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 ESMT–418–0182–1

ES1821
October 1, 2018
IN OT CA
SP F S
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EC OR E I
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ESMT Case Study

TI US S D
O E IS
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C IN TR
O C IB

Alana Robertson at Munchia

PY LA U
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LY O B

Nina Ann Walters

. OM Y H

Konstantin Korotov
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. AR

Alana Robertson was crying in her hotel room in Kuala Lumpur. A few hours before she had an
emotional outburst during a business discussion in a startup management team. Now she believed
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she had disappointed and let down an important person in her professional life – the company CEO
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who had been a mentor and who had invited Alana to move from Europe to help with the launch
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of a new business in Asia. Alana felt terrible about the incident, and she was very angry and
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disappointed at herself. She desperately wanted to talk to somebody, but in this huge foreign city,
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she knew no one except a couple of colleagues who had just witnessed her emotional meltdown.
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SC

Alana Robertson
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Alana Robertson was born in a small town in Nottinghamshire, UK. She grew up in a rough part of
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town with few economic opportunities but was academically gifted, securing an unconditional offer
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to study at Oxford where she read history and politics. Upon finishing her master’s degree at
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University of Warwick, she moved to Amsterdam and started working in Business Development for
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a startup. When that company suddenly and unexpectedly failed, Alana spent a year unemployed,
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IN

learning the local language and trying to get back on her feet, taking on a few weeks of work here
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and there.
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TH

This case study was written by Nina Ann Walters, an Executive MBA student of ESMT Berlin, under supervision
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of Konstantin Korotov of ESMT Berlin. Sole responsibility for the content rests with the author. It is intended to
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be used as the basis for class discussion rather than to illustrate either effective or ineffective handling of a
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management situation. The names of the protagonist and companies mentioned have been changed.
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Copyright 2018 by ESMT European School of Management and Technology GmbH, Berlin, Germany,
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www.esmt.org.
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ESMT cases are currently distributed through Harvard Business Publishing, http://hbsp.harvard.edu, The Case
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Centre, http://www.thecasecentre.org, and Ivey Publishing, https://iveycases.com. Please contact them to

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request permission to reproduce materials.

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All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, used in a
spreadsheet, or transmitted in any form or by any means - electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording,
or otherwise - without the permission of ESMT Berlin.
 ESMT-418-0182-1 Alana Robertson at Munchia

It was then she was interviewed by Tirella, an e-Commerce company, to manage their UK business.
The final stage of the process was a confirmatory chat with CEO Thomas Stijns, who liked to check
IN OT CA

the mental agility of those in his team. Thomas saw a lot of potential in Alana and believed she
SP F S
N HE

was capable of managing more than the UK business. As a result, he created a new role for her,
EC OR E I
T

working on Tirella’s overall international strategy and coordinating new country launches. Alana
TI US S D

loved working at Tirella; she was challenged and was learning constantly from those around her as
O E IS
N

well as Thomas, who became a mentor to her. She quickly became known as the go-to person for
C IN TR

anything of strategic importance and was considered reliable and persistent in finding solutions to
O C IB
PY LA U

complex problems. Both Alana and Thomas were devastated when Tirella’s parent company
decided to subsume their operations into the parent company, leaving them and their 150
O SS ED
N R

colleagues out of work. So, when Thomas called her up and asked if she would be interested in
LY O B

spending 3 months in Asia helping him launch his new company into a new city and set up the
. OM Y H

relevant processes, she jumped at it.

T

While Alana was confident in her professional abilities and outgoing in the office, outside that
. AR

environment she was incredibly shy. She ate lunch alone every day and spent her time with a small
number of close friends. She had taken a couple of online personality questionnaires based on
Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) methodology, and her results classified her as INTJ, which she
VA

felt described her perfectly.1 Alana cared deeply about the things in her life and often worried
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when things were even slightly knocked off course, talking extensively with those closest to her.
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That support network allowed her to separate her personal and professional selves to ensure that
BU

external factors did not affect her work performance.

