Eric Peterson is the new General Manager of Green Mountain Cellular Telephone Company (GMCT), a subsidiary of Cellular Communication Services. He faces many challenges in getting the new division operational. These include an unclear reporting structure, conflicts with the Chief Engineer, lack of inventory control, delays from subcontractors, and strained employee relationships. Peterson works to address these issues through meetings, new processes, and building trust. He develops plans to restructure roles, introduce incentives, and get buy-in for a new strategy and decision-making process. Presenting these recommendations to the parent company, Peterson believes he can overcome the challenges and get GMCT operational.

1. ERIC PETERSON
WRITTEN ANALYSIS OF CASE (WAC)

2. ERIC PETERSON
WRITTEN ANALYSIS OF CASE (WAC)
BACKGROUND:
Cellular Communication Services Inc. (CelluCom) was a cellular based corporation founded by
Ric Jenkins that had a number of subsidiaries. Originally founded as a small California based
system, CelluCom with the promising leadership of Ric Jenkins had now grown up to a $200
million company that was amongst the top 20 companies of the Cellular Industry. Green
Mountain Cellular Telephone Company (GMCT), one of its subsidiaries, was a cellular mobile
telephone system situated in an area surrounded by a number of cities and towns in New
Hampshire and Vermont and that was licensed for offering its service to an area of 2000 sq
mile. The division established not long ago with Eric Peterson appointed as the General
Manager of the Division. CelluCom was recently successful in achieving major metropolitan
licenses from the Federal Communications Commission that led its services expand to
Sacramento, California and Florida while losing all of the rural territories. The Company
however, started an aggressive campaign to acquire these licenses from small Entrepreneurs
and successfully acquired 12 rural licenses. The Case furthers outlines the problems faced by
the GMCT Company in its preoperating /construction phase and its inability to meet its turn-on
date as a result of collective issues of inability to plan and organize by its key position holders.
Peterson, taking a deeper look into the matter as things get worse, determines what synergies
could be utilized to overcome the existing issues by collectively providing a win-win solution to
the company, its employees and its customers.

3. THE ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE OF CELLULAR COMMUNICATIONS:
President
VP(License, Acquisition
VP (Operations) VP (Finance) Other
and Development)
Drector Budgets and
Manager OP Controller Director of Purchasing
Plans
Systems already in
Pre Operating systems
Operation
GM (GMCT)

4. THE ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE OF CELLULAR COMMUNICATIONS:
Secretary and
GM Accounts
Payable
Accounting & Chief Supervisor
Supervisor
Activations DOM Engineer Cust. Service
MIS Deptt.
Manager Deptt.
Supervisor Supervisor Supervisor
Inventory
Switching Construction radio Engg.
Dept.
Dept Dept Dept.
Subcontractor
Before analyzing the challenges and issues faced by the company and its GM Eric Peterson, we
first take a look at the Organizational structure of the Company which shows that the company
adopts a Functional structure both for the CelluCom and GMCT. This kind of structure
essentially helped the company in Specialization and Perfection as far as the technical issues
were concerned. Sharing of ideas was another advantage that could have been obtained
however, due to lack of confidence between some of the employees as well as the egoistic
behavior of some of the higher level officials, this advantage couldn’t be achieved to its fullest
rather the structure was not appropriately formed

5. With a more specialized structure, the firm could have further benefitted from the economies
of scale and cost minimization. However, due to lack of planning and organizing capabilities of
the senior staff, the company often faced problems in inventory control and other
administrative tasks. Another advantage that was achieved was due to a more specialized
structure, the needs were interconnected or more or less same by the departments therefore a
single vendor or contractor was responsible for the combined needs.
This structure potentially has its disadvantages as well when it comes to diversifying products
and handling cross functional processes but in the context however, Peterson understood this
issue and tried to call upon companywide meetings in which all the employees were invited and
knowledge was shared, employees felt a sense of empowerment as issues were discussed
which led to improvising possible solutions.
CHALLENGES FACED BY ERIC:
Eric Peterson, GM of Green Mountain Cellular Telephone was a young married man with two
children. He obtained his BS and Masters Degree in Electrical engineering and later on added an
MBA degree to his profile. He had a past experience of working in The U.S Army Signal Corps as
an officer and as a design engineer for a maker of avionics equipment. He had no experience in
the cellular Industry but he believed this sector would offer him potential growth and therefore
decided to build his career in this sector. Throughout his academic career, Eric was known to be
a bright and well-liked person with a mature mind.
Upon entering the GMCT Company as a General Manager, which was his first achievement in
the company at a very early stage, the company was already faced by a number of startup
issues. Some of these are:
1- Ambiguous reporting system
2- Difficulty in getting along with the Chief Engineer
3- Lack of Inventory Control
4- Delays by Subcontractors
5- Lack of Confidence and strained relationship between employees leading to conflicts
6- Employee’s Salary Issue
7- Delayed and contradicting decisions of the Head Quarters
8- Lack of experienced personnel in the upper hierarchy
9- Zoning Problems
10- Problems with the local utility telephone lines

