Appex Corporation Analysis

Fastest growing high-technology comp whatsoever in United States Revenues grew 1600% in the midst of 1987 and 1990 As of April 30, 1990 172 employees 153 salaried and 19 (Hourly compensated) Hire rate 10 new multitude every month Cellular Telephone Industry High growth industry Roaming 10% of chalk up subscriber revenues Papers mathematical products & Services CICS 60% of the revenue IS -? 40% of the revenues 75 customers, 250 markets in IS. S. , 34 markets in Canada Marketing Cellular Business, Mobile Phone News (Magazines), Monthly Newsletter Challenges faced by shirker Gosh when he joined ApexEverybody did things on their own time, attitude towards customers Well call you back No egg business procedures Decisions -? Key Executives People had particular expertise, but everybody did anything people did whatever interested them Nobody had any sense of their JDK Structure Informal & Fluid Employees Focused, Committed, Hardworking Worked in close interaction, Responsive & E ffective in advance(p) technical solutions Project based, Continued the structure when the projects increased Quick Cash spend and no spending monitoring Atmosphere changing from Entrepreneurial to ChaoticFire-fighting every day, No underlying planned structure Anything a week away had no priority Operation Sequence Brian (Ideas) C Michael (Reality) 0 Allen (Sales) Mark (Money) scrape due to chaotic environment Customer Complaints NO response, technical assistance requests not addressed increase demand could not be handled Fall behind schedule, miss installation dates, failures in product discipline No Information Flow No Financial planning, No recruitment planning Solution carcass of Accountability and Structure, Defined areas of responsibility Innovative StructuresCircular Structure Concurrent circle expanding out from nerve centre circle. (Innermost) Senior executives C Managers & Employees (Functions) Customers (Environment) Non-hierarchical organization in which informat ion flowed continuously and freely within organization and between the organization and the customers (environment) Failure a. Employees could not relate and were completely unfamiliar b. New hires didnt know how to fit c. occasion structure, Decision making power, Performance evaluation all grey areas d.Completely geared towards responsiveness and planning orientated asks failed e. A mentality developed that the customer was the enemy Horizontal Structure Traditional vertical structure change by reversal in sideways Failure a. Employees unenthusiastic Need for Control through traditional hierarchical structure. power structure kcal, Functional Structure Functions organized as 5 teams Sales/Marketing, Software Development & Services, Engineering & Technology, Operations, and run HER & Admit.Issues How many distinct teams, Who should head, Responsibilities now and after growth Diagram (which minimized the sense of hierarchy) Horizontal for functions inform to CEO Gosh), displea sed the board of directors Titles given informally, but people cared a great deal active the titles, desk locations Start of Company politics Succeeded in focusing on completion of tasks System of accountability was in place Heads started creating sub-functions Popularization of teams Inhibited working relationships, increasing expenses Personalities arose, Standards set up by individuals rather than confederacy policies The Ego Box Meeting Source of strength Functional, not managerial expertise Difficult to measure managerial expertiseNeed for broader functional expertise Reshuffling, Hiring, Promoting and Demoting Emerging need of the company Quality control instead of fire- fighting by the great Band-Aid people Paul Godsons Product Teams, Functional teams informed about product happenings on a daily basis No system specified who had the authority to make which decisions Conflict between Product managers and Operations Product teams did not know where their authority ended Se nior executives attended meetings, but needed time for their main responsibilities No systems to set priorities about how resources should be allocated among the team Business Teams -? Intermediaries, representatives from Senior management, Authority in decision, resource allocation Shortcomings a) More tail than tooth b) Escalating Infrastructure Costs c) Customer Focus decrease d) Less concerned with Company goals, No P&L accountability, Who-cares Attitude Divisional Structure 2 Broad Divisions Inter Carrier Services (CICS) & Cellular Management Information Systems (IS) Operations Utility functions that serviced twain divisions HER.