For exclusive use at University of Melbourne, 2015

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REV: MARCH 26, 2015

TSEDAL NEELEY

(Re)Building a Global Team: Tariq Khan at Tek
Tariq Khan arrived home after a 16-hour meeting. He was grappling with whether to accept the global sales and marketing team manager position. Khan spent the entire day with the senior leadership of the team trying to understand the group’s challenges. However, the meeting had raised more questions than answers.
Already a rising star within his company, Khan was only 33 when he was offered this high-profile position to lead a diverse 68-person team whose members hailed from 27 countries and spoke 18 different languages. The team’s recent performance had seen a precipitous decline, resulting in the previously well-regarded manager departing the company in a state of disrepute. Employee satisfaction also plunged by more than half its peak nearly two years prior. Should Khan accept the position, he would be expected to reverse the performance lag in less than two years, achieving substantial sales growth and increasing market share. However, should he fail to resurrect the team in the allotted timeframe, his status as a high-potential would be jeopardized. Khan hoped that meetings with both the senior executives and the outgoing manager would help him decide whether or not to take the position.
The meetings thus far had been exhausting, but revealing. Khan had a greater understanding of the group, but still had one more week to make up his mind. The following day, he would begin his tour of the Middle East and Central and South Asia to meet the rest of the team. He wondered if a week was enough time to assess the situation, but he pushed this question to the back of his mind and started packing.

Tariq Khan
Khan began his career as an electrical engineer with SPK in Pakistan, where he worked on