MBS$538$

ASSESSMENT $2$ CASE STUDY ANALYSIS PRESENTATION $($FOR STUDENT$)$

CRISIS AT ATOM SYSTEMS

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The Crisis

Everyone was scurrying when the mainframe at The Sanctuary General Hospital failed a

second time after it has been replaced. It didn$$t help with the Southeast Asia Information

Technology Conference $($SEA IT Conference$)$ just hours away, where John the Senior Manager

of Business Services at Atom Systems has been invited to be one of the keynote speakers for

the event. Looking at his watch and at the email he received from Angela, the Group Director,

regarding the second incident of the malfunctioned mainframe, he is in despair...

The Merger and Structure

To synergise their businesses, Atom Systems and Beta Systems agree to a merger six months

ago. The name Atom Systems is retained in the process. Due to the merger, a major

restructuring has taken place. Some employees have been laid off and those who remained

were on thin ice, uncertain of their future, fearing another cycle of redundancy. Human

resources redeployment is extremely unpredictable. Yet in the height of all the uncertainty

and ambiguity, opportunities for promotion seemed not too far$-$fetched for some who have

managed to develop strong and wide networks in the organisation.

Originally, John is a manager from Systems and Technology of Atom Systems. Since the merger,

he has been promoted to Senior Manager and redeployed to lead the team at Business

Services. There were five members in his team, Gideon, Jason and Matthew were colleagues

with John at Atom Systems prior to the merger. Gary and Fei Li were from Beta Systems.

The Preparation for the Conference Presentation

Amidst the disruption, John has been invited to speak in the Southeast Asia Information

Technology conference $($SEA IT Conference$).$ He is elated and honored to be representing the

company for this event. This is a high$-$profile event where many global senior executives of

the IT industry would be attending. It is another good opportunity for John to expand his

network externally. Who knows he might end up being headhunted to join one of the region$$s

largest tech companies. He is very determined to make good use of this opportunity to exhibit

his expertise, charm and charisma. His team was given a brief on the conference theme and

were told to come prepared in the meeting with ideas on the topic for the conference.

When the team convened to meet, Gideon started the ball rolling with ideas which he thought

were trending in the industry. John told Gideon that the conference attendees are

MBS$538$

ASSESSMENT $2$ CASE STUDY ANALYSIS PRESENTATION $($FOR STUDENT$)$

CRISIS AT ATOM SYSTEMS

Page $2$ of $6$

conservative Senior Executives who might be more interested in topics that are down to earth

and practical. Gideon was disappointed at how quickly his ideas have been thrown out of the

window. He was hoping that John would be impressed. Afterall, he has spent the past one

week researching on the ideas and have gathered significant amount of information for the

meeting. The meeting ended without any conclusion on the topic.

One day, Gideon overheard Jason having a conversation with John in the pantry. $$John$,$ I think

the company has gotten the right person to speak in the conference. You are so experienced

and well respected in this industry.$$ John smiled gleefully and Jason continued, $$I have been

thinking a lot after our first meeting and I thought you can consider $$Data Integration$$ in your

presentation...$$ Gideon was disgusted at Jason$$s mentioned of $$Data Integration$.$ This was

one of the ideas he proposed in the first meeting. Jason continued, $$Let me show you some

statistics on this growing trend here... What do you think?$$ John was full of praise after

listening to Jason$$s proposal and thought that was a great idea.

After this, Gideon went to Matthew and told him what happened. $$The idea on $$Data

Integration$$ was mine and it was rejected. But just a minute ago, I overheard Jason proposing

the same idea to John and John accepted it$.$ This didn$$t feel good at all!$,$ Gideon sounded

very dejected. $$I understand how you feel. Gideon, you are more than who you think you

can be$.$ We don$$t win all the time, but it is important not to give up on what you believe is

important to excel at work. What you can do is learn to be more effective in your

communication.$$ Matthew replied. Gideon felt better almost immediately after talking to

Matthew. Gideon really liked talking to Matthew. He has this calm disposition that draws

people$$s attention, and his advice often stirs up positive emotion.

In the next meeting, John recognized Jason$$s recommendation publicly to the team and he

was tasked to prepare a major part of the content for the presentation. Gideon felt the

lingering disappointment resurfacing as John continued to compliment Jason. John added

that Jason can go to him anytime to communicate the details. The rest of the members were

then assign