Henry Tam and the MGI Team Case - Main Managerial Problem On the surface, the seven-member MGI team which comprised of Henry Tam and Dana Soiman – both current HBS MBA Students, Alex Sartakov – a Berklee College of Music student, Dav Clar – a MIT graduate student, and Alexander (Sasha) Gimpelson, Igor Tkachenko, and Roman Yakub – the MGI founders, seems like an ideal team, with each member bringing different experiences and technical skills to help with the business plan contest at HBS. However, as we will see in this paper, interpersonal dynamics, a lack of clear leadership, resulting in unclear team goals and individual roles, and a lack of healthy group norms, contribute to an ineffective team process at MGI. With the deadline less than three weeks away and the team without even a first draft of the business plan, Henry is certain that the team would not meet the deadline if it continued to function as it had so far. Case Analysis Team Process is defined as the team members’ behaviors and interactions, occurring over time. It is through this process that all of the members’ expertise and knowledge, along with other inputs, functioning in the group environment, manufacture an output. MGI’s team process seems ineffective, resulting a lot of conflicts among the subgroups of the MGI team and inability to complete the business plan. At the “launch” of the team in Mellon Hall on HBS campus, it was clear that the team did not have any specific role for each of the team members, nor was there a clear leadership arrangement. “..It seemed to me that Sasha saw our role a... ... middle of paper ... ...move forward. Henry and Sasha should come up with a comprehensive list of tasks, grouped by short-term goals versus long-term goals. In order to meet the deadline, each member’s role should be more defined, and the tasks should be assigned according to team members’ background and strengths. Based on the members’ experiences, Henry and Dana should work on the business plan; Igor and Roman should provide music expertise; Dav, Sasha, and Igor should work on the technical aspects of product design and paten application; Alex should provide knowledge of music industry. In summary, Henry should take charge by leading the group to make a business plan decision and by matching tasks with the proper skill-set, though he may need to lead under Sasha as a figurehead.
This involves choosing from a lot of alternatives of ideas and producing a strategy on how they will be able to make trade-offs. The team’s activities here include ambassadorship and task coordination. The key leadership activities here include visioning and inventing.
The purpose of this paper is to give a review of the book, The Five Dysfunctions of a Team by author, Patrick Lencioni and provide teams and team members with a sense of the strengths and weaknesses that can be used to make or break teams in certain areas. The following will give you a summary of Patrick Lencioni’s teamwork model and how it can be a road map for your team and your leadership skills.
Katzenbach, J. R., & Smith, D. K. (1993). The discipline of teams (pp. 111-120). Harvard Business Press.
A model for explaining the context and process of teamwork must operate on two plains. There is a group dynamic impacting the team process as a whole and a personal dynamic that tracks the phases and changes that the team members experience throughout the team process. After reviewing the University of Phoenix Team Life Cycle Model, reflecting on the course readings, and conferring with teammates, two tracks were identified that have application for University of Phoenix teams; and possibly, a broader representation for industry and not-for-profit organizations.
Teams were composed of a leader, two guides, the eight clients, a lead Sherpa, and seven climbing Sherpas. Corporations are increasingly trading in their typical hierarchical dynamic for a team-oriented one, as th...
Bateman, T.S. & Snell, S.A. (2009). Management: Leading and Collaborating in The Competitive World, New York, New York: McGraw Hill Companies. (p. 101)
The group has reached the Norming stage when they begin the second stage. “The team is faced with creating cohesion and unity, differentiating roles, identifying expectation for members, and enhancing commitment. Providing supportive feedback and fostering commitment to a vision are ne...
Effective teams must be developed, not just formed. A group is not a team. Members of a group may sometimes work together, but members of a team always work together. The team need not all be in the same place to be working together. “With a group, the whole is often equal to or less than the sum of its parts; with a team, the whole is always greater” (Oakley, Brent, Felder and Elhajj, 2004). A team, as defined above, has certain characteristics that make it effective. Not all of these traits are present when a team is in the forming stage. Tea...
Seven tasks must be included in consideration of team dynamics and structure. The first of which is defining the goal, mission or function of a specific team. The team must know what it is being asked to accomplish. The second area of consideration is assessing what skills, abilities, knowledge or potential to acquire such would be needed amongst selected team members. Identification of potential team members should include an assessment of the skills, knowledge and abilities or the potential to acquire such so that ultimately the team has the building blocks with which to succeed in its mission, goal or function. This assessment must include an understanding of realistic potential contributions by potential team members with the included assessment of whether or not the acquisition of skills and knowledge can be made available through research and analysis.
As the processes and systems used in business have become more complex, teams, not individuals, have become popular in many organizations. Teams are made up of individuals from an organization brought together to solve a problem, improve a process or implement a new process. “A major advantage that a team has over an individual is its diversity of resources and ideas” (Burns, 1995, p. 52). However, this diversity can cause conflict within the team. The success of the team is strongly influenced by the team’s ability to recognize the causes of, manage and resolve conflict.
Bateman, T.S., & Snell, S.A. (2011).Management: Leading and collaborating in a competitive world (9thed). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Irwin.
The business plan will also be useful in facilitating the adoption of a strategy that will help the business prosper in the modern market. The plan will be a critical tool that will help in the production of a reliable strategy for attaining the goals and objectives. The proposed business plan will be implemented in three years time. Within the first three years, the business i...
Teams are important to a company simply because they motivate transformation and expansion. While teams play a key role in the expansion process of a business; the entire process can be delayed, if not disabled altogether due to a lack of participation on individual levels of commitment. Studies show that if a team is constructed and managed effectively they are 30-50% more productive. (Williams, 1995) Whatever the reason behind the formation of a team in a business it is always wise to take the proper approach to overcome any obstacle.
The stages of team development are forming, storming, norming, performing, and adjourning. Norming is the first stage that involves team members getting to know each other and trying to figure out where they fit in. As a leader, it is important to provide clear directions and set proper goals and expectations during this stage. Storming is the next stage and as the name suggest it is characterized with struggles, challenges, conflicts, and competition among team members. During this stage, I will provide a mediating role and facilitate conversations that steers the team towards the right
Constantly changing, fast-paced environment today, should the institutions and industry to respond quickly to new opportunities. Team approach is often the perfect solution to capture new opportunities or address the complex issues in short periods of time.