BMGT 364 Project 3 (Week 6) – Leadership

Purpose 

In this project, you will demonstrate an understanding of management and leadership skills and leadership styles.  You will read a case scenario and apply what you have learned to make a recommendation for a new position with PureLife Foods.

Outcome Met by Completing This Assignment

• demonstrate leadership skills by communicating a shared vision, motivating and empowering others, and creating a culture of ethical decision-making and innovation

How to Set Up the Paper

Create a Word or Rich Text Format (RTF) document that is double-spaced using 12-point font.  The final product will be 3-4 pages in length excluding the title page and reference page.  Write clearly and concisely.

Use Project 3 Template to complete this project.

Scenario Information:

You are currently working as an associate reporting to the Senior Lead Consultant for Green Line Consultants.  The Senior Lead Consultant has been contacted by Grace Polk, head of R&D for PureLife Foods, Grace explained that she has been working to get the initial planning of a new division started but it is time to hand over the reins to a new Executive Director who will be responsible for bringing the division together and establishing the new division as a well-oiled machine.   The Senior Lead Consultant has asked you to help conduct a candidate search for the position of Executive Director for the Fitness and Nutrition division.

PureLife Foods currently produces and distributes organic vegetarian food products to major retailers such as Giant and Safeway that in turn are sold to the public. PureLife has decided to start producing and distributing a line of all-natural energy bars with its existing contracted clients.

Consider the question, “Who is a manager and what is their job in an organization?”   As PureLife Foods launches a new product division to design, develop and deliver energy bars, the company will need to bring in someone to manage this division.  The desire of Grace Polk is that the new Executive Director for the Energy Bars Division will be open to innovative ways to develop green and sustainable products that will not only be popular among the traditional PureLife Foods customer base, but also will be the face of the organization when marketing company products.

Partnering with Green Line Consultants, Grace will be vetting three potential candidates who will be expected to jump in and begin the development of management plans that will be used to establish the new division.  The transcripts from the interviews of the three potential candidates have been given to the Green Line Consultants team who will help Grace.  The new Executive Director will be a Manager of the 21^st Century who will be able to instill the culture, value and traditions of PureLife Foods into the employees hired as managers and employees.

In the beginning, the Executive Director will be the face of PureLife Food’s marketing brand.  In addition, this new employee will need to be able to motivate not only the employee base of these new products but also motivate a new customer base for PureLife Foods on the ‘difference’ PureLife Foods will bring to the Energy Bars industry.   Currently, the Energy Bars industry consists a lot of well-established companies, and a strong entry will be key to grab market share.  Innovative and well-made products, good marketing, and a clear strategy will be critical to a strong entry, so bringing in a strong director will be key.

Candidate Summary of Transcripts

Beth Jordan

Beth has spent the past 25 years working for Star Lite Foods, a mid-sized vegetarian food company currently operating out of Texas, which recently was bought by a large health food company looking to expand to Energy Bars.  For the past two years Beth has served as the Vice President of Operations and Marketing where, according to her statements in the interview, she was instrumental in helping Star Lite gain a 12% increase year-over-year in market share.  Before being named as a vice president for Star Lite, Beth worked for 10 years as a Regional Director in Maine responsible for sourcing vegetables from regional farms.  During her run as a Regional Director she was responsible for making visits to the farms along the eastern seaboard to ensure compliance to company, federal, and local safety and production regulations.  She credited her success in that role to her strict management style of being a part of each farmer’s decision making process regardless of the farmer’s independent status.  She did this through modern communication channels that allowed her and her personnel to work from their homes rather than from office space in headquarters.  The previous 13 years with the company were spent climbing the corporate ladder starting with the company in the production line at the Michigan plant where the company got its start.  During her interview Beth stated that PureLife Foods should consider getting into the Energy Bars industry with less focus on sustainability and green initiatives as it can be a difficult industry for new entrants.  Beth proposed focusing on making quality products that can be sourced from local vendors.  She stated that once established, the company could initiate a move to being more environmentally and attentive to the well-being of consumers.  She proudly stated that she was an ‘old school’ manager whose success in Texas came from her ‘hands on’ approach.  Beth stated in her cover letter that she is an experienced executive with a successful track record. 

