Rick Fire Case

Ashton Taylor

MKT 4310

Jan. 26, 2016

Rick Fire Case

1. What are the key issues that you have to deal with?
   This case is dealing with three key problems that led to the issues between Rick and Les. The first was Rick went above Les to get permission to “go for it [his project idea to use sporting good channels]”. After being turned down by Les, Rick went to his boss, Karen French, who went to the VP of sales, Dave Brown, to get permission to begin his new project. The second problem was that Rick began and worked on his project to obtain the sporting good stores as a channel without talking to Les in person or take him to any meetings with his new leads. Instead Rick kept correspondence with Les via email, which was not how the project should of been handled. Finally, the way Les was managing Rick and his new idea was a huge portion of the problem. Les was consistent in showing Rick that he was not interested in pursuing the new channel, even though he was the leader of the drive into alternative channels.
   
2. What are your alternatives for dealing with the conflict with Les? What are the pros and cons of each alternative?
   a) One alternative Rick could of taken to deal with his conflict with Les, would of been to schedule a meeting with his boss, Karen French, Les, and also Dave Brown. This would of helped Rick’s case, because he already had Karen French and Dave Brown on board all he needed was to show Les that his new idea had a lot of Consumer Solutions sales force support. On the other hand, Les could of taken this as a threat and the conflict between the two men could of gotten worse.
   
   b)  Rick could of done even more research proving Les with number showing how profitable this new channel could be. When Rick first introduced his idea to Les, the case study states that he “did not prepare any material for the meeting and just overviewed his plans to do some research” I believe that if Rick would of done the research before hand he could of gained Les’ interest better. But if Les wouldn’t consider the new channel the it would of been a huge waste of Rick’s time he could of spent working with his customers.
   
   c) Instead of taking this project on alone, Rick could of gotten a team together to prepare the presentation and research to take to Les. By having multiple people researching and working together to find conclusions about the new project Les could of felt more inclined to accept the proposal, because he would be letting multiple people down instead of just one. Like the alternative above this could also be a waste of time if Les declined the proposal, but now it would be wasting multiple peoples time not just one employee.

1. What should Rick do now and justify your recommendation?
   I believe Rick should first call his contacts at Footlocker and try to explain what happened in the meeting and try to keep their trust while he works on figuring out what he should do about the conflict with Les. Second, Rick should plan to have a meeting with Les, Karen French, and Dave Brown and discuss why Les is so against his new project. Karen French and Dave Brown should be there, because they are the one that gave Rick the go ahead for the project. So they need to be aware of what happened in the meeting and help both Rick and Les understand and resolve the conflict that they have.
2. What was done wrong in this process? What would you do to prevent this from happening in the future?
   I believe the biggest problem that was made in this process was the lack of communication. Consumer Solutions, as a company, stated that they wanted to look for new opportunities to distribute products using non-traditional distribution channels. So Les, being the leader of this process, should be open to hearing employee’s ideas to open new channels. If I knew that this happened in my company I would sit down with Les and try to understand why he was so against helping Rick with obtaining a new channel of sporting good stores, and have Les report to someone about what he and the other employees are doing to meet their goal.
   
3. What can be done to rescue the Footlocker test market?
   Both Rick and Les needs to go back to Footlocker after they come up with a solution to their conflict. It sounds like Footlocker was very excited to test the new product in their stores, so it should be easy for Rick to rescue his project.