6. Discussing the issues in detail:
1-Ambiguous reporting system:
The very first issue that Eric experienced directly upon entering the organization was the
unclear reporting system or more of a misinterpreted reporting system. The President, at the
time of appointment told Eric that he was supposed to report directly to him but on his first day
on work, Eric came to find out that he was assigned to Jeff Hardy who in addition to being the
Director Budgets and Plans was also made in charge of Operations. Due to an uninformed and
unclear reporting system, the relationship between Eric and Jeff seemed to be quite awkward.
Moreover, due to lack of experience in the operations, Eric often found it quite difficult to get
along with him and Jeff was unable to guide and advice him in the required way during his
orientation. This in future led to increasing issues in the administrative part of the company.
2- Difficulty in getting along with the Chief Engineer
Curt Andrews who was a technician by experience was promoted to the post of Chief Engineer
and came out to be one of the most difficult persons in the company to get along with. Eric
particularly found it difficult to get him to do the necessary planning and organizing that
ensured a proper inventory control of equipment and supplies. There were five activities that
were needed to build the system which needed to be coordinated and planning was a crucial
part of the overall process. Curt, having no experience in the administrative side of the business
and starting up a new operation posed difficulties in handling the planning aspects of his job. In
addition to this, Curt also didn’t seem to have good relations with other employees in the
company especially his subordinate Todd Jones with whom he often had conflicts over selection
and specification of antenna equipment; and Peterson’s secretary Melissa Miczek, with whom
he often had arguments over errors in applications prepared by Curt but typed by Melissa.
Peterson raised the issue of Curt’s behavior several times in front of the Head Quarters and
suggested to reassign him a job that related to his experience and replace him with an
appropriate and experienced individual. He however, got no positive response from the Head
Quarters.
Peterson’s Action plan:
In order to overcome the difficulties posed by Curt, Peterson took some steps:

7. i- Carrying one on one meetings: Peterson held some one on one counseling sessions
with Curt in order to teach him to organize, plan and manage things in a better way.
However, Curt due to his lack of interest and egoistic attitude showed little or no
progress despite Peterson’s efforts.
ii- Weekly construction meetings: Peterson made Curt call upon weekly construction
meetings which involved participation of all the employees and which could increase
empowerment and prevent rumors among the employees. This time again, Curt
didn’t get involved so Peterson’s efforts were ineffective on Curt’s behavior.
iii- Establishing an inventory control reporting system: Peterson established an
Inventory Control Reporting system for Curt so that problems relating to inventory
and lack of knowledge about existing inventory could be resolved but Curt showed
resentment which later on made inventory issues worse and led to substantial loss
of both time and money.
3- Lack of Inventory Control:
The issue of Inventory was related to the Chief Engineer who suspected Peterson of not having
trust on him. The issue worsened as a result of shortages of radios in the system construction
project due to which the entire process had to be set up all over again, wasting valuable time
and money.
4- Delays by Subcontractors:
Peterson discovered that the subcontractors responsible for the construction of cellular towers
delayed the entire process by their below average rate of work. Moreover, a number of
complaints were being filed by the local citizens of the subcontractors breaching their privately
owned trees and property. When efforts failed to resolve the issue, Peterson decided to
terminate the contract with them.
5- Lack of Confidence and strained relationship between employees:
The employees often had disputes over equipments, purchases and various other operational
and un-operational issues. The relationship between senior staff and their subordinates was
also strained due to the bureaucratic nature of the senior management and the relatively
higher qualification of the subordinates. At one point when Curt and Trevor had a conflict over

8. the trucks that needed to be ordered for the repair system and the onsite installation
technicians, Peterson settled he conflict by ordering both the trucks in a different ratio. At this
point, he felt there still needs to be work done to improve the employee relationship.
6- Employee’s Salary Issue:
There was twice that Peterson experienced the issue of disapproval of the salary that he
suggested for two of the employees. The Head quarter, based on a bureaucratic structure and
orthodox mindset gave little or no importance to the value of Human Resource and that these
were very important resources just like other inputs which would increase the quality of output
and the returns depending upon what we have spent on them. The higher the price, the higher
the quality of work that could be achieved but the Head Quarters more believed in cost
minimization and hence suffered lower productivity by its employees. The only motivation for
the employees was the experience that they would get by working in this business. However,
once these employees get a better opportunity, they would probably leave the company.
7- Delayed and contradicting decisions of the Head Quarters:
A more serious problem faced by Peterson was the delayed and changing decisions of the Head
Quarters that would result in more and more delayed supplies. Once due to such a delay, the
supplier delayed the delivery and the company had to move to the alternative source whose
equipment was found to be defective and the company again had to move to the first supplier.
There was lack of knowledge and understanding that these small issues can build up
substantially higher costs which might also result in great losses including loss of potential
customers as well.
8- Lack of experienced personnel in the upper hierarchy
There was utmost lackness in the experience of the senior management including Peterson,
which he himself felt. Due to this, a number of decisions were not made with distinct
intellectuality and this could be in future a competitive disadvantage.

