BMGT 364 Exercise 4:  Week 6

NOTE:  All submitted work is to be your original work. You may not use any work from another student, the Internet or an online clearinghouse.  You are expected to understand the Academic Dishonesty and Plagiarism Policy, and know that it is your responsibility to learn about instructor and general academic expectations with regard to proper citation of sources as specified in the APA Publication Manual, 6th Ed. (Students are held accountable for in-text citations and an associated reference list only). 

Exercise 4 is due Saturday at 11:59 p.m. eastern time of week 6 unless otherwise changed by the instructor.

This is the last of four exercises that you will be completing.

Purpose:  Leading of the POLC

The parent organization and specifically Helen have been working to get the initial planning of the new division started but it is time to hand over the reigns to a new Executive Director who will be responsible for bring the division together and establishing the new division as a well working machine. This change will have implication on the HR plan and how the resources will be aligned.

This exercise draws from research from a previous exercise.  This exercise also requires the use of course material and the case scenario facts.  Note that course material refers to those chapters listed under content.  Course material is not being used to merely define terms but to draw on concepts discussed in the course material.  There needs to be a heavy dependence on the course material.

Scenario:

In week 1 the question, “Who is a manager and what is their job in an organization?” was asked.  As Great Start Nutrition launches a new product division to design, develop and deliver infant formula globally, the company will need to bring in someone to manage this division.  The desire of Helen Crump, the head of R&D who has been tasked with identifying the person to lead this new division, is that the new Executive Director for the Infant Formula Division will be open to innovative ways to develop green and sustainable products that will not only be popular among the traditional Great Start Nutrition customer base, but also will be the face of the organization when marketing company products.  Partnering with the small consulting firm, Mayberry Consultants, Helen will be vetting three potential candidates who will jump right in and begin the development of management plans that will be used to establish the new division.  A senior representative from the firm was on the panel for the interview, and the transcripts of the interview have been given to the Mayberry Consultants team that is helping Helen with her tasking.  The new Executive Director will be a Manager of the 21st Century who will be able to incorporate the values, culture and traditions of Great Start Nutrition with the values and traditions of the host nation employees that will be hired as managers and employees. 

In addition, the Executive Director will be the face of the marketing brand in the beginning and this new employee will need to be able to motivate not only the employee base of these new products but also motivate a new customer base for Great Start Nutrition on the ‘difference’ Great Start Nutrition will bring to the infant formula industry.   Currently, the infant formula industry has a lot of well established companies, and a strong entry will be key to grab market share.  Innovative and well made products, good marketing, and a clear strategy will be critical to a strong entry, so bringing in a strong director will be key. 

Candidates

Erin Johnson

Erin has been working as the Deputy Executive Director of the South America Division for the last year mainly focused on helping the Protein and Fitness branch become more environmentally and human friendly.  Erin currently holds a BS in Chemical Engineering from State College and an MBA from UMUC.  Prior to her current position with Great Start Nutrition Erin was a production manager for the New Mexico facility for eleven years and was highly regarded within the employee ranks as a fair manager who was inclusive in her decision making.  This allowed her to keep employees involved in the daily operations of the plant and helped to foster a cohesive workforce.  Erin’s research in organic ingredients was a major reason for the ascension of Great Start Nutrition in South America’s list of environmental and human friendly companies.  Prior to joining Great Start Nutrition twelve years ago, Erin spent one year as an intern for a small non-profit company researching the long-term effects of soy-based and animal-based products imported from Asia.  During her initial screening, Erin admitted she does not have any marketing experience to help be the face of the new product, but has a strong desire to work on those skills and believes she has the managerial and leadership qualities to guide the team to success.  Erin stated in her cover letter that although she only has twelve years of experience she would be a great fit for this executive position not just due to her familiarity with Great Start Nutrition, its core values, understanding of its mission and vision, but also because of her desire to see Great Start Nutrition become a leader in sustainable production with a focus on being environmentally and human friendly.  Her degree in chemical engineering paired with the desire stated previously, would also allow her to focus on finding ways for Great Start Nutrition to become the leader in quality, clean baby formula products.

