Managing a Technology-Based Business Case

        TECE 6200

Managing a Technology-Based Business

Stone Finch, Inc.: Young Division, Old Division

Barbara Feitosa

Professor: Ted Clark

06/01/2015

The Stone Finch case show us the problems related to the company’s growth model. The major problems are the tensions between the two divisions and the best organizational structure for long-term employee retention.

Jim Billings is an entrepreneur by heart. Because of his personality energetic and risk taker, he caught the eyes of the CEO of Stone Water Products, who acquired his company, Goldfinch Technologies. Being named the head of the newly created Solutions Division, he showed his high potential leadership qualities and impressive results on company’s revenues. He also had brought to Solutions Division the innovative concept of subsidiaries. This was a really creative and promising idea, and with an incredible potential to bring good results if well managed. Every company needs to be innovative to continue being competitive in the market. It means more than launch new products to the market, but means that they need to be able to reinvent process and established products quickly to respond to the market changes. Many companies face the contradictions of managing existing products and innovation simultaneously, but the innovation process must be part of the culture of the company.  Every single employee can be innovative in their own way, doing something different at work and improving the way he used to work to get better results.

The board of directors wanted a leader with the vision to drive continued growth and expansion and Billings had delivered these. Based on his results he was invited to become the new CEO of Stone Finch Inc.

As a president of Stone Finch, he did not know how to manage well the two divisions. He gave too much importance and investment to the subsidiaries and forgot about the manufacturing division, core business of the company. They used to be leaders for years and now without investment they were losing sales to competitors and losing salespeople that were demotivated. Billings had many characteristics that differentiated him to the rest of the other leaders. His leadership style of believing in his ideas and taking the risks were essential for growth and success, especially in a business model where the innovation was incorporated as part of the culture. However, I think he was not a complete leader, because he needed to have control and take care of all the company, the two divisions in the same way. He could not have let the other arm of the company helpless. Manufacturing division made the company’s reputation, it made them leader in the market and provided the money to feed the subsidiaries.

This difference in treatment between the two divisions brought serious problems to the company.

Solutions division had no clarity about their role in the service division and they were dissatisfied because there was no communication between them and the subsidiary. The subsidiary never really merged back and they were much richer and entitled than the solution division.

Manufacturing division was dissatisfied because they were losing their best salespeople and because there was no meaningful investments in this division. They did not feel important in Billings’s eyes as the solutions division was.