TAR- Should the

General Manager
be Fired?
WHITE PAPER SUBMISSION

Submitted By: Group 5

1. SAIFALI DALVI 18020841056

2. AALIYA SHAIKH 18020841001
3. RAMYANI DASGUPTA 18020841076
4. AKANKSHA GUPTA 18020841096
5. SNEHA RAIKAR 18020841121
What was wrong with Rainbow group and Hangzhou?

There were a lot of issues associated with the Rainbow group and its subsidiary, Hangzhou.
Although, the group was growing and flourishing, Hangzhou was not performing well. It
needed a change in its procedures. Due to this, Chu was appointed as the new GM of Hangzhou
while Wang took the Vice GM position.

The company had no cost control measures and the procedures for purchasing, sales and travel
expenditure were not structured properly. The contracts were incomplete with no detailing with
respect to the price and quantity of products. In some cases, even handwritten notes were used
as contracts. Chu had also uncovered that in case if a cash crunch, certain sellers would sell on
credit but at a higher price. The dishonesty of some employees in the sales and purchasing
department was also highlighted. It was also seen that Wang had loaned money to the Company
but at high interest rates. This led to expenses for the company.

The company also made a mistake in appointment of Chu without any proper onboarding the
culture. The methods used by the new GM to change things and procedures were not well
received by the employees. Chu had also shown a lot of mistrust in the employees and insisted
on approving all procedures personally. It was also unprofessional on the part of the CEO,
Cheng, to not respond to the complaints made by the employees and managers of Hangzhou.
There was no action taken on the bad feedback received by Chu on the evaluations. This had
prompted the managers to fly to Beijing to make a collective appeal.

Should the General Manager be fired? Discuss in support of your own view.

No, we believe that Chu, the General Manager should not be fired because of the following
reasons:
• Firstly, since it is against the general norm of practice at the Rainbow Group of hiring
an outside individual to fill up the senior level position instead of promoting a suitable
internal candidate. Rainbow Group believes in providing opportunities of a senior level
position to internal candidates but since they do no have an immediate replacement for
Chu, it’ll be a huge issue for them.
• Chu, based on her past records as the GM at Rainbow Group is a self-motivated and
driven individual who is a proven performer when it comes to generating positive
results and business for the company.
• She is more than capable enough to revamp the Hangzhou branch and turn it into a
profit-making entity for the company.
• However, since there is an issue with her leadership style which is being Autocratic in
practice. We believe the focus should be on providing her proper training to improve
her leadership style.
• Sensitivity training should be provided for her to improve her understanding and
empathizing factor with her subordinates.
• She should also be sent to leadership development workshops and training sessions
which’ll allow her to make a transition from being an Autocratic leader to a
Collaborative/Participative leader.
• Once she incorporates this style of leadership, we are sure that her subordinates will be
very happy and satisfied working with her which’ll eventually lead to better
performance and the overall profitability of the company.