Betty Jackson

Betty has spent the past 25 years working for Little Ones Formula, a mid-sized baby formula company currently operating out of Texas, which recently was bought by a large health food company looking to expand to infant formula.  For the past two years Betty has served as the Vice President of Operations and Marketing where, according to her statements in the interview, she was instrumental in helping Little Ones gain a 12% increase year-over-year in market share.  Before being named as a VP for Little Ones, Betty worked for 10 years as a Regional Director in Asia responsible for importing ingredients from Singapore.  During her run as a Regional Director she was responsible for making visits to the production plants in Malaysia and China to ensure compliance to company, federal, and local safety and production regulations.  She credited her success in that role to her strict management style of being a part of each plants decision making process regardless of how small the issue.  She did this through modern communication channels that allowed personnel to work remotely from anywhere in the world. The previous 13 years with the company were spent climbing the corporate ladder starting with the company in the production line at the New York plant where the company got its start.  During her interview Betty stated that Great Start Nutrition should consider getting into the infant formula industry with less focus on sustainability and green initiatives as it can be a difficult industry for new entrants and just make quality products with animal and soy based milk.  Once established, the company could initiate a move to being more environmentally and human friendly as well as introducing products like non-GMO formulas.  She stated she is an ‘old school’ manager who had success in Asia due to her ‘hands on’ approach.  Betty stated in her cover letter that she is an experienced executive with a successful track record.  

Arthur Davidson

Arthur is the current owner, along with his wife Tammy, of A&T’s Health Care Supplies that focuses on organic supplements for women and children, with over $300M in sales annually.  Great Start Nutrition recently agreed to purchase A&Y Health Care Supplies and made a promise for Arthur to receive a position within the organization as part of the purchase agreement.  It was agreed that his wife, Tammy would take over as Director of Operations for the Great Start Nutrition’s Personal Care operations.  Warren Pfife has asked to have Arthur vetted carefully to see if maybe this new position would be a good fit for his executive level management and leadership skills.  Warren also believes that since ‘Arthur can run his own company he should be able to run a new division.’  The purchase of Arthur’s company by Great Start Nutrition has a stipulation that Arthur must be provided with a ‘high level’ position within the organization. Prior to starting the company 17 years ago Arthur was an officer in the US Air Force working in logistics, and his wife was a local consultant for a health services company.  During Helen’s conversations with Arthur, he admitted that he handled the operations and financial side of the company for many of the company’s initial years and Tammy led the marketing campaigns that helped the company grow exponentially for the first few years, and maintain steady growth after that.  However, he believes that since he has been leading A&T’s through its growth that he could easily manage Great Start Nutrition into a new venture.  Arthur spent 10 years in Japan as a Logistics Officer with the Air Force, which is where he met his wife who was a Japanese citizen at the time.  Arthur believes he has the cultural awareness to be successful in Asia or anywhere in the world, and since he is guaranteed a position with the company, he feels this would be the perfect fit.  Arthur feels confident that the remaining interview process for this position should just be a formality.  

Exercise Instructions:

For this exercise, you will act as the group lead from Mayberry Consultants assigned to Great Start Nutrition.  You are preparing your research and putting together a document with your rationale for the selection of the best candidate.   Make sure the document clearly provides a heading for the Best Candidate.

Due Date:  Week 6 – Saturday 11:59 p.m. eastern time.

Step 1: Course Material

Although you are required to research information for this project, you are also accountable for using the course material to support the ideas, reasoning and conclusions made.  Course material use goes beyond defining terms but is used to explain the ‘why and how’ of a situation.  Using one or two in-text citations from the course material and then relying on Internet source material will not earn many points on an assignment.  A variety of source material is expected and what is presented must be relevant and applicable to the topic being discussed.   Avoid merely making statements but close the loop of the discussion by explaining how something happens or why something happens, which focuses on importance and impact.  In closing the loop, you will demonstrate the ability to think clearly and rationally showing an understanding of the logical connections between the ideas presented in a case scenario, the course material and the question(s) being asked.

