Simmons

PROBLEM STATEMENT FOR SIMMONS:

Given the economic hardship the company is currently facing, Mr. Charlie Eitel, CEO of Simmons Company is concerned about investing in the training and development of human resources and what the impact on the company could be.

ANALYSIS

Hypothesis One: It may be that CEO, Mr. Charles Eitel and Fenway Partners have opposing views as to how to bring about the necessary organizational turn-around at the Simmons Company.

Fenway Partners is an equity investment firm. Translation, they are concerned with one thing and one thing only, making a profit, period. Mr. Eitel is also concerned with making a profit. However, the path in which the organization ultimately takes to achieve the desired result will certainly be different if Fenway is making all the decisions, than if Mr. Eitel has his way. However, to have it his way the situation will require that Mr. Eitel be successful in persuading and influencing Fenway into supporting his call for the implementation of the Great Game of Life program.

As the CEO of Simmons Mr. Eitel obviously has power. The question is, does he have the ability to influence Fenway enough to support the company spending in excess of seven million dollars in three years on a cultural change program that provides no absolute guarantees. If I were a betting man, the answer would be yes. This is due in large part to a number of factors that are present in this very interdependent business relationship between Eitel and Fenway Partners.

The first and the most important factors in any good relationship and one’s ability to effectively influence others is that of trust and credibility. In this case, it’s presumed that Fenway has a great deal of trust in Eitel and he has a high degree of credibility with them due to his long and successful track record in the area of company turn-around. It is Fenway’s long-term strategy for Simmons Company since the time of purchase that caused them to seek out...