Case Analysis Form Participant Name: | Nazish Kanwal | Case Title: | Smith Financial Corporation | Main Problem and Reasons for the Problem | Main Problem: Miller and his team were not on same grounds. No consensus-building was done by Miller.Reasons for the Problem: * Miller’s over-confidence and lack of team work skills. * Sarcastic tone of Miller during official communication showing his unwillingness to cooperate with others during critical business problem and not understanding the past situations with consideration e.g. using phrases like “thorn in your side”, “excuses”, “work around”, “an exception to sound data management practice” at various moments. * Miller’s arrogant approach of overbearing self-importance. He thought of himself as the only one who can “fix the problems” (self-praised) while considering other’s ideas as worthless on two important situations: * Replacing Lotus Notes with Microsoft Exchange * Outsourcing the push technology for e-commerce application * Miller adopted non-serious attitude towards company’s interest by not sharing the information about the Interpush’s future with his senior officials (that Interpush is going to be sold and its President is resigning). He took the decision of giving the contract to Interpush even after knowing all those facts which were obviously not in favor of the organization, just to satisfy his ego in front of his colleagues that he took the right decision. * During meetings, he used to behave in non-professional way when things didn’t go as per his wish. | Solution/Recommendations | * Miller must maintain positive and professional attitude with proper rationale while communicating his ideas to his colleagues. * Instead of doing humiliation, he should listen with consideration to others and respect their ideas even if he does not agree to them. * Switching to entirely different technological platform had following implications: * Change of organizational practices being followed since a long time with respect to technology * A career threat to those who were working on Lotus Notes as dedicated resources * Training needed, needed to gain confidence of team members. * He should communicate with politeness * Bradley’s team was competent enough to develop the push technology solution, and eventually they achieved the goal later on; there was no need to outsource the development of that push technology solution. Miller should not under-estimate the competitiveness of Bradley’s team. There was no reason for spending additional $45000 from organization’s finances on purchasing the solution from 3rd party. Bradley’s team is already being paid for software development at Smith. * Even if it was necessary to outsource the push technology solution, Miller should not have considered Interpush for it after knowing the fact about its sale and VP’s resignation. Or atleast, he should have communicated these facts to his senior management and left the decision on them. | Communication Strategy | Circuit approach is recommended in the situation because Lotus Notes has been used for a long time in Smith. Call meeting regarding exchangeConduct traingng |