The Manager as a Critical Thinker

The Manager as a Critical Thinker

Triad Insurance Company of Indianapolis

Asking the Right Questions

The Triad Insurance Company of Indianapolis Memo

What are the issues and conclusions?:

On October 4, 2010, Ms. Denise Khali, Vice President of Human Resources sent a memo to Mr. Robert Shaw, CEO, of Triad Insurance Company of Indianapolis (TICI) regarding a leadership development program for junior insurance executives for future advancement. This proposal was created by Mr. Clarke, Director of Operations at TICI, who proposed a three-week long program at the Aspen Leadership Institute of Colorado for a training opportunity for the junior insurance executives. The program would require 20 individuals to be sent to this training costing $5,000 per person and a total of $100,000.00 per year paid to the Aspen Leadership Institute. Additional cost to TICI would be approximately the same in lost time on the job ($100,000), which would come to a grand total of approximately $200,000 in cost.

Vice President of Human Resources, Ms. Denise Khali does not believe this is a necessary program for the company based on current and past executive leadership and that recruiting the right person is a best way to achieve TICI next leadership team. Ms. Khali is not in agreement that the company needs an outside program to develop the future leadership of the company based on her opinion. She also feels that sending a group of individuals to this program could be a waste of company resources (time and money), which could be better spent elsewhere. Ms. Khali also believes that Mr. Clarke is coveting her position and is trying to achieve this by convincing thecompany, they need this outside training based on the training theories taught by the Aspen Leadership Institute of Colorado verses anything designed by human resources.

Ms. Khali personal thoughts on the training program: that the financial impact to the company is great and will continue to impact the finances by...