ORBR ASSIGNMENT

CAROLINE REGIS AT EXCEL SYSTEMS

Submitted by:
PUJA
Section 7-PGP 1

CASE OVERVIEW:
The case describes the effects of a proposed change in Excel's manufacturing strategy as seen
through the eyes of the company's VP of Manufacturing, Caroline Regis. Following a merger
with Gemini, Excel's new CEO advocates a new manufacturing strategy: outsourcing. Regis
is threatened by the diminution in the role of in-house manufacturing and by the VP for
Supply Chain Management at Gemini. The case traces Regis's reactions to the proposal. She
seems ready to accede to the organizational politics and support the new strategy, only to
change her mind and anger her superiors, who thought she would support the plan. She tries
to seize control of the situation and threatens to resign if she is not allowed to determine the
appropriate strategy. The case facilitates analysis and discussion of career and personal
development issues regularly faced by high-potential employees by showing that particular
career and behaviour strategies that are successful at one point can become dysfunctional as
professionals advance through an organization.

UNDERSTANDING CAROLINE REGIS

The case Caroline Regis at Excel Systems is based on an incident that happened at New
York on June 13th 2014 wherein Caroline Regis , the protagonist of the case who is the vice
president of manufacturing is standing at the crossroads of her life at the tech company Excel
systems wherein after a merger with Gemini , there are plans of scrapping out the
manufacturing unit of Excel and outsourcing the production.
Caroline Regina was an MBA graduate from Tuck school of Business at Dartmouth. She
always wanted to enter the tech world and not be identified as a finance person. Luckily she
receives an offer from a large software firm, Vardian, which sold primarily to the finance
industry. Her background of an MBA degree fetched her that job and she spent a lot of time
understand the underlying technology, the way these engineering driven companies tended to
work. She also found a mentor in her boss and developed a cordial friendship with him. She
faired very well at her job at Vardian where she supervised a group of 35 people . She was
just one layer below the tier of a Vice President. She had 3 promotions in a short span to her
credit.

She was a smart and aggressive person who was a voracious learner and wanted to master
everything she did. She was highly analytical and once she reached a point of view , she had
tremendous confidence in it. She was also highly respected for her analytical skills.
After her stint of 2 years at Vardian , the person who had hired her at Vardian, Joel Anderson
helped her get another job at Excel systems. This company was smaller than Vardian and had
fewer senior management roles, but at the same time she was excited to be at a company that
was doing hardware and software. Her main fascination with this company was the fact that
both the hardware and software people had no scope to point finger at each other and had to
resolve it themselves.
Her first role at Excel was manager of support after which she was promoted twice first to
director of user experience and then to the senior director of hardware/software interface. She
found Excel good environment to work where her rapport with her boss worked out very
well. In late 2012, Excel underwent a significant course correction where the initial focus of
providing Smart homes environment was later shifted to producing a wrist watch like
product that would capture both activity related information and would combine it with
health statistics. With this fundamental shift in product concept many departments within
Excel changed considerably. Manufacturing unit was in disarray and a lot of people left
including the VP and thus Caroline was promoted to that post.
People described her as a very systematic person who brought order to every function she
worked in. They also had great respect for her as she didnt play politics and spoke her heart.
She was also described as a very independent person who always took the companys best
interest into precedence. She was also bold and stood up to the management and her peers.
She used to stand up for her people which made them loyal to her. The only thing that
Anderson felt that Caroline has to work on is to be a little more empathetic and to put herself
into others shoes because she is so convinced that she is right and she sometimes doesnt
appreciate the issues someone else may be facing. Under her guidance the product was
generally reviewed well upon its release but the sales were slower than expected.

MERGER SAGA:
Regis was embroiled in a controversy with some of her colleagues and superiors at Excel
Systems , which had recently acquired Gemini Systems. Gemini was a smaller player in a
narrower space which consisted of simple bracelets worn to track running performance.

However owing to Drenans knack of publicity, as well as some effective marketing and
promotion Gemini had a far more widely recognised name. Its simpler product was
performing better at the marketplace. Within Excel the rationale for the merger was explained
as: Excel would quickly brand its broader product line and superior technology with Geminis
well-known name to accelerate its market penetration. Gemini had a reputation of being
extremely professional, well organized business, while Excel was regarded as a classic tech
start-up company with strong engineering and weaker administration and operations. In
February-2014 Gemini was acquired by Excel Systems. Roger Dreanan became CEO while
Whitney was the CEO of the merged firm. Gemini was selling bracelets worn to track
running performance. Although it was a smaller company operating in a narrower space, the
company was performing better because of effective marketing and promotion. Its founder
Dreanan was known for his knack of publicity and his no-nonsense, process-oriented and
financially astute way of running Gemini. The point behind the merger was to leverage
Geminis successful device and integrate it with the software developed by Excel Systems.
There was a paradigm shift in the way Dreanan wanted to manage the company. He was the
change agent and was trying to streamline things, to make it more professionalize and plan
more. For the initial few months both the companies were selling their own products.
However in early-June all the functions were combined. From this point onwards many
problems started cropping up. Significant restructuring took place and many staffs of Gemini
and Excel Systems were let go. There was an air of disappointment post the lay-offs.
Diversity management was clearly lacking because organizational climate was different for
the two companies.

