Aston Blair Wac

ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOUR AND LEADERSHIP

Background

Aston-Blair is a major developer of children’s educational products in United States. The firm experienced its first losses in almost three decades which led to the formation of task force to identify root cause. Mr. Wynn Aston III, CEO of Aston-Blair, asked Peter Casey & Chris Trott, Vice Presidents of Marketing & Corporate Planning to seriously reexamine the company’s procedures for forecasting sales in order to achieve better inventory control, financial planning and production scheduling.

The two VPs then formulated a task force to investigate the forecasting problem, concentrating their research on the Marketing Division; where the final forecasts were made. Michael Bacon, a promising young manager, was assigned to lead the task force.

Key Problems

1. CEO’s targeted approach: Mr. Wynn Aston was quick to identify and assign that forecasting sales is the major reason for the losses suffered by the firm rather than critically analyzing the situation and involving other variables in the mix.

2. Task force formation: the Two VPs, Trott and Casey, decided to put Michael Bacon in charge of the task force merely on the underlying assumption that he will perform well as they regarded him as a promising and capable person. Also they decided that the major area of study for the task force will be the Marketing Division, as it had the final say on the forecast, whereas this other department which is Economic Analysis and forecasting might have been another target or the sales dept which gave direct input to the marketing dept might have been the source of problem.

3. Task force structure: the members of the task force were lacking trust and familiarity which was evident in the forces’ first meeting where most of them remained quiet. Also there was a degree of conflict among Randy Meir and Mr. Bacon who have worked previously and did not find it satisfying.

4. Communication: as the leader of the...