HBR CASE STUDY A hot team turns around a moribund division, but now, with success behind it, the team is running icy cold. Should This Team Be Saved? by Hollis Heimbouch S, this is Captain McMahon. We're anticipating a fair amount of turbulence as we head over the Rockies, so I'm turning on the fasten seat-belt sign until we clear this rough patch. Thanks for your patience." Peter Markles clicked the "save" button and looked up from his laptop. His gaze shifted from the pale blue computer screen to the cloudless blue sky visible through the porthole. "Rough patch?" he wondered. "It looks as smooth as glass out there." Appearances certainly can be deceiving, he mused, before turning his attention back to the JULY-AUGUST 2001 31 HBR CASE STUDY Should This Team Be Saved? computer on the tray table. Peter was drafting a speech for this evening's celebration; his team at Vigor Skin Care would be receiving the company's highest award for performance. Never mind that the team had slowly been losing steam. Tonight, they would party. Tomorrow, Peter would have tofigureout what to do. Rejuvenating the Business When Peter took the reins four years ago. Vigor Skin Care was the sleeping dog of the industry, producing an unremarkable line of cosmetics, soaps, and skin-care lotions that barely broke even year to year. Vigor was a division of one of the largest packaged-consumer-goods companies in North America. At first, Peter hadn't known exactly how to save the flagging business unit-he could admit that now-only that it deserved an honest try. After all, wasn't Vigor's original mission-to provide safe and healthy skin-care products for the whole family-still valid? True, the company's product portfolio wasn't as slick and trendy as some of the recent entrants in the market, but Peter had always liked underdogs, and Vigor was just that. Peter had spent thefirst15 years of his career with another one of the country's largest consumer goods companies. He had been hired right out of college as a district salesperson and had spent thousands of hours driving from account to account in the upper Midwest. During his tenure at the company, he was a dynamo: first, he was named national accounts manager, then global accounts manager, and twice he was named Vendor of the Year by one of the giant retail chains. Eventually, he became a division vice president. Years later, Peter still loved the thrill of closing the deal-give him a decent HoUis Heimbouch is an executive editor at Harvard Business School Press in Boston and a contributing editor at HBR. HBR's cases present commort managerial dilemmas and offer concrete solutions from experts. As written, they are hypothetical, and the names used are fictitious. 32 product, and he'd always beat his sales targets. He thrived out in the field, bringing along the junior sales staff, offering them tips on how to manage difficult accounts, and bucking up the team when a crucial sale fell through. Although Peter had never gotten an MBA, his hard work, street smarts, and people skills more than made up for what he lacked in advanced degrees. The corporate guys may have the credentials, he reasoned, but his gut was almost always right, and he'd developed a reputation for making the most out of what he was given and then some. Nevertheless, when the offer came to lead Vigor Skin Care, Peter knew it would test all his skills. On the face of it. Vigor's challenge was no different from the one every mature organization confronts eventually: How do you rejuvenate the business? Peter knew he couldn't merely push products that customers didn't want, nor could he simply bulldoze his way through headquarters demanding more resources. No, the division's turnaround would require equal parts discipline, politics, and creativity. He couldn't do it alone. Buiiding the Team Sandy Fryda, Vigor's longtime marketing director, was the last person Peter had expected to tum to for help-especially since Sandy appeared to have been a major contributor to Vigor's desultory performance for many years, initially, he had pegged Sandy as one of those polished corporate players, without the stomach for making bold moves. The best he could hope for would be defensiveness on her part; at worst, he'd have to ask her to leave. But when Peter finally met Sandy face-to-face, she had surprised him. At a breakfast meeting that lasted through lunch, Sandy candidly laid out her frustrations and ambitions for Vigor. "I've been waiting for a chance like this," Sandy announced, as she handed Peter a largefilecontaining the marketing campaigns and strategic recommendations she had drafted to support Vigor's makeover. Like Peter, Sandy believed that Vigor was a brand worth saving. But headquarters paid at- tention to the divisions only when problems became crises, she explained. Vigor needed an outsider to stir things up.'Tm great behind the scenes, but you're the guy who can save the day. And besides," she said with a wink,"l know where the bodies are buried. I'll show you around." So it began: Sandy would help Peter navigate the tricky waters at headquarters. But who would contribute the creative vision that Vigor lacked? Thirty-year-old Josh Bartola had already made a name for himself as the founder of Snap, a small cosmetics company that catered to hip, young urbanites. With no business experience but plenty of inspiration, Josh had turned Snap into the market leader before Vigor's parent company purchased it. Snap was safely on the road to profHARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW Should This Team Be Saved? H B R CASE S T U D Y itability, and Josh had stayed on as a kind of nomad in the corporate research lab, offering random and unsolicited advice to anyone who would listen and sometimes stumbling unwittingly into the middle of a turf war. There was little doubt that Josh was a wildly creative entrepreneur, but he was also naive and fiercely independent. One day, Josh barged into Peter's office, wearing Dr. Martens boots and a faded Clash T-shirt, interrupting a meeting between Peter and Sandy. "I've got it!" Josh declared as he slapped the table. For an hour, he waxed rhapsodic about an entirely new positioning for Vigor Skin Care that would address consumers' desire for fashionable and healthy products, josh had been developing a new kind of skin conditioner JULY-AUGUST 2001 that was all natural, hypoallergenic, and enhanced with vitamin E and UVA protection. The conditioner would be perfect not only in Vigor's existing skin-care products but also as an ingredient in a new line of specially enriched cosmetics-everything from skin cleansers to mascara to lip gloss. Josh already had the name, too: Ageless Vigor. Raising their bottled waters in a toast, Peter, Sandy, and Josh-the "fearsome threesome," as Josh had nicknamed themset out to breathe new life into Vigor. Creating Resuits In Ageless Vigor's early days, Peter joked that he spent more time with Sandy and Josh than he did with his wife. When Peter arrived at the office each morning, he came to expect that the first voice- mail message of the day, left late the night before, would be from Josh, excitedly describing his new ideas for Ageless Vigor's packaging and branding. Minutes later, Sandy would usually arrive with two cups of coffee and a list of the day's action items. Sandy's uncanny ability to anticipate corporate headquarters' reaction-and to move the Vigor team out of the line of fire when necessary-proved invaluable to Peter. Acting as chief political adviser and war room commander, Sandy would help Peter sketch out Vigor's strategy. And just when they were starting to feel overwhelmed by all the tasks that lay before them. Josh would storm into Peter's office with a pizza, a new CD they must listen to, and prototypes of Ageless Vigor for the staff to try. Josh 33 HBR CASE STUDY Should This Team Be Saved? was always full of enthusiasm and new ideas, which he loved to bounce off of Peter. "Give it to me straight," he would demand. "Which ideas hold water, and which ones are too out there?" They were an unlikely team-Peter the rainmaker, Sandy the corporate survivor, and Josh the rebel visionary. They were stronger together than they'd ever be on their own. In fact, Peter believed of the product line had made it to market-granted, with phenomenal resultsbut the rest of the line was still months behind schedule because of problems with suppliers and quality controls. Peter had already sprung into action, working with his manufacturing director to iron out the kinks in the system. Vigor's manufacturing director seemed happy enough for the attention, but precious political capital better deployed in another battle. Was Josh worth that kind of fight? Did Vigor still need the dashing feats of creative genius that only Josh could provide? As if matters with Josh weren't strained enough, there was Sandy to worry about. Peter suspected that she was feeling burned out by the pace of the last four years. The hours had been Peter was deeply troubled by the sense that his closest allies, Sandy and Josh, seemed to have none of their original gusto when it came to tackling the day-to-day problems involved with distributing Ageless Vigor. that the team actually made him a better leader. Like Vigor's new antiaging cream, the trio seemed to thrive on some mysterious fonnula."I don't know how it works," Peter had confessed to Sandy, "but it does." And Peter wasn't the only one who noticed. The fearsome threest>me seemed to have undergone a transformation, each person exceeding his or her abilities, each making the most out of what he or she had to work with. There was no way around it: the last four years-all those heated discussions, the endless presentations, the down-tO"the-wire decisions-had been the time of Peter's life, thanks in no small part to Sandy and Josh. Dealing with the Fallout The plane pitched and yawed a little, as Peter once again clicked "save." As far as anyone could tell. Vigor Skin Care's star was still rising, but Peter knew that the division had stumbled these past two months, even if the numbers didn't reflect that yet A manufacturing problem meant that best-selling Ageless Vigor moisturizer had been out of stock for three weeks. Peter's sales team had spent two years getting key retailers to carry the line, and even one delay could permanently strain those relationships. His other concern was that the launch of the second phase of Ageless Vigor products had been more costly and slower than expected. Only two-thirds 34 Peter found the meetings a bit tedious long, the work intense, and now Vigor for all their urgency. He missed the cre- had moved to a different phase in its ative process of working out strategies life span. The days had become more with his team and the energy that Sandy predictable, the early morning huddles and Josh brought to the table. less frequent, and Peter didn't rely on Indeed, Peter was deeply troubled by Sandy as much as he once did when it the sense that his closest allies, Sandy