BITSTREAM

Background of Company: Bit stream is a $30 million company, founded in 1981. The sales were from Retail and OEM. The new president Mr. Jim Sole found opportunity in network print manager. To manage the new business a new person is to be hired.
Problems in the Case: The main problem in the case is selection of suitable candidate for the post generated due to new opportunity found in Network printing business. There are four suitable candidates who applied for the post.
Analysis and probable solutions:
Criteria and Requirement: The new president Mr. Jim Sole found some challenges when he joined Bit stream. Some of them were top heavy structure, lot of dimensions in the organization etc. Jim sole cleared all these issues very intelligently. He started a team building process and the task and targets of the company were made clear to everybody. According to Jim, he wanted the person who is able to take decisions and manage the people. Though Jim himself was in favour of selecting from his lot of people, but for the new venture in network printing, he thought that a person, who has some prior experience in the similar fields like VAR and network printing, would be more suitable. The key was to get the right brain at right place and matching personal goals with the job requirements that will make better chances of success. According to Sole, a person with positive attitude, intellectual curiosity, variety of experience, flexible, comfortable in handling situations, looking for fresh challenge was required. A person who can oversee the tail end of the development process and making sure that the product is the one what the customer needed. Also the person should be seasoned and who can leverage the resources Bitstream has developed.

Options available as suitable candidate: The first candidate for the job is William Wendell. He has the right kind of experience that is required, both in VAR and printing industry but not much of it. As per the remarks from Peter, he is “very political” and “very focussed on own career”. According to me the later characteristic matches with the requirement as the success of the project, as this will sync with his own career advancement. The first remark is somewhat disturbing as for Bitstream a person who is a team leader and group worker is required. This will not disturb the team already there at Bitstream. The second option is Fred Fallon. According to me he is young and dynamic, but the experience is not that much for the job. He has variety of experience also. According to Peter remark, he is work hard and play hard kind of person. At times these types of persons are good but in certain situation they have casual approach that can lead to big problems. The third option is Chris Cowan. He has a lot of experience but according to me he is too old for this new project. At this level of experience, stubbornness comes in the attitude that will harm the new project as well as the teams developed by Jim. Even Peter remarks also tell that he is sometimes abrasive and headstrong. The last option is Mitchell Madison. Similar to Chris he has also tons of experience and in fact he is working as VP for the last 12 years or so. He can also develop similar attitude as Chris. As the remarks of Peter say that he is already getting almost $30000 more than what Bitstream is planning to offer.

Preferred choice: According me the best suited candidate for the above post is William Wendell. He is young and having suitable work experience in both VAR and printing industry. Also he is career cautious that will add up for the success of the project. This is a developing field and he will surely want to do the best in this field. Though the danger is from his political side, but I think it may get streamline when he will join bitstream, where the culture is of team work. Apart from this he has all criteria matching with what Jim desires. So our verdict is for William Wendell.