9. 9-Zoning Problems:
Peterson saw this area as one of the major problems faced by the company. The license that
the company got from FCC had a public utility status and was exempt from zoning
requirements. Peterson built up a strategy and offered free services to fire, police and
emergency operations in these areas and made an agreement to use fire department’s
communications tower as GMCT Cell site. However, Hardy seemed to be quite unwilling to sign
on the agreements.
10- Problems with the local utility telephone lines:
Peterson faced the difficulty of GMCT that was having a local utility in making its telephone
lines ready as promised. Peterson took the action and had a meeting with the local general
manager but things didn’t seem to smoothen up and consistent delays were being experienced.
According to some of the people, a union steward working in that area was responsible for
intentionally slowing down the make ready process.
11-Conflicts in the Objectives:
There were found to be a number of conflicts between Peterson’s and the other management’s
objective. His immediate boss, Jeff Hardy was more interested in marketing to subscribers in
the license area whereas Peterson wanted to work on a cream skimming strategy for
maximizing revenues. This clearly shows that there is no clear focus of the company, the vision
that everyone should be looking up to with the given situation. There is only a blurred image of
the goal and therefore a chaos in the system leading to clashes.
ERICS’S LEADERSHIP STYLE:
When we look at the above mentioned problems, we can see that Eric being appointed as a
General Manager in a very young age and with no experience in the relevant business has been
exposed to very large number of issues including Employees and Management’s issues,
operational issues, bureaucratic issues, and visionary issues. In such a situation Eric has shown
great levels of patience and has remained calm throughout the solution. He is struggling hard
for his employees to get on their feet despite their inexperience. He shares his experience with
his employees to help them achieve perfection despite some of their constant resistance and
reluctance such as Curt. He holds regular meetings with all the level of employee participation

10. and tries to participate actively himself as well. As result of meetings, he has so far helped in
improving the functional structure to get the most out of it which were difficult to find before
he joined the organization. There are a few deficiencies in his leadership as well. Firstly, he is
not able to make himself a much respected person. Although he seems to try and try but he is
not quite achieving what he should have. A better approach would have been for him to
increase his knowledge in the technical side of the business. Once he gets to know more than
the others in both the administrative and the technical side of the business, people will take
him more seriously than now.
POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS:
In view of the above mentioned problems, there are few steps that Peterson could take to
make things better:
1- If the company is looking out for cost cutting and profit maximization, they can appoint
a consultant who would consult Peterson in steps regarding the issues faced on the
technical side.
2- Peterson could propose the Head Quarters that Curt to be reassigned to a job of a
Technical Head and appoint a more competent chief engineer having a vast experience
in the preoperating and operations division.
3- Conduct regular training sessions for the inexperienced employees both in the technical
and the administrative subjects
4- Curt to hire a separate Human Resource Manager for GMCT. Separate policies and
separate employee benefits should be set up for this division specifically. Separate SOPs
shall also be made.
5- Suggest a test campaign for marketing in the premium users segment. This would
provide them with a result that would be either as per his expectations or the Upper
Management’s. Whatever the result might be, a clear path can be determined as to
where to go.
6- Peterson can also appoint interns from both the technical and the business subjects
who can help bring some research about the market as well as be a cost effective source
of carrying out work while training them. These interns can then be hired by the

11. company as they will be having more experience than the rest of the candidates and will
have a deeper knowledge about the system.
7- Introduce reward and incentives system into the organization
8- Introduce Performance feedback criteria where employees should be frequently and
randomly checked for their performances and appropriate feedbacks either to improve
or appreciate the employees.
Developing the Plan:
While developing the plan, Eric should keep the star model in mind:
Strategy
People Structure
Practices
Reward Processes &
Systems Lat. Capabilities
He should first formulate a strategy that will be directed towards the corporate vision.
According to this strategy, he should then figure out whether the existing Functional Structure
is acceptable or not. An introduction of Reward system and team building capabilities should be
introduced with the Basket Ball Type of team to be formulated. His role should less of the
traditional manager and more of an advisor with time to time switching to team leader or even

12. a facilitator and empowering others to decide which he currently is practicing as well. Develop a
structure that would contain fresh and energetic graduates and feed them the vision of the
company and train them to excel.
The Rational Decision making model:
In order to develop a decision making model before implementing the star model that could be
discussed with Knight, Peterson should adopt the following six steps:
1- Define the Problem
2- Identify the decision criteria
3- Allocate weights to the criteria
4- Develop the alternatives
5- Evaluate the alternatives
6- Select the best alternative
CONCLUSION:
Concluding the case, we can say that despite a number of challenges that Peterson experienced
right after his appointment, through his facilitative leadership, he is able to smoothen and align
things up. For the matters still on hold, when Peterson would present Knight with the above
solutions and models, he would surely convince Knight for implementing his plans for now he
would seem more focused and programmed.
References
Designing Dynamic Organizations,
Jay Gilbirth, Diane Downey, Amy Kates
Essentials of Organizational Behaviour,
Stephen P. Robinson; Timothy A. Judge
Eric Peterson (A),
Harvard Business school, Professor John J. Gabarro