came to managing his superiors in headand Josh, seemed to have none of their quarters. Peter had started to hear from original gusto when it came to tackling others that Sandy was showing up late these sorts of day-to-day problems. In- to meetings and wasn't returning phone stead, they oniy seemed interested in calls or answering e-maiis as promptly as "blue skying" - spinning out wild ideas she used to. If only Sandy would regain for the future. What had happened to some of her enthusiasm, perhaps the the fearsome threesome? team would be okay. Peter needed a Within the past month, more than a strong person to bring greater prefew of the voice mails Josh left were to dictability to Vigor's operations, and explain why he couldn't meet with when Sandy was at her best, she unSandy and Peter at their usual time. doubtedly could fill that role. Perhaps He always seemed to be rushing off he should ask her to step up to a new asto lunch with executives from another signment. Or was she ready to move on? division of the company; clearly. Josh Perhaps he was ready for her to move was flattered hy their requests for his on. One way or another, they needed to advice. Peter suspected that the divi- talk, even if he didn't know quite what sion's interest in Josh was more than just he wanted to say. casual. And why not? Who wouldn't benefit from having someone like Josh "This is Captain McMahon. Well, air-trafon hoard? Vigor certainly had, and now fic control says the worst is behind us, so an initiative was under way at head- I'm going to turn off the fasten seat-belt quarters to encourage this sort of cross- sign. We'll be landing in 40 minutes." pollination among the business units. With one more glance out the winBut there was still work to he done at dow, Peter loosened his seat belt. Yes, Vigor, and Peter didn't have another tonight there would be speeches and Josh waiting in the wings. If Peter applause and toasts to the future. But wanted to keep Josh, he would have to tomorrow, Peter would have to face the put up afightat headquarters. And that, question: Should he try to keep Vigor's as Sandy had taught him, might expend product team together? HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW Harvard Business Review Notice of Use Restrictions, May 2009 Harvard Business Review and Harvard Business Publishing Newsletter content on EBSCOhost is licensed for the private individual use of authorized EBSCOhost users. It is not intended for use as assigned course material in academic institutions nor as corporate learning or training materials in businesses. Academic licensees may not use this content in electronic reserves, electronic course packs, persistent linking from syllabi or by any other means of incorporating the content into course resources. Business licensees may not host this content on learning management systems or use persistent linking or other means to incorporate the content into learning management systems. Harvard Business Publishing will be pleased to grant permission to make this content available through such means. For rates and permission, contact permissions@harvardbusiness.org. ANALYSING CASE STUDY Analsing Case study Name Date Institution ANALYSING CASE STUDY Peter's team should be saved considering the efforts they have been associated with. Though they face fare amount of turbulence they are going to be rewarded well. When peter took the reins of power four years ago Vigor skin care industry was the main industry that produces unremarkable line of cosmetics soaps and skin care lotions that took over the market. Vigor was a division of one of the largest packed consumer goods in North America. Peter had spent close to 15 years with vigor consumer goods. He had been hired from college as a district sales person and had spent hours driving from account to account in upper Midwest. During his time at the company he was a dymo first he was named national account manager then global account manager and twice he was named vendor of the year by one of the giant retail chain. He thrived in the field and always beat his sales. He did well in the field bring along the junior sales staff offering tips on how to manage accounts and bucking up teams when crucial sale fell through. Though he never won MBA but he made a name for himself. When he got offer to lead Vigor he knew he had to test his skills. He needed team work in Vigor. Sandy Fryda, Vigor's long time market director is the last person he approached for health since sandy appeared to be major contributor to Vigor's desultory performer for many years. When peter and Sandy finally met face to face at a breakfast meeting that had lasted up to lunch time, expressed his disssapointment and ambitions for Vigor. The opportunity he has been waiting for, handed peter a large file containing market campaign and recommendations he drafted to support Vigor's makeover. Sandy also believed that vigor was worth saving but headquarters paid attention to the divisions when problems became crisis. Sandy would help peter navigate the tricky waters at the headquarters but who would contribute creative version that peter Vigor lacked. ANALYSING CASE STUDY Forty year old josh Bartola had already made name for himself as the founder of snap and small cosmetic company that catered for young urbanites. With no business experience josh had turned snap into the market leader before Vigor's parent company purchased it. Josh spent time in research lab offering advice to anyone who would listen