Henry Tam and the MGI Team, Case Study Example

Introduction

The world of business in our day and age is inherently wrought with significant challenges as well as boundless opportunities. Among other things the advent of the challenges became eminent right from the very moment of conceptualization, spanning into the planning to the implementation stage. The MGI Team represents a classical case of the multiple dilemmatic choices, challenges and conflicts that pose a threat to the setting up of any business entity.

It is evident from the case study that creativity as a vital ingredient is one of the major strong points of the team, what has however conspicuously lacking is the integrative cohesion of the individual creative strengths translated into potent team leverage. Leadership is also not well established leaving in its wake factionalism and arbitrary competitiveness stemming personality clashes. What is undeniable in the light of all these unsettled differences is the enormity of the success potential of the team, granted the right plugs are pulled to ensure the utilization of the multicultural base of the team into a progressive turning force.

A central crux of this paper is to bring to the fore the latent issues at the heart of the inability of the team to make meaningful progress despite the enormity of the success potential of the team. This paper also addresses the challenges within the team within a comprehensive framework that incorporates leadership, role playing and strategic planning as part of the blueprint recommendation needed to get the engine of action kick started and running in the right direction.

Leadership

It is prudent to begin this section by clearly understanding the scope of the task the Team has committed itself to accomplishing within the time constraint that they currently also have to grapple with. Doing so places the added advantage of setting the needed platform to stimulate the accompanying analysis contained in this paper. Conventionally, a business plan is said to be a guide to the establishment of a proposed business. Being a guide, it ensures that the team recognizes their current state, then project a desired final outcome. Most importantly, the team should be able to identify and highlight the most efficient and effective route by way of policies that will facilitate the realization of the team goals.

Clearly, the MGI team is constituted of very enthusiastic founding members, who are also very creative and wielding a diversity of considerable expertise in their respective areas of specialization. This is commendable, taking cognizance of the fact that the scope of the task to be accomplished requires such a broad array of experience and skills to get to the main projected destination. This fact is further made evident by the introduction of Dana, Henry, Alex and Dav at different stages of the development process. It also understood that, there have been some additions in the past who had to leave because they had difficulties fitting into the team. The ongoing impasse gives an indication that chances of the team breaking up is also equally very likely, given the challenges the team members are battling.

The co-founders of the MGI team are no doubt very industrious individuals, espousing respect and equality for every member’s expertise, opinions and contributions. Much as this should be applauded, the team needs leadership coordination. An individual to be entrusted with the responsibility of safeguarding the vision and leading the mission of the MGI team.  Doing so eliminates the hustle of competition for opinion supremacy in addition to crystallizing the team. A team that has no provision for leadership will be reduced to the pursuit of ambitious “chaos” as seen in the less than optimal deliberations that characterized the several hours of meetings that the MGI Team held. It is crucial to come to terms with the fact that the leadership office should serve to address this pervasive tendency of “equality.”

Having said so, the peculiarities of the scenario in question requires that a well consented approach is adopted within the framework of assigning a leadership role within the MGI Team. This brings to mind the need to identify the most ideal leadership style that will be effectively able to serve the group interest by making it relatively accessible in achieving the goals of the team. It should be noted that given the multicultural diversity of the team it will be helpful to consider the personality of the leader as an important indicator. Talking about the personality, factors such as his or her knowledge base, values ethics amongst other things. It is also imperative to ensure that the personality traits exhibited by the would-be leader should be compatible as well as reflective of what the MGI Team stands for.

Caution should be taken in looking at the most comprehensive leadership style to be adopted judging by the fact that management experts allude to the fact that there is no one-fits-all leadership style (Steiner, 1979). Creative leadership is required to provide the relevant inspirational force to integrate the diverse pool of experts represented on the MGI Team. Steadily, the diverse challenges confronting the team will be significantly addressed. This creative leadership force should act in tandem with the multicultural strand of the team leading to the process of engendering individual and eventually transposing into team effectiveness (Cleland 1987).

Role Playing

In addition to the foregoing, the MGI Team is constrained by an explicit lack of defined roles by members of the team. The consequence is duplicity of roles, needlessly affecting their time capital. Assigning specific roles creates the platform that will ensure that the team members are able to communicate within the within the paradigm of their respective differences whilst at the same time making room for an appreciation for their respective unique differences by way of expertise and experiences (Steiner, 1979). Role playing will ensure that the team progressively evolves to complement each other’s efforts in their collective quest to working towards the development of the business plan.

As stated in the opening section of this paper, reference is made to the fact that the multicultural composition of the MGI Team serves as collective strong leverage that can enhance their competitiveness. In a recent study, Global Teams Inc. an internationally reputed consultancy firm, came out with findings to prove that given the chance multicultural groups are better placed to be successful given the same conditions for homogenous entities (Byrne, 1996). For instance, the presence of the Russian team members, using their enormous musical background and connections is a viable way to join hands with the business experts on the team to carry out the technical dimensions of entering the competitive business world.

Strategic Planning

Arguably, one of the cardinal goals of the team is to come out with the comprehensive business plan that will not only participate in the competition but most importantly turn out to be one of the winning works. It therefore underscores the integral role to be played by planning processes at every single stage of the exercise. The MGI Team clearly are conscious of the important role to be played by planning, however, their deliberations reveal that their attention has been diverted to other areas of the process at the expense of the skeletal framework of the business plan. Over and above all, the planning process for good reasons is mentioned last here because, it is the force that will bring together all the minute details of leadership and role playing into the specific domain of the process of getting the business plan eventually written (Cleland et al 1987). Naturally, it will be prudent to begin with planning as a factor of urgency, knowing that time is not a welcoming ally in any part of the exercise.

Conclusion

In summing up, it is worth stating that there is every conceivable reason to believe that, the MGI Team is uniquely poised to coming out with a very good business plan that will catch the attention of stakeholders. The team has a brilliantly creative idea that is also uniquely fashioned by a team of co-founders that have seen it all in their respective areas of expertise. Constituting the team that will translate the energy and enthusiasm of the team requires more than enthusiasm, creativity and energy. Leadership, role playing and diligent strategic planning will ultimately bring the creative ideas into a formidable plan that has a high industry success prospects.

Reference

Byrne A. John (Aug 26, 1996). Strategic Planning: It’s Back” BusinessWeek, pp.46-52.

Steiner George (1979). Strategic Planning: What Every Manager Should Know  Free Press.

William King and David Cleland. Van Nostrand Reinhold. (1987). Strategic Planning and Management Handbook