Bold Flash
Bold Flash
Bold Flash
Company Background
BoldFlash Inc. was founded in 1982 in Waltham Massachusetts and was involved in
manufacturing of computer storage media like floppy disks as well as various other product
mixes. Presently the company is facing turbulent times because of the inability to keep up with
highly dynamic market and customer demands. There have been various reasons for breakdown
in communication and teamwork. Bad management and autocratic style of leadership led to a
decline of the company in regards to product innovation. At present, there is an urgent need for
introducing a new innovative product in the market to make a comeback and an organizational
change for a longer term.
1) What are the main problems and symptoms that the Mobile Division is experiencing?
What are the causes of the conflict?
Problem Statement
The Mobile division is experiencing shrinking margins due to pricing pressure and having hard
time to compete with its competitors in overseas.. More importantly, the company missed the
great opportunity in the tablet market. These issues were mainly caused by poor management
especially by lack of collaboration and communication between departments.
There were
various inter-departmental conflicts due to different goals and performance metrics of various
departments. Roles and responsibilities were not well defined; therefore, there was misscommunication among various functions like marketing and product development and confusion
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around the focus. Product Development frequently requested manufacturing plant to run trials of
new products on the manufacturing lines. Sales did not consult Manufacturing department for
their decisions. Product Development did not work in collaboration with other departments and
never sought feedbacks from Sales, Marketing and Manufacturing.
2) How would you describe Cahill's leadership style?
Cahill has the potential and the foresight to identify the right solutions for BoldFlash, and he is
more proactive in meetings compared to Harrison. Furthermore, his lack of experience in the role
only means that he would eventually become competent in leadership and interpersonal skills as
he grows into the role.
3) What changes did Cahill make? Do you think they were all necessary? Did he do too
much all at once? Did his changes create some of the difficulties?
When Jim Harrison, former Vice President of the companys Mobile Division passed way, Jack
Young, BoldFlashs CEO immediately substituted Harrison with Cahill who was a very young
highly respected research scientist but lacked experience in leadership. Since then the problems
had arisen. There were four departments in the Mobile Division; Product Development,
Marketing, Sales and Manufacturing. The four groups were constantly in conflict with each other
and didnt have the reinforcement to work as a team. As coordination between different
departments was a serious issue, Cahill consolidated the divisions non-manufacturing
employees by relocating all Austin based corporate staff and the Shanghai based Director of
Manufacturing of Waltham headquarters. Having Directors of all four departments at one place
would help in coordination and proactive and collective decision making as a team. Cahill also
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separated Marketing and Sales, which had previously operated together. The two departments
were very critical for the company and they needed to be fully staffed by trained professional.
Although, his decision to keep both departments autonomous was appropriate, it was executed
badly. The roles and objectives of the departments were not clearly defined. There was
overlapping in the responsibilities of Sales with that of other departments. Other departments
were also experiencing problems in communicating with the right department for a particular
task.
Do you think they were all necessary?
Not all Cahills changes were essential. Having the sales and marketing departments split was
necessary. However, the fact that each groups responsibilities were not clearly defined was a
significant problem. The result of this was counter-interaction with performing the required jobs
for each group and a poor product development. Most of the resulting effects of the changes
Cahill made to BoldFlash are productive conflict between functional departments, and especially
with the product development process. Additionally, with change in customer preferences the
mobile division has to identify customer needs, which change quickly. The companys new
products in the past have reduced considerably.
4) What additional changes would you make? How would you improve the product
development process? What do you think would be the best leadership style for Cahill?
Additional Changes
The companys profit margins are low and Cahill has to take drive a change within Mobile
Division. His employees have low morale and lack motivation. Organizational change is
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significant to deliver an outcome necessary to be successful and generate higher profits. The
direction for short term and long term changes is necessary in order to make a comeback in the
market and stay there. As Cahill is inexperienced, sponsorship is needed from other divisions of
the company or the upper management to make some successful changes. The management team
should be brought together and seek for solutions and ideas to be implemented. Moreover, a
culture that emphasizes on the open communication and where employees are included in the
decision making process so that divisions objectives are well perceived by all employees should
be created. Corporate visits to manufacturing plants should be made a routine requirement. It will
boost morale of the employees and will be helpful in monitoring progress as well. Also, it is
important to stress on developing newly hired college graduates marketing employees who
lacked experience, to specialists.
Improvements in Product Development
In today's technologically driven world, the importance of innovation and product development
is crucial for availing market opportunities. BoldFlash Mobile Division was experiencing
pressures on the ability to get new products to the market. This was not due to the lack of
research and product development. While a lot of research was going on, it was not focused on
primary business goals. The development did not always align with market needs and customer
demands. The Product Development developed redundant customized chips for mobile phone
market customers while completely missing critical market in storage devices used for tablets,
handing its competitors an advantage in a critical growth market. Analysts sometimes criticized
the firm as doing research for its own sake rather than to improve product s or meet new
customer needs and faulted a corporate culture that was not always focused on results. To
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overcome this difficult situation, there was an urgent need for introducing new innovative
product to stay competitive in the marketplace and for an overall change in the functioning of
department. To cater to the customer needs and meet market expectations, Product development
team needs to be encouraged not only to focus on new technologies but also on analyzing market
trends and knowing customer demands in collaboration with Marketing and Sales people. The
employees should be ready to utilize new market opportunities. Further, the Product
Development should not keep to itself. They should emphasize on getting frequent feedbacks
from Marketing and Sales department on customer expectations, guidance about marketability of
new products and competitive products in the market. It will enable them to align their research
with market demands well and commercialize the new technologies they develop. Similarly, they
should also share information on their upcoming products and long term goals with Marketing
and Sales Department. Because of rapid changes in technology and customer preferences, the
Product Development had to identify customer needs with the help of Marketing and Sales and
respond more swiftly with new products. Because of cost pressures, new products had to be
designed with cost of manufacturing in mind.
The best leadership style for Cahill
The four departments within the Mobile Division do not work in collaboration and the unit
recently failed to capitalize on a big product opportunity. The focus on industry demand is
minimal and the focus tends to be only on immediate superior goals of the department. To
address the problem, Cahill has to develop an action plan for improvement in cross functional
collaboration. As the head of the Mobile Division, Cahill has a key role in the team and the
organization at large. He should emphasize on creating and supporting an environment where
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Directors from Sales, Marketing, Product Development, and Manufacturing are open to new
ideas, can provide constructive feedback, and will work to bring viable cost effective ideas. The
Directors should be made responsible for the activities within their department. For every goal,
all the departments within the division should be equally responsible to perform activities which
should be defined properly. Sales and Marketing can help Product Development to incorporate
consumers voice in their innovations. Manufacturing can provide feedbacks on new products for
cost efficient techniques. Cahill should get the senior staff on board and all the changes and
objectives should be communicated properly with other employees. Relationship and
coordination between various departments should be continuously monitored to keep check on
conflicts.
Conclusion
Recently, Boldflashs Mobile Division missed a huge opportunity of coming up with a successful
product in tablets market. The failure of the division can be attributed to bad management, role
ambiguity, lack of teamwork, inter-departmental conflicts etc. To stay competitive in the
marketplace and creating value for the company and customers, there is a dire need for an
organizational change. Cahill correctly identified the need for some changes in the division but
changes made were not sufficient and not executed properly. Additional changes are needed to
encourage team work and cross functional collaboration. To boost the morale of employees, he
should encourage upward communication to create a participative culture. Along with driving a
change, he should also communicate the logic of the changes to build a trust among all the
employees.
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