Harvard Business Review Case study solutions

Between your inner and exterior doorways of Circale Corporation’s head office building, human resources VP Nils Ekdahl crossed routes with CFO Anita Fierst as he had been leaving for lunch. “We need to make those cuts we mentioned, ” Fierst said briskly. She obviously wasn’t up for chitchat about her recent visit to Asia. “I was looking at our org chart regarding plane yesterday, ” she carried on. “After those two brand new acquisitions, the duplication across departments is untenable. We Must begin attaining synergies right away.”

She paused while a small grouping of staff members passed away, nodding hellos to both executives. After that she said, “i am aware Hal seems highly about this.”

It constantly irked Ekdahl whenever she spoke the CEO like that.

“He wishes $20 million slice through the payroll within the next four months, ” Fierst stated.

“Working on it, ” Ekdahl replied. “But you may already know, it's not just about the numbers. It’s also about making certain we have the correct individuals inside correct positions.”

“It is approximately the numbers, ” she said. “I'm sure within department you love to take your time to obtain every thing perfect.” It had been an unwarranted dig at both Ekdahl and his predecessor, Michael Milanese, who happened to be waiting for Ekdahl at their particular usual lunch place in town. “however with all this work replication, you don’t have the luxury of determining the perfect individual for every single place.”

Some more employees passed by.

“Anyway, ” she stated. “More later.”

Within ten minutes, Ekdahl had been recounting the change over soup and salad.

“Don’t allow her to get to you, ” Milanese said. Their resentment toward Fierst had been demonstrably abating half a year after CEO Hal Taylor, at the woman urging, had pushed Milanese to retire. “It’s your show now, Nils. Remain the course. Fight the nice battle. You realize plus I do that Circale’s future hinges on it.”

Ekdahl was handled that his former supervisor nonetheless cared in regards to the company, despite exactly how he had been addressed. Perhaps Milanese, very long separated and in sporadic experience of their grown up children, performedn’t have a lot kept inside the private life. Or maybe it had been that retired administrator had some incomplete business.

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Michael Milanese have been the principle designer of a brand new performance-review system that Ekdahl had been about to implement across all six of Circale’s global locations. It absolutely was designed to make sure the objectivity of decisions about postmerger employees cuts. The reported objective: put the most readily useful person in every place.