Aston Blair

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Aston-Blair, Inc. – a major developer of children’s educational products in United States – experienced its first losses in almost three decades triggering its executives to investigate and indentify root cause. Mr. Wyne Aston III, CEO of Aston-Blair, charged 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.

Shortly thereafter a task force was formed 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 charged with leading the task force.

This paper provides an analysis of Bacon’s leadership, and factors that contributed to the poor performance of the team. The analysis section will touch on the three primary issues facing Bacon and his team: team structure, communication, and leadership. Finally the recommendation section will provide an immediate course of action to resolve the trust issues in the team and build its confidence and credibility, prior to resuming the meeting later that same day.

KEY PROBLEMS

This section will analyze the major issues that contributed to the poor performance of the team. Of the issues identified, our team believes that a) team structure, b) communication, and c) leadership were the biggest source of concern.

TEAM STRUCTURE

For teams, such as task forces, where individuals work together for a short period of time and with quick deliverables, it is very important that the leader take conscious efforts in directing the team, building trust and familiarity among team members, and communicate confidence. The members of the Aston-Blair task force had some degree of indifference and resistance in working together, ultimately leading to a competitive team environment. In their first...