SI
N
ES

Thomas Stijns
S
SC

Thomas Stijns became the CEO of Munchia at only 31 years old. He grew up in Nijmegen, a small
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city in the Netherlands, before studying Economics at Cambridge. While studying in the UK, he
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interned at one of the large investment banks in London and returned there to work full time after
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graduation. After a few years, he became increasingly interested in mergers and acquisitions, and
joined a firm specialized in helping large companies purchase small and rapidly-growing startups
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in their industry. After working on a deal helping large incumbent Datamanan to buy Tirella, he
IS
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was asked to take over as CEO of Tirella to help take them to the next level of growth while aligning
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with Datamanan.
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AN

Despite never running a company before, Thomas jumped at the chance, taking his trusted
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colleague Lucinda with him. He enjoyed taking high-performing colleagues with him into new
TH

positions, as they helped him to hit the ground running and he knew he could trust them
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completely. Thomas was generally well-liked at Tirella; he was gregarious and made time for
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everyone working there. He was also constantly searching for new talent, and when Alana
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1
For a summary of the MBTI methodology refer to the appendix
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2
 Alana Robertson at Munchia ESMT-418-0182-1

Robertson applied to run their UK team, he recognized her potential and quickly brought her into
his inner circle, giving her responsibilities far beyond what her experience would suggest.
IN OT CA
SP F S
N HE

When Tirella was closed down by Datamanan, the company he represented during the acquisition,
EC OR E I
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Thomas felt terrible for his employees and cared about them deeply. Thomas was very outgoing
TI US S D

and had a large network and that he used to ensure that as many people as possible had new jobs
O E IS

to go to. After a couple of months, he also began to look for new positions, and was in talks with
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several startups around the globe to take over as chief executive. It was during this process that
C IN TR
O C IB

his old friend Lars Janssen reached out. Lars was the COO of Munchia, a startup based out of Kuala
PY LA U

Lumpur, Malaysia, and they were looking for a new CEO. Thomas decided to take the leap and move
O SS ED

to Asia, simultaneously plotting which of his star employees he could convince to go with him.
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LY O B

Alana Robertson was high on that list.

. OM Y H
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Munchia
. AR

Munchia was a fast-growing food delivery platform in Southeast Asia. They would deliver food from
any partner restaurant or café to the customer’s location within one hour. Munchia had acquired
initial funding from a local venture firm and was now ramping up to grow their operations. They
VA

had already secured partnerships with large chains, which would enable them to grow quickly in
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new territories before additional partners could be brought on board. In the first quarter of 2015,
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Munchia had already launched into Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and Jakarta, Indonesia. They were
BU

already working on launching into Bangkok, Thailand, in April and had big plans to expand quickly
SI
N

into many more cities in the region.

ES
S

Beyond old friends Lars Janssen and Thomas Stijns another important person in the company was
SC

Adam Lei, a well-respected tech guru who had sold his previous company to Google. Each of the
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three brought several employees with them to Munchia, including Alana Robertson and Lucinda
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Lang, who Thomas Stijns had previously brought with him to Tirella. There were approximately 70
O
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employees (mainly food delivery drivers) by the time Thomas and Alana arrived in Asia.
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Early days of the project

H
IN

In the three weeks since arriving in Asia, Alana had travelled to both Jakarta and Bangkok to meet
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other members of the team and get up to speed. As Thomas introduced her to other staff, external
AN

partners, and investors, he sung her praises and regularly told them how great it was that Alana
D

could “simply parachute in somewhere and get it done”, and that he knew he could trust her
TH

completely. While Alana was happy to be there, and Thomas had so much trust in her, she began
E

to get nervous that she could not live up to the expectations everyone was developing of her. She
C
AS

was only one woman in a strange land, after all.

E
C

A few weeks later, Thomas and Alana were trying to work out their next move. Alana had been
EN

conducting market research to shortlist options down from 15 cities to about four to target in the
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3
 ESMT-418-0182-1 Alana Robertson at Munchia

next year. She was frustrated at her lack of progress up to this point, as while she had done this
kind of project before, she had previously been looking for readily available information on entire
IN OT CA

countries. Getting city-specific data for criteria such as credit card penetration rate for multiple
SP F S
N HE

cities in Southeast Asia, with no central database or standard measures, was much more difficult.
EC OR E I
T

Alana was also careful not to risk biasing the results, as whichever city they decided would be next
TI US S D

on the list was the one she would be living in for the next three months to get it up and running.
O E IS
N

A meeting was planned to go over the research with relevant stakeholders so they could push
C IN TR
O C IB

forward with their ambitious growth plans. Despite her frustration, Alana was excited for the
PY LA U

meeting as it meant she would finally know where she would be based for the next few months.
O SS ED

