Boldflash: Cross-Functional Challenges in the Mobile Division
4438
MAY 31, 2012
MICHAEL BEER
RACHEL SHELTON
BoldFlash: Cross-Functional Challenges in the
Mobile Division
On January 16, 2012, Dr. Roger Cahill walked into his office in BoldFlash’s Waltham,
Massachusetts headquarters at 7 a.m., less than a year into his new role as Vice President of the company’s Mobile Division. His predecessor’s personal photos and mementos had been packed up months ago, but they still sat in a corner, patiently waiting for someone to collect them. Cahill didn’t have the heart to move them because Jim Harrison had died unexpectedly after more than a decade in the position. Jack Young, the company’s CEO, immediately replaced Harrison with Cahill, a 24year employee and highly respected research scientist who previously had led Research in the
Consumer Division.
Cahill had faced a big challenge since assuming his new role. BoldFlash, a producer of flash memory components for electronic devices, had fallen behind its competitors on several fronts. It was experiencing pressure on both prices and the ability to get new products to market quickly. Shortly before Harrison’s death, the Mobile team had developed redundant customized chips for mobile phone market customers while completely missing a critical market in storage devices used for tablets, thus handing its competitors an advantage in a critical growth market. A brilliant entrepreneur whose vision drove the growth of the Mobile Division, Harrison was perceived as an autocrat who fostered a compliant culture in which people protected themselves and their territory from his strong top-down directives. Cahill wondered if his predecessor’s leadership style contributed to the conflicts he was observing. More generally, he had been unsure what to expect from the groups in the division-----Product Development, Marketing and Sales, and Manufacturing----and he did not want to judge based on anything other than personal experience and observation.
After a few months on the
MAY 31, 2012
MICHAEL BEER
RACHEL SHELTON
BoldFlash: Cross-Functional Challenges in the
Mobile Division
On January 16, 2012, Dr. Roger Cahill walked into his office in BoldFlash’s Waltham,
Massachusetts headquarters at 7 a.m., less than a year into his new role as Vice President of the company’s Mobile Division. His predecessor’s personal photos and mementos had been packed up months ago, but they still sat in a corner, patiently waiting for someone to collect them. Cahill didn’t have the heart to move them because Jim Harrison had died unexpectedly after more than a decade in the position. Jack Young, the company’s CEO, immediately replaced Harrison with Cahill, a 24year employee and highly respected research scientist who previously had led Research in the
Consumer Division.
Cahill had faced a big challenge since assuming his new role. BoldFlash, a producer of flash memory components for electronic devices, had fallen behind its competitors on several fronts. It was experiencing pressure on both prices and the ability to get new products to market quickly. Shortly before Harrison’s death, the Mobile team had developed redundant customized chips for mobile phone market customers while completely missing a critical market in storage devices used for tablets, thus handing its competitors an advantage in a critical growth market. A brilliant entrepreneur whose vision drove the growth of the Mobile Division, Harrison was perceived as an autocrat who fostered a compliant culture in which people protected themselves and their territory from his strong top-down directives. Cahill wondered if his predecessor’s leadership style contributed to the conflicts he was observing. More generally, he had been unsure what to expect from the groups in the division-----Product Development, Marketing and Sales, and Manufacturing----and he did not want to judge based on anything other than personal experience and observation.
After a few months on the