...Henry Tam and the MGI team Henry Tam and the MGI team Introduction When working with a team there is a number of issues that a leader of a group should address so as to ensure that the group works effectively. In group dynamics a leader should seek to understand the behavior of the team members and how the team works in attempting to make a decision or to solve a problem. A leader with expertise in team processes can help the team in achieving its objectives and aims by analyzing how the team is functioning in terms of decision making and problem solving, the leader should also be able to intervene and change the team’s operating behavior. A team is usually gathered for the purpose of accomplishing a given task, In the case of Henry Tam and the MGI team they are required to come up with a business plan within the contest deadline. There are a number of issues that challenge the team like team communication, analysis of issues and achieving group outcomes. In addressing this issues there needs to be a leader with expertise in group processes who will be helpful in playing the role of a facilitator. The team leader usually has a very strong influence on the team as he/she is tasked with the role of shaping the outcomes of the group. The influence that such a team leader has on the team will be determined by numerous factors namely; the leader’s personality, relative age, sex appearance, income, race and also the organizational structure in the given organization...
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...M10B Handout Briefing Sheet for Case Diagnosis Report (CDR) Assignment Our third and final major graded project requires you to integrate your knowledge of interpersonal communication, conflict management and teamwork. This assignment provides you the opportunity to work with other students from your section on a case study concerning a communication problem, which occurs in a business setting. The case study is elaborated in packet you will purchase along with other required text and course materials. You will work on this case study as a virtual (online) team. The composition of each team will include not more than 4 students. Your section instructor will decide how the team members are selected. The Charge For the purpose of this assignment you, along with other members of your team, will assume the role of human resource and organization development consultants for Henry Tam and the MGI Team. Henry Tam has asked your team to diagnose and develop strategies for managing and solving the communication problems that members of the MGI team have been experiencing. Detailed information describing the nature of the problems as well as the members of the team are available in the HBS 9-404-068 (Henry Tam and the MGI Team) document. Tasks to Be Completed Based on the information provided in this document, Mr. Tam has asked your team to perform five specific tasks. (1) (2) Define and describe the nature of the problems Analyze the problems by providing a detailed explanation...
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...HENRY TAM AND THE MGI TEAM CASE STUDY Introduction In our opinion, this case study is deemed an exercise in management technique. The case study is detailed with diverse factors and encompassing the breadth of management science. The Music Games International (Hereafter referred to as “MGI”) team comprised of seven (7) members as stated - The group is extremely diverse comprising of the following, Henry Tam and Dana Soiman were final semester students at Harvard Business School (Hereafter referred to as “HBS”) working on the business plan not just for the competition, and as a professional challenge as soon. For the founders, Sasha Gimpelson was known for his unconventional ideas. Igor Tkachenko, an accomplished musician and Roman Yakub, a composer. Alex Sartakov -introduced to the group through a mutual friend of Igor and Sasha, he had music background, Dav Clark was a MIT graduate had a software background and was also planning to enter the MGI case for the MIT business plan contest. To our understanding, the gist of Henry Tam and MGI Case Study refers to development of a business plan for MGI (as a submission to the annual business plan contest of HBS and, the business plan should be the blueprint for the future; to commercialize their products via educational learning tool and/or an entertainment/gaming portal). Question 1 What is your evaluation of the MGI’s team process? What were the roots causes of the team’s process problems? In evaluating the team's...
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... Yuting Chai Mengqi Lei Group #4 Shan Xu Anqi Wei Yiran Zhu Yuting Chai Mengqi Lei Course #7260 Group Case Analysis Paper Henry Tam and the MGI Team Question # 3 At the end of the case, what actions could Henry have taken to improve the team’s effectiveness? Course #7260 Group Case Analysis Paper Henry Tam and the MGI Team Question # 3 At the end of the case, what actions could Henry have taken to improve the team’s effectiveness? Henry Tam, a MBA student at the Harvard Business School, joined the start-up company Music Games International to compete in the HBS Business Plan Contest. The team of 7 had a diverse background in culture and professions. Still, such cultural and value differences slowed down the progress on the business plan for a CD-ROM music game, MGI’s self-developed product. With the plan due in 3 weeks, Henry should step out and lead the team to survive the chaos in terms of setting clear goals, rebuilding the team and smoothing conflicts. Goal setting is crucial to keep a team on the right track and build momentum within the team. Agreeing on a target is especially vital to the MGI team at this point. By suggesting that Alex conduct an objective industrial research and consulting experts in music education industry, Henry could show that this product will achieve huge success in education market and entering the entertainment industry could be the team’s long-term goal. Afterwards he and...
