Brief Overview and the Main Issues

Brief Overview and the Main Issues

Jamie Turner leaves Wolf River a cleaning product company as a product manager because he things he is not challenged enough and the work became monotone. He joins Lambowland, an internet based sports company. After conflicts with the job and his colleagues, he seeks to change his job again. Mean while the MLI president Cardullo, is in the middle of a search for VC and sales/marketing manager. Jamie Turner is the candidate for the situation and he accepts the offer. In this period, MLI is being acquired by Triple S, a San Diego based company. MLI is bigger in size than Lambowland but smaller and less organized than Wolf River.

First impression of Jamie Turner on Cardullo his boss is, Cardullo is a very controlling boss with rigid rules. Cardullo thinks that communication is important amongst top level managers but the functions should not help each other and they should be self-sufficient. He also has plans to take position in Triple S and sees Turner as a future successor of his position in MLI. Cardullo divides employees into two groups: competent and incompetent. He believes that the incompetent people have no place in the company and should be fired.

MLI is struggling financially however Cardullo thinks that there is nothing to worry about and no immediate action is necessary. This is amongst Turners concerns at first as well as other concerns such as, Cardullo spending too much time in San Diego and that he is not giving the his full attention to the company. Turner was also worried about the lack of excitement in his position of industrial marketing before he was hired but the potential of leadership opportunities made the job more attractive for him.

After a certain period Cardullo starts to trust Turner more and more. He gives most of the responsibilities and duties to Turner. This makes Cardullo’s job much easier. One of the first conflicts arise when Cardullo discusses on Tim Kelly the sales director a 25 year company veteran who had excellent relationships with the sales people. Cardullo sees Kelly as “highly regimented and detail orented but had trouble concentrating on the bigger picture”. Cardullo showed impatience and anger towards Kelly when he thought he Kelly was incompetent at probing questions and such matters.

With the still declining sales and financial problems, Turner felt under pressure, as he had to offer a new business plan to Triple S executives. Both the executives and Cardullo had full trust on Turner at this point. As a part of the Turner’s new plan he had to hire and fire employees. He fired five employees from Kansas department and recruited two new people as first product manager and second product manager. One of the new recruits, Juanita Swenson reports that there is an important financial problem of cash flow at MLI to Turner. However Cardullo sees no apparent problem and continues to take