Reflex Systems Case:

The case Reflex Systems is the fourth case of the course. It is found on pages 432-433. Remember the format: Case Summary, Questions and Feedback/opinion.

Reflex Systems Case:

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• Reflex Systems sold exercise equipment to high school and colleges and to smaller- and medium-size businesses for recreation centers.
• It has 310 salespeople and its low prices won a lot of sales, but follow-up service was uneven.
• The new customer relationship management software (CRM) system promised to resolve those problems and the CEO ordered the installation of the system immediately.
• Henry Rankin was responsible for the technical implementation of the system for the western and eastern sales offices in L.A. and Chicago and was given ten weeks by boss, Nicole Dyer, the Senior Vice President for Information Technology. His possible promotion in two years, when his boss retires, depended on his success with the project.
• He was good with technology and had always been a top performer by driving himself hard and had been in his management position for three years and was frustrated when members of his team didn’t seem as committed.
• He loved studying, analyzing, and solving technical problems when he could get time alone.
• He came from L.A. to help two of his five-person team members located there to solve technical glitches in software and was on a flight for Chicago and home, THINKING.
  • He was thinking about meeting the next day with his three Chicago team members, and about the status update he would give his boss.
  • Dyer told him last week that she didn’t feel a sense of urgency from his team and he was thinking how could she feel that when his members, although didn’t seem enthusiastic, work evenings and weekends since there was no budget to fill a vacant position.
  • Ranking was also thinking what Sally Philipps, a team member who got along well with people though not technically gifted as some on the team, told him a month ago that she had an offer from a well-known competitor, where she is interested in the quality of life aspect of the company although the money was less.
  • Although Rankin told her that he didn’t want her to leave, she turned in her letter of resignation two weeks later and now the team was shorthanded. He would just take up the slack himself.
  • He also recalled his partner, Sam Matheny, in charge of non-technical sales implementation of the project like training sales people, redesigning sales procedures, updating customer records, saying that his two Chicago members, Bob Finley and Lynne Johnston, were avoiding each other.
  • He summoned the two members to his office and told them to get along for the good of the project.
  • Finley said he had overreacted to Johnston from lack of sleep, and wondered when the project would be over.
  • He replied the project shouldn’t last more than another month, although he wasn’t certain because of all the problems with both software and hardware.

· As the plane taxied to the gate at Chicago, Rankin wondered if the project would be successful, and whether there was more to managing this team than working hard and pushing others hard.

· Even he was tired and was contemplating of asking his wife, whom he hadn’t seen, and the kids as well, for a week, when he got home.

Questions:

1. What personality and behavior characteristics does Henry Rankin exhibit? Do you think these traits contribute to a good person-job fit? Why?

2. Does Rankin display type A or type B behavior? What are the causes of stress for his team?

3. If you were Rankin, how would you have handled your team members? Be specific. What insights or behaviors would make Rankin a better manager?