She could then plan what was happening, and not have to take a giant suitcase every time she
N R
LY O B

went somewhere for a couple of days. There would be somewhere to call home, and finding such
. OM Y H

a place was getting increasingly urgent for Alana. She was on a new continent, in a new company
T

without a structure, and did not know how to handle this level of uncertainty. She had been invited
to go to Asia by someone whom she admired, respected, and liked, and whom she was now afraid
. AR

to let down or disappoint. She was the only person asked to join Thomas who had not previously
been on the management team, and she felt she had a lot to prove. Alana was terribly afraid of
failure, but at that moment, she did not know how to succeed.
VA

Moreover, she did not know what success should look like. There was nothing in place that would
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help her determine it, and she did not feel she could define it herself. For the past few weeks,
BU

visiting city to city, Alana caught herself being unable to tell people where she was based. While
SI

that sounded exciting and cool to the outsiders, Alana started to realize the weight of this
N

uncertainty on her. She felt she needed to settle in somewhere, at least temporarily, and to find
ES

some sense of belonging.

S
SC

Alana was also keen to start doing something, rather than sitting in an office looking for statistics
H
O

that seemed impossible to find. She was impatient to start the operational part of her job, which
O

is what she was actually there for. Each additional day spent on this analysis was one day fewer
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she had to plan and execute the launch, and one day closer to failure.
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IS

The Meeting
H
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The meeting was held one Tuesday morning to identify which cities should be the next to launch
AN

for Munchia. In attendance was Thomas, Lucinda (now chief of staff) and Nikos (another city
D

launcher). Alana and Lucinda knew each other well from Tirella, but Nikos was new to the team
TH

after being brought in by Lars. The plan was for Nikos and Alana to work on launching two different
E

markets simultaneously, so he was also keen to see the results of Alana’s analysis. As they started
C

discussing each city, some were very quickly discounted for clear reasons such as cost or legal
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complexity, and for others it was not possible to make any kind of decision on, as there was
E
C

insufficient information or a vital missing statistic.

EN
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4
 Alana Robertson at Munchia ESMT-418-0182-1

Manila was the next option to be discussed and Alana had been waiting for this one. She had a
solid statistic to justify her input beyond the generic responses she had given for other cities, which
IN OT CA

amounted to little more than common knowledge. The Philippines had a 27% mobile penetration
SP F S
N HE

rate and given that Munchia was a mobile-first company that ruled it out as a potential target (all
EC OR E I
T

other options were in excess of 80%). Thomas barely got a word out when Alana loudly said ‘no’,
TI US S D

without further explanation. She was almost proud to have provided a definitive answer to
O E IS
N

something. Thomas was confused, as Alana never provided solutions without real evidence and
C IN TR

pushed for the justification. Upon hearing Alana’s arguments, he pressed further for better data
O C IB
PY LA U

as while the Philippines overall had a low mobile penetration rate, it made sense that those who
did have mobile phones would most likely be living in the capital, which was the target market.
O SS ED
N R

Alana had had the same intuition, but through her previous research methods, she had been unable
LY O B

to find any definitive data to support or reject the hypothesis. While the discussion seemed to be
. OM Y H

totally reasonable, Alana suddenly couldn’t take it anymore. She had been doing the best she could
T

but she knew her results were far below par. The question from Thomas somehow felt like a
personal challenge. She shouted, “You think I don’t know I’m doing a shit job?” and started crying.
. AR

Thomas commented that no one had said she was doing a shit job but that if she was going to make
a flat assertion that she had better have the data to back it up. Alana knew this was a fair
VA

comment, but she was overwhelmed with emotions and was lost. She desperately did not want to
R

let Thomas down and had ended up doing it anyway. She was clearly in no state to work after this,
D

and she went home. Manila stayed on the shortlist.