MAJOR PROBLEMS IDENTIFIED THROUGH THE CASE:

The major problem originated when Dreanan announced that the entire manufacturing
strategy is under review and the entire manufacturing strategy would shift from operations to
outsourcing. Manufacturing and research and development were Excels distinctive
competencies and outsourcing was actually going entirely against their strategy of merger.
The merger was designed towards using Geminis brand name and accelerated market
penetration and Excels manufacturing and R&D. The merger did not have any specific
agreements for the merger. Different organizational cultures grew up due to merge
between two completely organizations of completely different cultures. Differences in
approach between Caroline and Dreanan brought about conflicts. Inadequate leadership

qualities in Whitney was the reason why Dreanan was able to get the entire control over the
merged organization and issued rules as per his interest. Dreanan wants Whitney to let him
manage the company but Whitney doesnt want to lose his baby. In this way, both the
chairman and CEO were not in good terms. Caroline was not given freedom to work inspite
of the fact that she was had working and always targeted bringing profits for the organization.
Even though Regis complained many times about outsourcing issue to Whitney, he didnt
take proper measures to solve the problem and always focused on his personal goal of not
losing his baby (Excels image). Also, Dreanan, with highly professional mind-set, didnt
even care about the trade-offs involved in outsourcing. He didnt even think from the
perspective of the members of Excel company .Regis also concentrated more on her selfrespect and little close-minded.

From the case we can infer that Caroline has high self-efficacy and prior to joining Excel
Systems she has worked in professionally run and well managed companies. Excel Systems
saw a departure from those traits. It was a company led by a serial entrepreneur who was
more interested in technical development than operations or marketing. As a result their first
product despite having superior technology failed to deliver. Also under pressure from
Venture Capitalists he abruptly changed his vision from smart homes to wearable devices.
This showed his fidgety side of running his company. Although Carolines high job
engagement saw her quickly rise in the organization chart, it was about to get a major jolt
when Excel Systems merged with Gemini. Dreanans astute professionalism shook up the
entire structure and functioning. Despite not being not having a technical background,
Carolines history of irrefutable work quality and high agreeableness positioned her as a
perfect candidate for VP of Manufacturing. But her new position also carried a higher level of
responsibilities. Although she was disappointed when her colleagues were let-go, she
continued working with her typical astuteness.
But her first meeting with Dreanan converted her disappointment into a nightmare when she
was told that the entire manufacturing department was under review. She was asked to meet
Margaret Ogilvie, who was responsible for the idea of outsourcing manufacturing. She did a
cognitive evaluation to find out that there was many benefits with engineering closely tied
with manufacturing. But Whitney is not in a position to contest because most of his shares in
the company are held by Venture Capitalists and they back Dreanan as the CEO. It is because
of Whitneys poor management skills that the VCs prefer a more professional person to be
CEO before the company goes public.

Caroline met Ogilvie and had a cordial meeting. She kept her emotions at check and
understood Ogilvies point of view. This was due to her low emotional labor. She was then
asked give a presentation before the board justifying internal manufacturing. Although
initially it was a shock to her, she quickly regained her composure and along with two of her
staff members prepared a thorough presentation. She displayed high emotional maturity and
stability. After the meeting she showed cohesiveness when she went out for a beer with her
staff members. But the entire episode of the problems with merger left her shaken. In the heat
of the moment she sent a mail to the COO Steve Spanner that she will support whatever the
board decides. However when she met with CFO Earl Warner her decision changed. She
decided either to go ahead with the plan or resign. This did not sit well with the COO Steve
Spanner because Caroline emailed her saying she would support any decision. This is the first
instance where her strong Machiavellianism is questioned. She should have waited for the
decision from board before making any commitments. Now with her ultimatum she has not
left herself with any choices.
The case study describes the results of the suggested alternation in Excel's manufacturing
strategy as seen with the eyes from the company's Vice president of producing, Caroline
Regis. Carrying out a merger with Gemini, Excel's new Boss advocates a brand new
manufacturing strategy: outsourcing. Regis is threatened through the diminution becoming
in-house manufacturing by the Vice president for Logistics Management at Gemini. The case
study traces Regis's responses towards the proposal. She appears prepared to accede towards
the business politics and offer the new strategy, simply to change her mind and anger her
superiors, who thought she'd offer the plan. She attempts to assume control from the situation
and intends to resign if she isn't permitted to look for the appropriate strategy. The case study
facilitates analysis and discussion of career and private development issues regularly faced by
high-potential employees by showing that specific career and behavior methods which are
effective at some point may become dysfunctional as professionals advance with an
organization.

SUGGESTED SOLUTION:

Given the kind of deadlock situation, I believe its best she keeps calm but at the same time
she needs to take the bull by its horns especially since it is the question of her career here.
Anderson and Whitney should have a discussion over how important in house manufacturing
is to monitor quality of products, something that is a trademark of Excel systems and is very
important if the individuality of the company has to live. Being an extremely astute and able
manager that is, Caroline should be allowed to continue heading the manufacturing unit. As
of now there has not been a drop in profits because of not outsourcing. Thus the company
should continue manufacturing because along with profits, the quality of the products is
crucial to the growth of the company as well.