Fabiana Karley worked as an assistant director, production and marketing division at Wema Limited from 2012 until
mid-2020 when she resigned to join Baridi Bora Company Limited (BBCL) as director, production and operations
division. She was recruited to inject new blood and reshape the company because the directors were concerned that
unless urgent strategic decisions are implemented, stiff competition could push BBCL from the market. BBCL main
clientele are private companies, multinational companies, state corporations, county governments and national
government. BBCL specialises in projects, data mining and digital marketing.
While working at Wema Limited, her division was also responsible for collection and analysis of all company’s data.
As the person in-charge of the division, she realised that any decision made at company’s headquarters concerning
expansion, opening, closing or retention of a branch, promotion or termination of an employee was always informed
by recommendations generated from analysed data. The scientific approach had given the company great competitive
advantage over its competitors as all decisions were informed by research that targeted to address a particular problem.
This had resulted not only to highly committed and loyal employees but also to customers’ loyalty. To Fabiana Karley,
this approach of management changed her view on the core of organisations performance.
Coming from such a background, Fabiana Karley’s approach for work was elimination of all bottlenecks that inhibited
productivity, causing delay in completion of projects or loss of clients and standardisation of processes where
applicable. Upon taking charge of the office, Fabiana Karley scanned through the company operations and noted that
BBCL was not keen on usage of data. Decisions were haphazardly made leading to the company’s poor performance
and loss of resources. She discussed with the board of directors of BBCL and suggested establishment of Research and
Development (R&D) unit whose core mandate was to generate required information based on experiential study. This
proposal was approved by the board.
The first assignment for the R&D unit was to establish who were the customers of BBCL. The customers purchasing
power was to be classified using the Pareto principle of 80:20. R&D unit was expected to ensure improvement in
productivity of employees. There was a major concern that employee turnover rate was high and some employees in
the organisation were wrongly placed. Information Communication and Technology (ICT) department was required to
establish and implement a system where each project, client and employee’s bottom line value could be traced on a
continuous basis from a central place.
This was a shift in paradigm of management at BBCL that revolutionised every fibre of operations for it was
systematic, productive, results oriented and timely. R&D unit applied exploratory research method to establish the
position at BBCL. Within a period of three months, a report was submitted to Fabiana Karley revealing that BBCL’s
operations could be classified as follows:
- Projects Consortium
- Marketing, Research and Development
- Administration.
Fabiana Karley noted a lot of duplications of duties across the units. Borrowing from experience, she expanded the
scope and the terms of reference for the assignment to go deeper and do a feasibility study on approaches that could be
established to make the company more productive. She cautioned R&D staff to remain ethical in the whole process
and ensure that recommendations are based on data and facts.
Draft report from the R&D unit indicated the following:
- Projects Consortium: This formed the backbone of the company’s source of funds but faced systemic
challenges such as; operated as a section in finance department, was understaffed, employees lacked key
skills. It also relied on old manual system in management of projects. R&D team recommended its
separations from other areas, equipping employees with necessary skills and installation of modern project
management systems.
- Marketing, Research & Development: This operated as a small section under finance but rarely achieved
any substantial results. R&D recommended establishment of a unit responsible for generation of data and
innovations to capture new markets.
- Administration: This was a new idea of separating management and administrative work from other
operational functions. To trace who is responsible for what, they recommended functional structure of
organisation.
Having gone through the findings, Fabiana Karley prepared a comprehensive report which she presented to the board
for consideration and approval. The report was approved with minimum changes. One year down the line after
implementation of the approved report, BBCL has reinvented itself and all stakeholders appreciate Fabiana Karley’s
initiatives. In 2023, BBCL was pronounced the best managed company.
Required
(a) (i) Explain the term “shift in paradigm” in the context of Baridi Bora Company Limited (BBCL)
operations.
(ii) Analyse FOUR advantages of the principle used by Fabiana Karley in carrying out the first
assignment.
(b) Assess FIVE applications of Frederick Taylor’s theory of scientific management observed at BBCL.
(c) Discuss FIVE benefits enjoyed by BBCL due to formation of new organisational structure as recommended
by the research and development unit findings.
(d) Fabiana Karley required the research and development team to behave in a certain way.
Citing FIVE reasons from the case study, justify this requirement.
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