A Case analysis Report

On
Henry Tam & MGI Team
In partial fulfillment of the course requirement

Written Analysis & Communication

Submitted By:

Submitted To:

Himanshu Mehta (18)

Prof. Madhushri Shrivastava

LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL

Prof. Madhushri Shrivastava

Communication Area
Indian Institute of Management, Indore
India

01 March 2015

Re: Report submission on article Henry Tam & MGI Team

Dear Maam,
As per your instructions, I have prepared a detailed analysis report on Henrys dilemma, the
difficulties he encounters as culturally & functionally diverse team progresses with varied ideas to
market the product in absence of roles, structure & leadership.
I recommend Henry must emerge as a team leader to clarify & communicate the roles to the other
members, consequently increasing effectiveness of the team & meeting deadline.
The following pages presents a detailed analysis of the situation faced, options available, evaluation of
options, recommendation & action plan to be followed.
I hope you find report reasonable, awaits your feedback on the same

Sincerely
Himanshu Mehta
Participant, PGP Mumbai
Indian Institute of Management, IIM Indore

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Within a short time frame, seven diverse team members assemble to write a business plan for a new
company and struggle to define their roles, make decisions together, and resolve conflict. Henry Tam
& Dana, second-year Harvard MBA student, joins MGI with aspirations. The founders are two
internationally accomplished musicians and a 1987 Harvard MBA, all Russian, who are trying to
create, produce, and sell a unique computer-based music game. Conflict builds as the team generates a
range of ideas about how to market their product, but has trouble agreeing on which ideas to pursue.
Henry Tam wrestles with how to bring the team on track of succession & fix the problems that have
hindered the team's progress.
I recommend Henry must emerge as a team leader & clarify roles to increase teams effectiveness so
as to submit the business plan within the deadline

(Word Count 144)

TABLE OF CONTENT

1. Cover Page

2. Memo of Transmittal

II

3. Executive Summary

III

4. Situational Analysis

5. Problem Statement

6. Options/Alternatives

7. Criterion of Evaluation

8. Evaluation of the alternatives

9. Table (Evaluation)

10. Recommendation

11. Action Plan

SITUATION ANALYSIS
MGI team needs to come up with a business plan within three weeks for the Harvard Business School
(HBS) Business Plan Contest. The seven diverse team members comprised of the three founders,
HenryTam and Dana of HBS, Dav from MIT and Alex from Boston College. The team had little
success thus far working together having experienced conflicts and tensions.
Conflict builds in as they did not divide the task into sub tasks, there seemed to be a main group and
subgroups with no integration. No team leader was officially appointed or nobody was empowered to
define the role structure, the decision-making process and assessing team performance. And they did
not set the norms and values for developing a good working culture from the start.
They were brainstorming in a disorganized manner and specific outputs were not determined from
each meeting or from individual. Hence there were missing pieces in putting the business plan together
Though team strengths lies with its variegated composition but it lacks co-ordination. The founders'
commonality in ethnic background, close friendship and shared passion on their product was great and
there was complementary skill sets contributing from the various team members and their shared
commitment to the business. However, one danger sign was the personality of the MGI team founders;
they had a history of not getting along with outsiders very well.
Henry is on the crossroads of contest versus long term goals of MGI, with deadline for contest
approaching, team muddles over idea of launching the product into entertainment or education
industry
How can team move out of the scenario tactfully?

PROBLEM STATEMENT
What actions must Henry take to meet the deadline for the HBS contest?

OPTIONS / ALTERNATIVES
1.
2.
3.
4.

Emerge as a leader & clarify roles & tasks.

Emphasize open & positive communication to enhance groups cohesiveness.
Develop common objectives & agendas to focus on goals.
Hire a consultant/manager to assist for the business plan

CRITERION OF EVALUATION
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Focus on meeting deadline.

Progress in stages of team development.
Creativity / Productivity improvement of the members.
Elimination of role conflicts
Cost Effectiveness

EVALUATION
Emerge as a leader & clarify roles & tasks.
Emerging as a clear team leader with capability to influence members will develop credibility
within the team.
There will be clarity & consistency on roles & goals set by the leader.
Teams performance will improvise.
Team members become contented with team membership and begin to value the teams values
more than their own personal goals.
Apparently no conflicts; since roles would be explicitly stated.
Emphasize open & positive communication to enhance groups cohesiveness.
Communication will ensure consensus on joint team decisions & would foster greater
interdependence amongst the team members.
Open communication will lead to happier members resulting into improved productivity.
Team members will be able to decide what role to accept
Develop common objectives & agendas to focus on goals.
Organizing agendas will assist in establishing efficiency in task & time.
Goal setting will enhance the performance of the team members.
Articulate a motivating vision for the team. This would set out to evoke greater meaning and
deeper commitment among the team members.
Hire a consultant/manager to assist in developing business plan
Third party consultant can direct team members without bias & members would adapt & grow
under his assistance
No identity issues/conflicts since members would find it comfortable to work with outsider
The summary of the above evaluation is presented in the following table:

Options

Criteria

Option1:

Option 2:

Option 3:

Option 4:

Emerge as a
leader & clarify
roles

Develop common
objectives

Emphasize open
& positive
communication

Hire a
consultant/
Manager

Criteria 1:
Focus on meeting
deadline

Criteria 2:
Progress in stages of
team development

Criteria 3:

Maybe

Maybe

Elimination of role
conflict

Criteria 5:

Creativity /
Productivity
improvement

Criteria 4:

Cost Effectiveness

RECOMMENDATION
Based on the above evaluation, I recommend Henry should emerge as a leader to focus on task
accomplishment & to clarify roles so as to submit the business plan within the stipulated time

ACTION PLAN
1.

2.

3.
4.

5.

As a primary step Henry must establish healthy relationship with each member of the team,
Henry should arrange an informal lunch meeting/outing & advice team about urgency of
leader requirement.
Next, Henry should specify short term & long term realistic goals; Henry could convince the
MGI team to follow the educational market for its short term goal and chose the entertainment
market as its long term goal and planned in advance for the next Christmas holiday.
Share the detailed action plan with the team on ways to achieve the stated short term goals.
Subsequently he should define each of the members roles, duties, team work norms and
delegate the responsibilities. He should meet each of the team members individually and in
group setting to determine the best fit.
Henry should then keep a close watch in the next two weeks to ensure the team members
communicate smoothly with each other. He should monitor the socio-emotional need of the
team members to ensure that they were happy and were being productive.