Question

Scenario for Final Paper.

Amanda Smiley became president and CEO of Purest Medical about two months ago. Prior to that, she was vice-president of marketing and sales at Ferraro Products, a smaller medical products company. Amanda has a PhD in chemistry and an MBA with a specialty in marketing. She and her husband Dustin do not have children. Dustin is a professor of philosophy at the U of M and the author of several books on philosophy of mind. In their spare time, they play a little golf, travel to Italy, and participate in road rallies. Amanda is honest, open, demanding, and fair. She is a good coach and is always offering encouragement. When you are talking with Amanda, as soon as she senses that you have not done your research and thinking, she cuts off the discussion and sends you on your way. You don’t want to come unprepared a second time.  

Purest Medical is a company that designs and sells a variety of medical products. Performance at Purest has slipped the last two years, mostly due to the prolonged ill health of the founder, Dr. Nathan Dooley. The Board hired Ms. Smiley and she has replaced 75% of the senior management team, most of whom were very close to, or past, retirement age, and had lost motivation. The situation: sales have increased only 2 – 4 % per year over the past three years, below industry average. Manufacturing waste has also lagged behind industry averages. Inventory levels of raw materials and finished products are too high, tying up much needed capital. The company has to become much more efficient and effective. Manufacturing technology is a strength. On the employee side, job stress levels seem to be climbing, based on a recent employee satisfaction survey taken just before Ms. Smiley’s arrival. However, employee turnover is still at a low level.  

Amanda (she demands everyone call her by her first name) has set some aggressive goals to improve the overall performance of the 305-person firm. Her goals:

• Increase sales by 15% this year and at least 20% next year

• Reduce manufacturing waste by 20% this year and an additional 20% next year

• Increase the number of viable ideas in the product pipeline by 66%

• Improve order response rate by at least 85%

• Improve communication across the company to convey a sense of urgency

You were hired as Purest’s HRD specialist two weeks ago. You are learning a lot quickly about the company, but there is much more to learn, since this is the first time you’ve worked in the medical products (or any health-related) field. You recently completed your BS at Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota, and after a short vacation to Europe, you were able to land this job. You haven’t even had the time to join a professional association yet, although you have that as a goal for this month. You did keep your Human Resource Development textbook.

Just the other day you and your boss, Genna Hamilton, the vice-president of HR, had an informal discussion with Amanda over pizza in her office. Amanda asked you to help her put in place a training program to improve performance across all areas of the company. She knows something has to be done. She expects you to lead this critical project. She mentioned that she feels some across-the-board training for all supervisory positions, including herself, needs to be a part of the program. She even wondered if the senior management team needs some extra attention. Further, Amanda is concerned about getting people to change their behaviors after training – she expressed that this has frustrated her throughout her managerial life. Amanda also emphasized that she always wants to see a strong business justification for any investment of people and money. She asked Genna if it is easy to calculate ROI for a comprehensive HRD program, and Genna didn’t know. You didn’t want to show up your boss in front of Amanda, so you simply said yes; later you explained it in detail to Genna. Amanda also suggested that one of your recommendations be a thorough communication plan, detailing exactly what she and others in supervisory positions need to do to encourage all employees to participate with passion and urgency in this program. As you were leaving her office, Amanda said that getting something done very quickly was an absolute necessity. She asked for a plan to achieve her goals through training, and she added that maybe training isn’t always the solution. She hinted strongly that maybe there are other types of HRD interventions. In any case, she expects a prioritized list of activities. And then she said: “Let’s meet next Monday at 9:00 a.m. to review your plan and suggestions. I don’t expect you to cover every detail, especially with the ROI, and I assume you have some kind of process that we’ll need to follow. I’m really excited about getting started on this pronto. See you then. By the way, I hope you’re settling in here. Genna has spoken well of you and I have high expectations. Let me know if you need anything. You can’t do this alone.”

What are your recommendations and plans to address all the goals of Amanda’s

1. What will you do to measure the success of your recommendations?
2. What alternatives may be necessary if the recommendation does not work?  
3. How will you know that the desired result has been achieved? Include ROI or equivalent.
4. What questions or concerns do you have at this time?

Answer 1

· My recommendations and plans to address all the goals of Amanda’s are:

o A training program to improve performance across all areas of the company- including elimination of waste, innovative ideas for product design and improvements, and sales training.

o Supervisory training programs across-the-board including Amanda as well.

o Report on the calculation of ROI for a comprehensive HRD program to justify for any people investment or money

o A thorough communication plan detailing what Amanda and others in supervisory positions need to do to encourage all employees to participate with passion and urgency in this program.

· I would measure the success of my recommendations:

o By analyzing if the recommendations were implemented

o By measuring the success/failure rate

o By measuring the ROI on the training programs so that they would be implemented in the future as well.

· The alternatives that may be necessary if the recommendation does not work are:

o Analyze the fallacy in the recommendations.

o Understand Amanda’s concerns and issues to draft appropriate recommendations

o Always have alternative options if the recommendations do not work. For example, if a training program does not yield ROI, then the training program needs to be re-drafted appropriately.

· I would know that the desired result has been achieved by analyzing the ROI, measuring the results with the standards and measuring the outcomes (not the proxies) and finally sharing the success with Amanda and other employees to motivate them.

· My question is: This is teamwork and only the HRD specialist and Amanda would not suffice for such complex and critical projects. My recommendation is to have a bigger team for the project to be successful.

Note- If you like the answer, please provide an up-vote as it would be quite encouraging for me. Thank you.