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...Henry Tam and the Mgi Team Henry Tam is a student looking for a challenge and jumps right into one when he decides to join with the MGI (Music Games International) ownership as part of a school competition (The HBS Business Plan Contest). There are seven members in the team comprised of the three founders of MGI– Igor Tkachenko, Alexandra (Sasha) Gimpelson and Roman Yukab, Henry Tam Jr. and Dana Soiman of HBS MBA class students, Dav Clark from MIT and Alex Jan Sartakov from Boston Berklee College. The team had little success thus far working together having experienced conflicts and tensions. But there are several issues in the team. The problems in the team are: 1. They did not divide the task into sub tasks. 2. There seemed to be a main group and subgroups with no integration. 3. No team leader was officially appointed or nobody was empowered to define the role structure, the decision-making process and assessing team performance. 4. They did not set the norms and values and did not spend time developing a good working culture from the start. Actually the team demonstrated some key strength. The team is consisting of multi talented team composition. 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, there is issue for the personality of the MGI team founders. They had...
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...9 -4 0 4 -0 6 8 OCTOBER 20, 2003 JEFFREY T. POLZER INGRID VARGAS HILLARY ANGER ELFENBEIN Henry Tam and the MGI Team Henry Tam felt tired and extremely frustrated. He was halfway through his final semester in the MBA program at Harvard Business School (HBS), and things were not going as expected. Spring break was about to start, but Henry, like many others in the class of 2002, was feeling the pain of the worst job market in over a decade. Henry recalled the troubled sentiment around campus: Going to business school during the aftermath of the Internet crash changed everything. Before the crash, the feeling was that if you graduated from HBS, you could take on the world. Now people were feeling a lot more insecurity. I was having some doubt about my own capabilities—about what I could accomplish on my own. Anxious to test his abilities and distinguish himself beyond the standard curriculum, Henry had decided to enter the School’s annual business plan contest. About six weeks earlier, in late January, Henry had teamed with HBS classmate Dana Soiman and the founders of start-up company Music Games International (MGI). The MGI founders—an HBS alumnus (MBA ’87) and two professional musicians—later brought two additional students from other institutions onto the team, creating a group composed of diverse views and talents. (See Exhibit 1 for team member bios.) The team was dynamic but very conflicted, and progress on the business plan had been slow. They had a promising product:...
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...-4 0 4 -0 6 8 OCTOBER 20, 2003 JEFFREY T. POLZER INGRID VARGAS HILLARY ANGER ELFENBEIN Henry Tam and the MGI Team Henry Tam felt tired and extremely frustrated. He was halfway through his final semester in the MBA program at Harvard Business School (HBS), and things were not going as expected. Spring break was about to start, but Henry, like many others in the class of 2002, was feeling the pain of the worst job market in over a decade. Henry recalled the troubled sentiment around campus: Going to business school during the aftermath of the Internet crash changed everything. Before the crash, the feeling was that if you graduated from HBS, you could take on the world. Now people were feeling a lot more insecurity. I was having some doubt about my own capabilities—about what I could accomplish on my own. Anxious to test his abilities and distinguish himself beyond the standard curriculum, Henry had decided to enter the School’s annual business plan contest. About six weeks earlier, in late January, Henry had teamed with HBS classmate Dana Soiman and the founders of start-up company Music Games International (MGI). The MGI founders—an HBS alumnus (MBA ’87) and two professional musicians—later brought two additional students from other institutions onto the team, creating a group composed of diverse views and talents. (See Exhibit 1 for team member bios.) The team was dynamic but very conflicted, and progress on the business plan had been slow. They had a promising...