Step 2:  Write an Introduction paragraph 

The Introduction paragraph is the first paragraph of the paper and will be used to describe to the reader the intent of the paper explaining the main points covered in the paper.  This intent should be understood prior to reading the remainder of the paper so the reader knows exactly what is being covered in the paper. 

Write the introduction last to ensure all of the main points are covered.

 Step 3:  Management/Leadership

The new Executive Director will have a lot of responsibility in managing and leading.   Differentiate between management and leadership
Identify and discuss management skills needed by the new Executive Director Identify and discuss leadership skills needed by the new Executive Director Discuss the leadership style that best fits the new Executive Director position

Step 4:  Candidate Assessment and Selection

You have been asked to assess the three candidates listed below.    You will evaluate each of the three candidates considering each candidate’s full body of experience and how their experience aligns with Helen’s expectations for the new position as well as how each candidate will lead within the context of Great Start Nutrition’s mission and vision and how each candidate’s leadership style. Determine one candidate Mayberry Consultants should recommend to Helen Crump at Great Start Nutrition and explain why this candidate is the best choice.   

Candidates: Erin Johnson Betty Jackson Arthur Davidson

Step 5:  Submit the Exercise in the Assignment Folder (The assignment submitted to the Assignment Folder will be considered the student’s final product and therefore ready for grading by the instructor.  It is incumbent upon the student to verify the assignment is the correct submission.  No exceptions will be considered by the instructor).

How to Set Up the Exercise

Create a Word or Rich Text Format (RTF) document that is in a narrative format, which requires a double-spaced document.  Use Arial, 12-point font.    You will cite within the document and provide a reference list on a separate page. 

Provide a title page and a reference list on a separate page. 

Provide an introductory paragraph. 

It is important to write concise and clearly. 

Completing the Exercise

In order to complete this Exercise, you will want to first read the module, Learn How to Support What You Write, as this assignment requires you to use the course readings and research to support what you write.  Also,   Read and use the grading rubric while completing the exercise to ensure all requirements are met that will lead to the highest possible grade.   Third person writing is required.  Third person means that there are no words such as “I, me, my, we, or us” (first person writing), nor is there use of “you or your” (second person writing).  If uncertain how to write in the third person, view this link:  http://www.quickanddirtytips.com/education/grammar/first-second-and-third-person.  Contractions are not used in business writing, so do not use them.   Paraphrase and do not use direct quotation marks.  Paraphrase means you do not use more than four consecutive words from a source document.  Instead put a passage from a source document into your own words and attribute the passage to the source document.  Not using direct quotation marks means that there should be no passages with quotation marks and instead the source material is paraphrased as stated above.  Note that a reference within a reference list cannot exist without an associated in-text citation and vice versa.   You may not use more than four consecutive words from a source document, as doing so would require direct quotation marks.  Changing words from a passage does not exclude the passage from having quotation marks.   If more than four consecutive words are used from source documents, this material will not be included in the grade and could lead to allegations of academic dishonesty. You are expected to use the case scenarios and weekly course material to develop the analysis and support the reasoning.   There should be a robust use of the course material along with thorough analysis of potential location information.  Material used from a source document must be cited and referenced.  A reference within a reference list cannot exist without an associated in-text citation and vice versa.  Changing words from a passage does not exclude the passage from having quotation marks.   If more than four consecutive words are used from source documents, this material will not be included in the grade and could lead to allegations of academic dishonesty. Use in-text citations and provide a reference list that contains the reference associated with each in-text citation. You may not use books in completing this exercise unless part of the course material.  Also, do not use a dictionary or Wikipedia. Provide the page or paragraph number in every in-text citation presented.  If the eBook does not have pages, provide the chapter title and topic heading.  If using a video, provide the minutes and second of the cited material.

Self-Plagiarism: Self-plagiarism is the act of reusing significant, identical or nearly identical portions of one’s own work.  You cannot re-use any portion of a paper or other graded work that was submitted to another class even if you are retaking this course.   You also will not reuse any portion of previously submitted work in this class.  A zero will be assigned to the assignment if self-plagiarized.  Faculty do not have the discretion to accept self-plagiarized work