Case 3- Wendy Peterson

Facts

 Fred Wu joined AccountBack, an accounting software and services company in Plano, Texas,
eight months before
 Within this short time span he had made huge development in the business
 But the relationship with Mrs. Wendy was not so strong
 Wendy wants Wu to shift his focus from the only large client to other new potential clients. She
wants him to spend more time in the office and mingle with his other collogues by spending
more time in the office and taking their ideas and spending some time on online sales tools like
others
 Wu assured Windy that his quality time spend with the Chinese community would was about to
pay off as he expected to sign three major new clients in the upcoming quarter.
 Since he is getting successful in the position of the sales executive, he demanded his own sales
assistant to answer his calls and per the administrative tasks
 Windy tried her best to show her dissatisfaction in her face, as in AccountBank some seniors
who has more than 30 years of experience only had their own sales executives
 AccountBack was found in 1988 by Will Gleason, a former accountant and Travis Hardiman, a
software engineer.
 They thought many accounting services could be automated
 They cultivated good relationship with potential customers as they thought their two
competitive advantages are superior software and this good relationship which other
competitors lack
 They also followed good work culture
 Most of their clients renewed their software which as about 25% which is higher than the
industrial standards and most of, they retained for at least four years. One-time installation cost
between $25,000 and $100,000.
 The founders retired and new CEO taken charge. He replaced the vice presidents of the sales
with young ones and given aggressive growth targets by meeting that they would get a
substantial bonus also
 Wendy was also so appointed sales VP in Texas. After consulting with one of four regional senior
VP of sales who has also her superior to improver her under performing office by 40% in two
years
 Their sales executives usually spend good amount of time with clients and sign the proposal.
Once the proposal signed or renewed it is transferred to the dedicates service team. They would
handle everything related to the software but still the sales executives keep the track with the
clients to address their needs
 Company follows a target base incentive base salary system foe sales employee unlike other
employees who are flat salaried. Individual and reginal targets are given.
  Wendy Peterson was a “doer” person. She pushed herself to meet the new position. She was
one the few sales employees who brought in new business in 2008 despite the recession
 In Plato most of the revenue comes from few larger companies which the senior members of
sales team are connected with
 She provided good training to the new employees, spent quality time with them and was also
clear on her instructions and goals to be achieved, while some thought her roaming in the office
would affect their work flow. She also appreciated real time update and wanted to know the
current changes in the market. Some feel she was overzealous. Some veterans resisted her
changes and coaching approach and questioned her with traditional concept to be followed
rather than the new ones.
 She was concerned about increasing new busies and found potential new customers in the
close-knit Chinese business community. For this she needs to hire the right person since in her
office lacked that diversity.
 Fred Wu had his own business which he sold for a profit. This entrepreneurship value helped him
to get this job. He had good connections with a large number of people from his community.
 During his initial days he kept a lot of enthusiasm to learn and adapt to the new changes. Wendy
received a lot of good feedback about Wu and his initiative to learn
 Although all employees were given short term revenue target since his circumstances was new
Wendy altered this to him
 After the initial days his presence at the office drastically become less. Although Wendy required
timely updates, he failed in that also. He was less interactive and unlike others who made all the
calls at the cabin he kept it personal.
 He signs a new contract with a large client and now spending more time on them and even
interacting with the service team also.
 He provided new services to his only client without prior approval as of the policy if the
company.

Problem List

 Cave to the demands of the employee

 Following company’s policy
 Retaining the main customer

Problem Statement

 Retaining the key sales executive that brings major crunch of income to the company by
compromising his unacceptable demands or to make him unhappy by following the company’s
followed policies

Decision Problem

 To meet the key employees unacceptable demand or not

Criteria evaluation

 Job satisfaction
 Company’s policy
 Moral to other employees

Alternatives

 Terminate
 Cave
 Convince

Table of evalutation

 Terminate  Cave  Convince

 Job NO no May be
satisfaction

 Company’s no May be Yes

policy

 Moral to no NO yes
other
employees

Conclusion

Wendy should be able to find the source of new potential customers If she is taking any actions against
Wu as he is already threatening to leave the company. She needs to make sure about the satisfaction of
his key sales executive while keeping in mind of her companies followed polices along with the
impression of other employees also.