Q: How will Charlie’s approach to quality and service affect his company’s performance?

“Quality can be measured in terms of product performance, customer service, reliability (avoidance of failure or breakdowns), conformance to standards, durability, and aesthetics” (Brasfield 10). “Service means giving customers what they want or need, when they want it. So service is focused on continually meeting the needs of customers to establish mutually beneficial long-term relationships.” (Brasfield 11).
Charlie has never been in a managerial position so he will need to reevaluate his plan for both quality and service from a sales person’s point of view to a manager’s point of view. His plan to, “build on his strengths by traveling with each of the sales reps and coaching them” could be seen as Charlie not being able to let go of being a sales rep and of not having faith in his sales reps. There is a better way to approach this transition from sales rep to manger.
Charlie could pass on his knowledge of being an outstanding sales rep by implementing a training program, or taking the time to set up training sessions with each of his reps. He needs to be careful when dealing with, “friendly rivalry” (Brasfield 35) because it could cause a lot of issues both internally and externally. Internally with all the sales reps working against Charlie and externally with his supervisors thinking that he cannot manage his group.

Brasfield, Jim. Management 5000: Leading & Collaborating in a Competitive World, Tenth Edition. United States: The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.