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...Henri Tam and the MGI Team : Written Case Analysis Henry Tam faced a difficult challenge as he began his business plan project with Music Games International (MGI). The root of the problem is that the company culture is not adaptive. This means that the team members do not come together and support change to enhance their productivity. In this instance, it causes the team not to be as effective as they otherwise would. During the course of the project, Henry encountered several difficulties. The group lacks an effective leader. He has to step in to establish better management of agreements and build unity and encourage collaboration through supporting, empathizing, and harmonizing. Finally, their group lacks greatly in having clear stages of development. He needs a clear understanding of the stages of group development. In order to advance the group, I recommend that they make changes in their strategy to form the cohesion in their group. First, they need to overlook personality conflicts to facilitate agreement. A group of highly talented people does not mean guaranteed success. They must delegate tasks and be consistent in their decisions. Another recommendation is to establish a clear team leader to develop credibility. This will allow the group to develop focus and influence, and motivate them to greater effort. Third, I recommend they set clear expectations and boundaries. Doing so will increase efficiency and clarify roles and agendas. Finally, they need to establish...
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...Henry Tam is a student looking for a challenge and jumps right into one when he decides to join with the MGI (Music Games International) ownership as part of a school competition (The HBS Business Plan Contest). There are seven members in the team comprised of the three founders of MGI– Igor Tkachenko, Alexandra (Sasha) Gimpelson and Roman Yukab, Henry Tam Jr. and Dana Soiman of HBS MBA class students, Dav Clark from MIT and Alex Jan Sartakov from Boston Berklee College. The team had little success thus far working together having experienced conflicts and tensions. But there are several issues in the team. The problems in the team are: 1. They did not divide the task into sub tasks. 2. There seemed to be a main group and subgroups with no integration. 3. No team leader was officially appointed or nobody was empowered to define the role structure, the decision-making process and assessing team performance. 4. They did not set the norms and values and did not spend time developing a good working culture from the start. Actually the team demonstrated some key strength. The team is consisting of multi talented team composition. 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, there is issue for the personality of the MGI team founders. They had a history of not getting along...
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...643- Team Building Case: Henry Tam and the MGI Team Team: Not Yet Date: 10/24/2012 Aaron Bush Katie Hempling Lindsey Kovel Manish Kulkarni Rochelle Walker Fields Siddhu Question # 1: What is your evaluation of the team’s process, the way they work together? What are the underlying causes of any issues that you identify? The group meetings were disorganized and the team members did not have designated roles. The meetings typically consisted of a lot of brainstorming, but the team had trouble moving into the exploitation stage. Dana and Henry took on many different roles when they joined the team and the workload began to wear on them as the meetings progressed. There would be many different ideas and opinions voiced during meetings but the team was never able to reach consensus on any of these ideas or create an action plan. The team had difficulty reaching consensus because they did not take all team member opinions into consideration before making decisions. This was demonstrated by the fact that the MGI group did not consult the entire team before adding new members. The low productivity by the end of the case was caused by the lack of a structure during meetings and failure to create an agenda. In addition to the unstructured meetings, there was a lot of conflict within the team, most notably between Dana and Sasha. They had conflicting opinions and ways of working and this led to animosity between them. There were also some disagreements during team meetings...
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...Henry Tam entered the HBS Business Plan contest hoping to gain experience above and beyond the normal HBS curriculum. He teamed up with interactive music-based game start-up company, Music Games International (MGI). From the outside, Henry seemed to be part of a well designed and diverse team. However, the lack of team preparation has led to poor team processes and left MGI with no tangible business plan three weeks before the deadline. However, MGI’s team processes can still be improved through Henry’s integration efforts. The real crux of MGI’s poor ‘Team Process’ or, the “the interactions that group members undertake in a team environment that convert members skills, expertise, and other inputs into a group project or other form of output” (Polzer, HBS Case #9-403-094), was based on the following: a lack of common goals, lack of team roles, and lack of information exchange. Fundamental components such as the 'Available Resources', 'Incentives or Rewards', 'Roles and Responsibilities' were never reviewed during the Launch Meeting (Polzer, HBS Case #9-403-094). The MGI team’s failure to agree on common team goals and to define formal roles for its members upfront are the root causes for its poor team processes. Henry and Dana saw the business plan competition as an opportunity to gain business development experience with a start up and contribute to MGI’s vision; however, Sasha envisioned them as “interns”. When Sasha handed them an envelope of alumni names to cold-call...
