Pluto Telecoms Case Study

“Sales, customer services and marketing are not only not talking to each other, on occasions they are actually working against each other. As a result of this, Pluto is losing new orders and getting an increasing number of complaints from existing customers”. This statement by the MD highlights the manifestations of underlying internal issues being faced by Pluto. Management was able to identify “motivation, time orientation and work culture...distinct sub-cultures” as issues. Others include: disconnection between departments, lack of communication and feedback between management and employees. These issues emanate from much deeper issues which boarder around the following:

• Company strategy vs organisational structure mismatch.

• Lack of appropriate and defined work culture.

• Poor Job designs which results in lack of motivation needed for staff to perform as expected.

Every company is in the business of making money and increasing shareholder wealth. Now when this does not happen the managing director is at risk of losing his or her job and it becomes critical to read between the lines try to figure out where the problem lies. It is plausible that the company had impressive products and services in the market place, but this hadn’t had the desired effect on the company’s financials and targets, despite the “dramatic growth in size”, as customer complaints were growing louder; and with her job possibly on the line, an external consultant was called in to decipher what the problem was. With her outburst of “just what is going on here?” it shows she was quite oblivious of or underestimated thef internal issues which were impacting on the company’s potentials.

Strategy vs Organisational Structure - This is the pivotal aspect of any business – the strategy it adopts in order to achieve its business structure. Once this is clearly stated, every other thing is built around this – the structure, culture, processes, systems, polices etc.

Alfred...