BU
SI
N

Afterthoughts
ES
S

Everyone was surprised and confused by Alana’s outburst, particularly Thomas. Alana had always
SC

been the consummate professional, which is why he had invited her to Asia in the first place. She
H

was one of the few people he could always rely on to get the job done. He felt that there was
O
O

probably something that caused Alana’s suffering, but he simply could not understand why she did
L
PU

not just ask for help if she was struggling. Thomas was confused by her difficulties – he regularly
travelled and worked in different countries and had never had any problems at all adapting to the
BL

different environments, he would simply reach out to someone in his network and ask them to
IS
H

introduce him to everyone he needed to know. Why hadn’t Alana just reached out to some contacts?
IN
G

Alana felt terrible. She was shocked by her reaction, but felt disappointed and ashamed above all.
AN

She prided herself on her professionalism, and felt she let both herself and Thomas down. Thomas
D

had believed in her enough to take a chance on her at Tirella, then brought her to Asia and given
TH

her a lot of responsibility. Alana knew this was her chance to really prove herself worthy of his
E

belief in her, and she blew it. She was completely overwhelmed by the situation and had no idea
C
AS

what to do. As soon as the loud “no” came out of her mouth, she knew she had made a mistake.
E

Alana knew that if she had simply said she did not yet have the sufficient data to make an informed
C

decision, or gave her opinion calmly and discussed it during the inevitable pushback from the group,
EN

there would have been no issue.

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5
 ESMT-418-0182-1 Alana Robertson at Munchia

As Alana tried to get her emotions under control, she tried to figure out what had happened. Had
she finally cracked under the pressure? Getting a few bits of information was nothing compared to
IN OT CA

the pressure she had been under when working on some much larger projects, so what was different
SP F S
N HE

this time? She realized she had no one to talk to about this. Alana always kept her personal and
EC OR E I
T

professional lives very separate, and as a result, none of them had any idea of the culture shock
TI US S D

she was experiencing – until that moment she had not recognized it herself. She was still staying
O E IS
N

in a hotel in central Kuala Lumpur, and did not know anyone in the city apart from the people she
C IN TR

worked with. As an introvert, Alana cherished her alone time and with the hours she had been
O C IB
PY LA U

working combined with the constant travel, she had not yet made any friends in the city. Even if
she had the time, her natural shyness made it very difficult for her to meet people socially and she
O SS ED
N R

lacked the support network that existed back in Amsterdam.

LY O B
. OM Y H

Alana realized that as she did not know where she was based, even for a short period, she did not
T

have a safe space to retreat to when she needed to recharge. She constantly felt uneasy when she
visited other offices and people would ask her where she was based, as she was unable to give an
. AR

answer. Thomas had always made it clear that he appreciated being able to be hands-off in her
management, and could leave her somewhere to get the work done and come back with results.
This made it difficult for Alana to tell him that she was having problems and needed help, as it
VA

seemed like a sign of failure. How was she going to go back into the office tomorrow?
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 Alana Roberts at Munchia ESMT–418–0182–1
IN OT CA
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Appendix – A Summary of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator

EC OR E I
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(MBTI) classification.b
TI US S D
O E IS
N

MBTI is arguably one of the most popular personality assessment tools used in the business world. The
C IN TR
O C IB

respondents are asked to make a choice between two different ways of reacting to a situation or
PY LA U

expressing preferences. Based on the answers, the respondents are classified according to four
O SS ED

dimensions. The dimensions are:

N R
LY O B
. OM Y H

1. Extraversion – Introversion (E/I): People scoring as “E” tend to concentrate on the external
T

world. Those concentrated on their own inner world score as “I”.

2. Sensing – Intuition (S/N): People scoring as “S” tend to prefer facts and details, while those
. AR

who score as “N” look at the big picture and add interpretation and meaning to data.
3. Thinking – Feeling (T/F): People scoring as “T” prefer to make and evaluate decisions based
on logic. Those who score as “F” rely on personal values and human impact.
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4. Judging – Perceiving (J/P): People scoring as “J” want things decided and settled. Those who
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score as “P” want to keep their options open.

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The preferences form 16 possible types of personalities based on the combination of four preferences
N

(e.g., ENFJ, INTP, ENFP, etc.).

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According to the MBTI classification, INTJs may be described as people who “have original minds and
SC

great drive for implementing their ideas and achieving their goals. Quickly see patterns in external
H

events and develop long-range explanatory perspectives. When committed, organize a job and carry it
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through. Skeptical and independent, have high standards of competence and performance – for
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themselves and others.”.c

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TH
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b
For more information on the MBTI dimensions and descriptions of various types consult:
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https://www.myersbriggs.org/ and https://www.mbtionline.com/#personalities

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c
Source: https://www.mbtionline.com/#personalities, accessed on September 26, 2018
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