Bitstream Case Study

Case – Bitstream

Group – 7 ( Ankit, Karan, Saurabh, Shishir, Tarun)

Back ground

• Bitstream is a fast growing company, preparing to launch a new product.
• Want to hire an outsider to lead this project.
• 40% of company employees change every year.
• CEO wants to reduce expense growth compare to revenue growth.
• For the new project they feel they need only relevant experienced person.
• New product requires synthesis of existing technology, market for product already exists, and customers are easily identifiable. Prospects of success of the product are very high.
• After their analysis they feel that value added resellers –(who market the products of particular hardware and software) take their product as incremental sale
• Even tapping 5% of existing customer will give $100 million.

Present problem

After deciding that Jim need to hire an outsider, now he has to decide his priorities, he needs to develop a criteria for evaluating  the candidate, and from where he can get the information he needed to make a fair and accurate comparison?

Options

For priorities

• Priorities according to the case  are listed below

1. He needs a team player, who can fit in the company and himself , without being biased about self image.
2. A man who is ready for new challenges and full of energy
3. Should have experience in network market , contacts with value added resellers will be a bonus.
4. Should be able to decisions on his own so that he does not go to Jim for decision making,  who generally do it by flip of the coin
5. Basic aptitude and attitude required for success.
6. He has a financial limitation on salary, so the new person should fit in gladly in offered pay roll.  Jim also needs to decide how much change in pay structure he can accommodate for an ideal candidate.
7. Should know how to run the business since lead time is very important and there is no time  for training.
8. Should be able to develop a successful sales force and should have hiring capabilities.

Evaluation Criteria

• Since Jim has received four resumes and all of them are potential candidate, he  can evaluate them in the following way

1. He can prepare a chart , assigning each priority a weight and then giving marks to each candidate on those priorities and then calculating a final score , this score will decide the selected candidate.
2. Since Jim has taken help of a search firm, he can use advice of Mr. Peter for deciding the right candidate, since he has expertise in this work. It will also make sure that he will not hire his self image.
3. He can also include outside advice in his chart as an weight  for decision criteria
4. Use the interview as the sole criteria and go by his instinct.

Information collection

• For information collection required to make the decision he can give a questionnaire to all the candidates and ask them to fill it to the best of their knowledge.
• Since only four candidates are there so he can verify the details of their resumes and collect the information from their previous employers and colleagues.