Leadership development: cases for analysis

General Products Britain

Carl Mitchell was delighted to accept a job in the British branch office of General Products, Inc., a multinational consumer products corporation. Two months later. Mitchell was miserable. The problem was George Garrow. the general manager in charge of the British branch, to whom Mitchell reported.

Garrow had worked his way to the general manager position by 'keeping his nose clean' and not making mistakes, which he accomplished by avoiding controversial and risky decisions.

As Mitchell complained to his wife, Any time I ask him to make a decision, he just wants us to dig deeper and provide 30 more pages of data, most of which are irrelevant. I can't get any improvements started:

For example, Mitchell believed that the line of frozen breakfasts and dinners he was in charge of would be more successful if prices were lowered. He and his tour product managers spent weeks preparing graphs and charts to justify a lower price. Garrow reviewed the data but kept waffling, asking for more information. His latest request for weather patterns that might affect shopping habits seemed absurd.

Garrow seemed terrified of departing from the status quo. The frozen breakfast and dinner lines still had 1970s-style packaging, even though they had been reformulated for microwave ovens. Garrow would not approve a coupon programme in March because in previous years coupons had been run in April. Garrow measured progress not by new ideas or sales results but by hours spent in the office. He arrived early and shuffled memos and charts until late in the evening and expected the same from everyone else.

After four months on the job, Mitchell made a final effort to reason with Garrow. He argued that the branch was taking a big risk by avoiding decisions to improve things. Market share was slipping. New pricing and promotion strategies were essential. But Garrow just urged more patience and told Mitchell that he and his product managers would have to build a more solid case. Soon after, Mitchell's two best product managers quit, burned out by the marathon sessions analysing pointless data without results.

Questions

1. How would you evaluate Mitchell as a follower? Evaluate his courage and style.

2. If you were Mitchell, what would you do now?

3. If you were Garrow's boss and Mitchell came to see you, what would you say?