Team-Case Study
mmCase Study: The Team That Wasn’t
Yu Zhang
Date: 12.1.2012
Getting Oriented
1.FireArt Inc.:
The company, a family-owned maker of wine goblets, beer steins, ashtrays, and other glass novelties had succeeded for nearly 80 years as a high-quality, high-price producer, catering to hundreds of Midwestern clients. It traditionally did big business every football season, selling commemorative knickknacks to the fans of teams such as the Fighting Irish, the Wolverines, and the Golden Gophers. In the spring, there was always a rush of demand for senior prom items—champagne goblets emblazoned with a school’s name or beer mugs with a school’s crest, for example. Fraternities and sororities were steady customers. Year after year, FireArt showed respectable increases at the top and bottom lines, posting $86 million in revenues and $3 million in earnings three years before Eric arrived. But In the last 18 months, though, sales and earnings had flattened.
2. Jack Derry:
Jack, a grandnephew of the company’s founder, as the CEO of this company, thought he knew what’s wrong with the company. He told Eric to put together a team and they should make up a comprehensive plan for the company’s strategic realignment up, running, and winning within six months.
3. Eric Holt: Eric is the director of strategy at FireArt, Inc. He compiled a list of the senior managers from human resources, manufacturing, finance, distribution, design, and marketing and then built a team including these outstanding people. Also he is a leader of this team. However, after holding several meetings, he found that the contradictions between team members become more and more serious.
4. Randy Louderback Randy is FireArt’s charismatic director of sales and marketing and he has a hardscrabble personal history. Poor as a child, he had worked as a security guard and short-order cook to put himself through the state college, from which he graduated with top honors. Soon after, he started his own
Yu Zhang
Date: 12.1.2012
Getting Oriented
1.FireArt Inc.:
The company, a family-owned maker of wine goblets, beer steins, ashtrays, and other glass novelties had succeeded for nearly 80 years as a high-quality, high-price producer, catering to hundreds of Midwestern clients. It traditionally did big business every football season, selling commemorative knickknacks to the fans of teams such as the Fighting Irish, the Wolverines, and the Golden Gophers. In the spring, there was always a rush of demand for senior prom items—champagne goblets emblazoned with a school’s name or beer mugs with a school’s crest, for example. Fraternities and sororities were steady customers. Year after year, FireArt showed respectable increases at the top and bottom lines, posting $86 million in revenues and $3 million in earnings three years before Eric arrived. But In the last 18 months, though, sales and earnings had flattened.
2. Jack Derry:
Jack, a grandnephew of the company’s founder, as the CEO of this company, thought he knew what’s wrong with the company. He told Eric to put together a team and they should make up a comprehensive plan for the company’s strategic realignment up, running, and winning within six months.
3. Eric Holt: Eric is the director of strategy at FireArt, Inc. He compiled a list of the senior managers from human resources, manufacturing, finance, distribution, design, and marketing and then built a team including these outstanding people. Also he is a leader of this team. However, after holding several meetings, he found that the contradictions between team members become more and more serious.
4. Randy Louderback Randy is FireArt’s charismatic director of sales and marketing and he has a hardscrabble personal history. Poor as a child, he had worked as a security guard and short-order cook to put himself through the state college, from which he graduated with top honors. Soon after, he started his own
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