Case study solution for Henry Tam and the MGI team uploaded by Bodhisattwa Dasgupta (bodhijobs at gmail dot com)

1. Henry Tam and the MGI Team
A Case Study

2. Background - HBS Business Plan Contest
o HBS organizes Business Plan contest and 2002 marks the 6th year of this contest
o This initiative enabled students get a feel of real-world entrepreneurship opportunities
o Teams comprised mostly of HBS students, but a team can have people outside HBS as well
o Mandatory to have One 2nd year HBS MBA student
o Its not mandatory to pursue this project if you win but many went on to launch successful business on these footsteps
o Prize money total exceeds USD 60,000
Background- The Team
o MGI is a small start up founded by 3 gentlemen from Russia who migrated to the US 20 years back
o Sasha Gimpelson, an ex HBS grad of 87 with extensive experience in marketing, sales etc.
o Igor, an award-winning music composer and pianist
o Roman, internationally acclaimed composer with experience in traditional and electronic compositions
o MGI was into music puzzle which made learning fun and creative for kids
o MGI first product- Nutcracker was a critical success but commercial failure
o Henry Tam was a 2nd year MBA student and a part of this team along with Dana Soiman, 2nd year student as well
o Other team members being- Alex Sarkatov from Berklee college of Music and Dav Clark, a MIT grad.
Q1. How well do you think the MGI functioned as a team, and why?
Solution: Each member of the team had rich experiences in their respective fields, however, did not work as a coordinated team.
o The 7 members team had a common goal - to establish MGI commercially in the market.
o For the 3 promoters, its their business and wanted to make it successful,
o For the 2 HBS students - its their key to the real world.
o However the team members worked as islands - non-coherent at times.
o Although the goal was to prepare a business plan, the team could not come to a common conclusion
o With 3 weeks to go, there wasn’t enough material on the table to put up a business plan

3. Strengths of the Team
o Igor and Roman had creative minds and had internationally acclaimed music composing background
o They were the master mind behind the product “Nutcracker” which was a hit among kids
o The founders – Sasha, Igor and Roman had huge respect for each other and advocated openly about the same.
o Sasha, a HBS grad had substantial business experience and had contacts with people within the Industry
o Henry and Dana- were highly enthusiastic people and they brought the necessary expertise in financial models and business plan
o Alex had great experience in the music industry, and he knew how the market works
o Dav had software development experience and he was helping MGI to do some technical improvement and entry into MIT’s business plan contest
o So the team had the right mix of talent, experience and vision to carry out this exercise
Causes for Failure so Far…
o The meetings were mostly “very unorganized brainstorming with ideas flowing from all directions”
o There was no structure to the meetings
o Sasha was aggressive and he had his own set of ideas which he wanted to impose on the team
o Sasha did not have retail experience, so he wanted the alumni network to help them out
o Dana was a financial person and she saw everything with a broad lenses and had constant clashes with Sasha
o There was complete lack of acceptance of different opinions and mutual agreement took too long to arrive
o The sessions were too long and there was no implementation
o Lots of ideas were raised to be pursued but none saw the light of the day
o At one point, which was after quite a bit of time, it was requested to summarize their vision, and each had a different one
o At one point, it was a clash between creativity and profitability
o Founders felt entertainment market is the place to target whereas HBS students thought education is the market.
o Different ethnicities also contributed- it became Russians vs the HBS
o There was no clear leader in the team- Henry used to come with lot of materials but not everything was discussed.

4. Q2. How do you think it could have functioned more effectively?
Solution: The whole team looks to be aware of the common target of writing a business plan; they tend to work in silos and disassociated in terms of arriving to a
common goal. Hence, it’s most important to align the common goal and work towards the same.
o It’s imperative that a leader who drives the whole team is identified who steers the complete business plan.
o Looking at the analytical bent of mind and his data mining capability, Henry seems to be best placed to lead the team.
o Henry should have stepped up and assumed the position of the leader of the team.
o Henry also has the innate ability to lead from front and coordinate amongst all team members.
o He had the entire problem statement sorted out in his head and had a clear understanding of the vision.
The team has a great functional exposure and excel in their respective fields and these capabilities should be leveraged to the benefit of the team.
o Igor and Roman should focus on the technical aspects and develop the musical expertise.
o The business managers, Sasha and Dana must focus on the overall development of the business
o They should ensure the target customers and market is identified so that the business can be rightly positioned.
o Alex has real market intelligence and has capability to understand the market and develop the same.
o The team should be working on the realistic timelines with specific goals to ensure the correct mix of decision matrix.
o Specified realistic short term and long-term goals and the business plan should have been created based on that.
o Each member should have been provided with responsibilities and clear deliverables.
The most important aspect was the team synergy and how they interact with each other. This is crucial in developing a larger horizon:
o Disagreements between individual team members need to be sorted
o This is to enhance synergies and ensure transparent communication and enhanced productivity.
o Business and Creative aspects should be respected to ensure high level of engagement.
o Develop organizational values and ethics to which each member vouches for and works towards the same.
o Experiential Product Demonstration by Subject Matter Experts amongst themselves to create utilitarian importance for all.
o Informal meet ups over dinner and drinks to ease tension and ego conflicts.