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...Report on the case “Henry Tam and the MGI team” In partial fulfilment of WAC course Submitted by: Nishant Prateek Minz Executive Summary Henry Tam, an MBA candidate at Harvard Business School, is facing the problem of bringing together his team on common grounds regarding MGI’s submission for the annual HBS business plan competition which could provide him with good credentials and the company with the jumpstart it needs. The members of the team had approached Henry with their business plan and wanted to enter into the contest which could provide them with venture capitalist funding and expert advice for its future. The assembled team has a lot of disagreements and no clear hierarchical structure which has often resulted in clashes between individual ideas and no definite plan for presentation. With the deadline looming near, Henry was faced with the challenge of putting together a coherent business plan in time. It is recommended that the team mutually appoint a neutral third person experienced in business plan development to take the final decision regarding the B-plan formulation. Contents Executive Summary 2 Introduction 4 Situation Analysis 4 Problem Statement 4 Alternatives 4 Evaluation Criteria 4 Evaluation of alternatives 5 Recommendation 5 Action Plan 6 Introduction MGI (Music Games International) is a small start-up company which was founded by Alexander...
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...Introduction The overall team process of MGI seems dysfunctional and ineffective; members forming the MGI team brought a variety of skills set resulting from the multi-talented compositions, diversity in ethnic backgrounds, close personal relationships and a shared desire for the product. The main task for the team was to launch a product at the Harvard Business School (HBS) business plan contest, however, the team has failed in delivering such product for the lack of group roles, defining objectives and facilitating communication among themselves. The MGI lacked a manager to lead the group assignments and making sure every task is performed for the best interest of the group; which is completing the task in the given time frame. There was no structure and clear role assignment for members, this led to having more and more conflict among team members that affected the communication process as well as the outcome of the group. Not only ineffective communication was created in such team forming setting, but also a misunderstood perception for each member’s role was generated. One given example, when Dav joined the group, Henry and Dana did not know the intentions for the team founders as to themselves, as they had no idea what Dav’s role was in the team, which affected the team work as a whole. Also, as Henry thought they were very clear in respect to each member’s role that’s been placed initially, each member played a facilitator, moderator, task manager, and strategic thinker...
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...The Henry Tam case is in the course packet. Make sure to pay attention to both the case text and the exhibits when you prepare your analysis. 90% of the score will be based on content, as discussed in the critical thinking grading rubric. 10% will be based on style. While it will be okay to fill in the table below with bullet points, each bullet point should be a full sentence. The analysis should be comprehensive, yet concise; there is no minimum or maximum word count. Grammatical and spelling errors will lower your style score. Total value: 22 points. 1A. Please analyze the opportunity: Customer value 1. Who is end user and purchaser/decider? Is this a Pro or con and why? The target market is something the team struggles with throughout the case. The students (Henry and Dana) believe the ideal market is the education market (i.e. elementary school aged children), however the founders believed they should be going after the entertainment market (i.e. junior high and above). Both have sound reasoning for their opinions; however I tend to side with the students that the best approach in the beginning would be to go after the education market because of the inherent benefits available. I will be answering the questions based on the standpoint their target market is the education market. In the education market, the end user would be younger children (elementary school aged children) with the decision maker being their parent or their music teacher...
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...even if you do not have the formal authority to tell someone what to do? This course attempts to add to your understanding of life in complex organizations by covering topics including, leveraging culture to reach strategic objectives, motivating and rewarding desired behavior, designing organizations to fit with strategic objectives, selecting the appropriate leadership style to motivate others to perform, and using power and influence effectively. My approach will be managerial, focusing on the processes necessary to organize, motivate, and lead people engaged in collective activities. The emphasis will be on the development of concepts and strategies that may help you to be an effective manager. To accomplish these ends, readings, cases, and videos will be used to introduce you to frameworks from the social sciences that are useful for understanding organizational...
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