just an excuse to keep form dealing with the part of the job that he did not like. By contrast, Brodsky’s Marketing Manager, Ivan Zelenko was heavily involved with the sales and marketing staff and most of the middle managers and sales staff preferred woring directly with Zelenko instead of Brodsky. Even though Brodsky was brought in because it was thought that his maturity would balance the group of young managers that were brought it, it still seemed to surprise Keller that they did not instantly bond. This is why Keller has been seriously considering splitting the department and making Zelenko Sales Director and Brodsky Marketing Director Analysis It is obvious that we are dealing with two completely different personalities and management styles. Wolfgang Keller’s management style would be more of an affinitive style (Goleman, 2000). He prefers to establish trust and relationships with his subordinates to help motivate them to perform well because they value the relationship, rather than because they fear punishment if they don’t. However, when it comes to Brodsky, he leans more toward a coercive management style (Goleman, 2000), dictating how he wants things done. Brodsky on the other hand is almost the polar opposite of Keller. He prefers to use a coercive approach to managing people and feels that he is being micro-managed by Keller when he tries to impose his management methods on him. He has a more â€Å"administrative† approach, and a distant management style. He has a lack of attention and disregard for the recommendations given to him by Keller. I do not completely agree with Keller’s negative analysis of how Brodsky kept his personal life away from his professional life. There may be legitimate, reasons for this that Keller is not aware of. Conclusion I don’t see any evidence that Keller himself made much of an effort to establish a personal relationship with Brodsky. There does not appear to be a lot of contact between them, other than to address issues that Keller is unhappy with or to perform evaluations. Although Keller does not think Zelenko is ready to take over the entire division, he does think he is qualified enough to take over the Sales Directors job. Perhaps his confidence in Zelenko is at least in part due to the fact that he has a previous relationship with him, or because of their previous relationship, Zelenko has adopted Keller’s management styles. Either way, Keller needs to first take a look at how he handled his relationship with Brodsky in the past, before he decides how to handle it in the future. The same relationship building approach that Keller wants Brodsky to take with the sales team would have been a useful approach for Keller to take with Brodsky. Since the company is finally making a profit and not in immediate danger, maybe it is not too late to try that approach with Bodsky. Keller also needed to be mindful that his advice to Brodsky was not perceived as micro-managing. I think that some of this is Keller’s fault. Keller needed to make his preferences about how the team should be handled known at the beginning of his relationship with Brodsky. A big part of the reason Brodsky was hired was because Keller thought his maturity would balance out the younger managers. If Keller was looking for someone to be a charismatic leader, he should have made that clear in the hiring process. At that point, he could have made the decision to separate the two departments and make better use of Brodsky and Zelenko’s talents. Had Keller used the Thomas-Kilmann Conflict Mode Instrument as part of his hiring process, he would have found that Brodsky has a tendency toward the â€Å"avoiding† range and would have been able to predict his performance in the situation. A compromising approach may be necessary in order to get moving to a solution quickly, Thomas-Kilmann , (2007). Keller may be able to offer splitting the departments between marketing and sales as a solution to the conflict. Brodsky can focus on the tasks that he enjoys the most and avoid the tasks that he dislikes, such as building the personal relationships with the sales staff. In turn Brodsky’s evaluations are likely to improve. Keller will also need to seriously consider whether or not he is ready to fire Brodsky if he is not ready to go along with the plan. If Brodsky does not buy in, he is likely to sabotage the plan to prove his point. References Goleman, D. (2000). Leadership that gets results. Harvard Business Review, 78(2), 78-90. Thomas, K. , Kilmann, R. (2007), The Thomas-Kilmann Conflict Mode Instrument, CPP Inc. Gabarro, Comings, Suesse, (2008) Wolfgang Keller at Konigsbrau-TAK (A), Harvard Business Review, 1-18