Sharron Tulles

Sharron has been working for PureLife Foods as the Deputy Executive Director of the West Coast Division for the last year mainly focused on helping the Meatless Hamburger Patty branch become more environmentally and human friendly.  Sharron currently holds a BS in Chemical Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and an MBA from UMGC.  Prior to her current position Sharron was a production manager at the Arizona facility for eleven years and was highly regarded within the employee ranks as a fair manager who was inclusive in her decision making.  This allowed her to keep employees involved in the daily operations of the plant and in her opinion helped to foster a cohesive workforce.  Sharron’s research in organic ingredients was a major reason for the ascension of PureLife Foods in Oregon’s list of environmental and human friendly companies.  Prior to joining PureLife Foods twelve years ago, Sharron spent one year as an intern for a small non-profit company researching the long-term effects of soy-based and animal-based products imported from Asia.  During her initial screening, Sharron admitted she does not have any marketing experience to help be the face of the new product but has a strong desire to work on those skills and believes she has the managerial and leadership qualities to guide the team to success.  Sharron stated in her cover letter that although she only has twelve years of experience she would be a great fit for this executive position not just due to her familiarity with PureLife Foods, its core values, understanding of its mission and vision, but also because of her desire to see PureLife Foods become a leader in sustainable production with a focus on being environmentally and human friendly.  Her degree in chemical engineering paired with the desire stated previously, would also allow her to focus on finding ways for PureLife Foods to become the leader in quality, clean energy bars.

Jack Tillson

Jack is the current owner of Bigsby Frozen Foods that focuses on vegetarian frozen meals, with over $300M in sales annually.  PureLife Foods recently agreed to purchase Bigsby’s and made a promise for Jack to receive a position within the organization as part of the purchase agreement.  It was agreed that Rico Manuel, Jack’s long-time expert Frozen Foods Director would take over as Director of Operations for the PureLife Foods’s supplement division.  Terry Schinn, PureLife’s COO, has asked to have Jack vetted carefully to see if maybe this new position would be a good fit for his executive level management and leadership skills.  Terry also believes that since ‘Jack can run his own company he should be able to run a new division.’  The purchase of Jack’s company by PureLife Foods has a stipulation that Jack must be provided with a ‘high level’ position within the organization.  Prior to starting the company 17 years ago Jack was an officer in the US Air Force working in logistics. During Grace’s conversations with Jack, he admitted that he handled the operations and financial side of the company for many of the company’s initial years while Rico led the marketing campaigns that helped the company grow exponentially for the first few years and maintain steady growth thereafter.  However, he believes that since he has been leading Bigsby’s through its growth that he could easily manage PureLife Foods into a new venture.  Jack feels confident he is the best candidate and is a front runner for the position.

Instructions: 

You have been asked to review the three candidates and make a recommendation for the Executive Director position.  The new Executive Director will have a lot of responsibility in managing and leading.

You will evaluate each of the three candidates considering each candidate’s full body of experience and how their experience aligns with Grace’s expectations for the new position as well as how each candidate will lead within the context of PureLife Foods’s desire to be a green and sustainable organization.  

Review the Paper:  Read the paper to ensure all required elements are present.  The following are specific requirements that you will follow.  Use the checklist to mark off that you have followed each specific requirement.

Submit the paper in the Assignment Folder (The assignment submitted to the Assignment Folder will be considered the student’s final product and therefore ready for grading by the instructor.  It is incumbent upon the student to verify the assignment is the correct submission.  No exceptions will be considered by the instructor).

Self-Plagiarism: Self-plagiarism is the act of reusing significant, identical or nearly identical portions of one’s own work.  You cannot re-use any portion of a paper or other graded work that was submitted to another class even if you are retaking this course.   You also will not reuse any portion of previously submitted work in this class.  A zero will be assigned to the assignment if self-plagiarized.  Faculty do not have the discretion to accept self-plagiarized work.

NOTE:  All submitted work is to be your original work. You may not use any work from another student, the Internet or an online clearinghouse.  You are expected to understand the Academic Dishonesty and Plagiarism Policy, and know that it is your responsibility to learn about instructor and general academic expectations with regard to proper citation of sources as specified in the APA Publication Manual, 6th Ed. (Students are held accountable for in-text citations and an associated reference list only).