BUSI-7140-001
Irida Medina Petit
Case # 1
Wolfgang Keller at Konigsbrau-TAK (A)
Keller and Brodsky’s situation is complex since it doesn’t seem to be that Brodsky’s performance is not
good as of not deserving of a raise. According to Keller, he had “excellent analytical skills” and he had
“done a superb job of redesigning the sales force organization and of developing a comprehensive set of
information and control systems”, which seems to be great skills for a commercial director. He has a formal
style, but it’s not reported that his team doesn’t like him, or that he doesn’t achieve results or reach the
department goals. His thoroughness in his planning and delegating the execution to the sales force below
him encourages its autonomy, if it is rightly followed up. Keller would like him to be more involved, but in
big organizations, you can’t control everything and must know when to assign tasks to other people, even
when the results aren’t what you expect. Was Brodsky’s performance not up to the company’s expectations
or Keller’s?
Keller has this idea that the only way things will go right is if he interferes, and when Brodsky does
something right, he assures it is because of his intervention. If he doesn’t step back, he won’t be allowed to
appreciate the real contributions of Brodsky, to be able to formulate a more objective evaluation. Keller had
a reputation as a successful hands-on manager, great at turning companies over, but he’s not used to
delegating tasks. His involvement in other departments’ tasks, not only Brodsky’s, could potentially be
received as him not trusting in his team's capabilities.
Keller can improve the way he is coaching Brodsky. A good leader must identify the strengths and
weaknesses of his team and help them achieve their greatest potential. It seems like Keller is trying to
impose his style and values on Brodsky because he believes it is the only right way to do business. I think
both Keller and Brodsky would benefit from coaching; Brodsky could learn to be a little more involved
BUSI-7140-001
Irida Medina Petit
with his sales force while still respecting his style, and Keller could start delegating tasks and understanding
that he can’t control everything, that managing a big enterprise is different than turning around small startups. You can probably take bigger risks if you’re already running at a deficit, but if you have an established
business, you can favor being more conservative with the decisions and focus not only on aggressively
growing, but on what values are you creating in your culture while at it, and in taking care of what you
already built.
Häussler has a role in this circumstance as well. Being Keller’s superior, he must coach him and guide him
in his position, since it’s different from what he did before. His aggressiveness and fully hands-on style
were probably beneficial at the beginning when they brought him over for help, but his position seems to
be transitioning into a more managerial one, and he must receive guidance so he can translate it into his
own subordinates. We can even formulate the question, just as Keller did about considering dividing
Brodsky’s responsibilities if maybe Keller is better at a more operational position than a management one.
I think Brodsky deserves the chance to stay at his current position and receive an increase. His goals need
to be better aligned with his personality and he should receive good coaching for overcoming his
weaknesses. He can delegate more tasks to Zelenko and the other Area Managers, as he has been doing,
and stay on top of the planning that he’s good at. He just needs to be guided as to how to follow up on the
implementation. In the meantime, Keller should receive coaching himself as well, and evaluate how his
approach could be negatively impacting his directors’ actions. The fact that the Management Committee
was talking and “joking” about it, says something about the influence it has, and how they could be
potentially not working at their full capability, because they feel they are not trusted, or they know that
Keller would come up and fix it for them. It would require commitment from all, Häussler, Keller, and
Brodsky, to do some introspection and coaching, and make sure they are in the position they really want to
be in so they can grow to their full potential.
BUSI-7140-001
Irida Medina Petit