Jess Westerly at Kauflauf GmbH
The most dreaded message that anyone could ever hear is that of repetitive failure to do his/her job. If a responsible person is then given a chance to repeat that very same duty, he or she lays zeal like no other to work twice as much and prove self-worthiness, as well as re-establish any form of a broken relationship (Gupta, 1988). Jess Wesley finds herself in a similar situation and it takes all her strength to get one last chance at the Kauflauf company. In this article we find out the basic principles she applied in the lessons learned, how she becomes effective, and the communication techniques she utilizes to help her salvage herself from failure.
Immediately after getting through the orientation program, she ensures that she has an idea that would quickly and efficiently impact the company’s sales. Jess, therefore, writes and circulates emails with an aim of establishing a wider coverage of the purchases of the CRM. She is even seen proving her confidence by offering to answer any query that is available from her fellow colleagues who work in the marketing field (Gabarro & Kaftan, 2012). The dream shatters when only negative feedback is relayed to her and this further thwarts what she wanted to achieve – an increase in revenue. What somehow calms this numb feeling is the encouragement she gets from Roeder, who tells her that she should have done more research initiatively, something she, however, believes she had done (Kaplan & Norton, 2008).
Jess, a fast learner, and a fluent speaker uses her skills to quickly get acquainted with a new but somewhat familiar job. What helps her to learn so fast is her innovative approach and previous experience of working for bigger companies. It is this set of skills that lands her in Kauflauf in the first place, thus, she has to present herself as a hard worker once again. Thanks to the quick learning process, Jess is enthusiastic because she has a passion for yielding good results (Gabarro & Kaftan, 2012). Being solution-oriented, she determines that more emphasis should be put on working with large customers and a wider user base in case the firm wants to maximize its profitability. Her zeal is clearly seen in the fact that she, before even getting through her orientation phase, already has an idea of improving the company’s operations.
When her efforts bring her to a higher rank, Westerly relies on the information given by her former classmates and mentors, which makes her feel optimistic about what she is doing. Jess actively and frequently interacts with all the staff at her disposal, including the field consultants, which helps sharpen her skills in dealing with deadlines and meeting the customer needs in precision. She takes this endeavor to communicate even further by attending the open forums with all firms and outside stakeholders, so as to raise the company’s profits in the long run (Gabarro & Kaftan, 2012).
Jess becomes more focused on the larger accounts, and the workers are motivated by the work that she does. The first breakthrough comes about when the Dart Company, which is a part of large computer parts suppliers, apprehends the CRM product of Kauflauf Company (Gabarro & Kaftan, 2012). Such an appraisal by the firm’s big partner slowly but steadily creates a positive image for the product and helps it gain popularity around the globe. She, therefore, develops marketing effectiveness by designing a strategy of developing user stories with an aim of increasing the customer base. Jess does not plan to stop at that point and believes that the firm is on the right track toward attracting new clients.
Time is always equated with money in the business world. Knowing this simple truth, Jess quickly discovers there is a need for time optimization of firms’ operations. She claims that provided the field consultants were able to increase the time they spent with the potential class 6 customers by 30%, the company would see a big spike in revenues. Westerly backs her claims by running business simulations and getting some consulting advice from a friend, Tim Roeder. The field consultants agree to implement such change and also set more specific goals both in terms of the use of external and internal resources. The innovative strategy she proposed faced little resistance from the field consultants and the customers, who at times ended up not buying the apps they promised to. Jess also establishes a way of filing complaints to the top managers in the sales department (Gabarro et al., 1988).
She experiences frustration yet again, however, when she does not meet the set goals in time. Westerly, with the same enthusiasm and endeavor, meets with the managers herself to explain her newly designed approach, which shows her passion for achieving better results and a hunger for success. What she needed now was full support from the boss. She gets it from him right away, and Heinz Van Hoorn, the firms executive, quickly becomes captivated by her strategy. When he calls for a meeting to review the implications of the plan, the management gives her the green light to continue. This comes as a sigh of relief because she has a month to implement the changes and ensure that it succeeds. Jess now knows that she has the trust of the managers and is obliged to deliver the promised performance. She vows to herself to succeed at any cost (Gabarro & Kaftan, 2012).
How can she then be able to improve the strategies that she had set in order to succeed? There are some steps to take in order to achieve superior implementation and reform the existing operations. These include:
First, Westerly has to avoid prolonged stress to remain effective at all times. Gabarro (1980) argues that dedicated managers become effective when they look for information about the goals of the organization’s bosses and their assistants to test the plans that they have. He further says that this should be a continuous process until the desired goal is achieved. Jess used this approach, which certainly removes her from the marry clay that she was in and sets her to the light. She did not underestimate the executive’s power and the need for their support, which paid off later on.
She then needs to establish better and more detailed feedback from the communications department. Kernbach argues that effective communication needs attention (Kernbach et al., 2015). It is a trend that Westerly has to employ, and she should ensure that both the lower marketers and her bosses are all on the same page in terms of the company’s operations. Other schools of thought say that the employees in an organization are not able to effectively put new strategies in place if they are not even familiar with them (Kaplan & Kotter, 2008, p. 12). It was, thus, one more thing that helped Westerly in implementing the change, since she had considered this in her endeavors.
Westerly is to employ comprehensive communication in her mind. Not only in everyday relations with her friends but with her fellow workmates and the subordinates. Daily business success cannot be achieved if there is no successful plan of execution in terms of the communication strategy (Kaplan & Kotter, 2008). She enabled a spirit of consistency in her months of planning and implementation and ended up getting an audience to listen to her and help her unite all the stakeholders in getting the job done. Jess wants not just consistency within the organization alone but in terms of interaction with the customers. She, therefore, urges the field researchers to have a consistent pattern of communication in the information layout, a move that promotes her early success.
Jess must also employ conflict resolution in her communication. In June’s memo that she writes to the field consultants, she gave a description of the reasoning that she planned to use by a move to redeploy their time. The strategy of timed communication came in handy as well. Time is of essence and communication losses its value when there is a delay. She established superior communication with the smaller firms, allowing them to channel any dissatisfaction complaints. According to Kaplan and Kotter (2008, p. 12), employees need a timely informational system to perform, and this was evident in the management of Westerly.
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Recall communication is also so often ignored, yet it is an entering wedge through which most of the other implementations fall into place. Westerly had communicated on the strategies, and it was not difficult to pick from her pieces when she failed. She quickly comes up with the thoughts she had and can even recall the conversations with her closest advisors. Daily actions of employees cannot be considered if they do not even remember what they did last. A good strategic plan of communication is always found hidden in the depths of the communication strategy (Van Riel, 2008). Therefore, the form of communication that she chose served as a constant reminder of the goals that they were to achieve as a team. Her bosses will also connect what she had because of the recalled communication strategy that she had. It is one of the pictures that can salvage her mind plan in the midst of the final challenge to prove her worth.
Jess should also be able to perform an internal crisis communication on the strategy she put in place. This involves factors like activation of the behavior of the subordinates and the new staff; cohesion of the goals at hand; creating a sense of belonging to the company for all the employees and also setting a strategy for the cohesion of the communication patterns. It includes the content of what is to be shared with the customers and how to receive the feedback once the information is already presented (Mazzei & Ravazzani, 2015). She must do away with the complaints of the sales team in terms of breaching their work roles.
The other significant communication-related action that she should undertake is to have a one-on-one mentorship correspondence with the main actors in order to enhance her negotiation skills. It will also give her direct feedback from the actual source, other than relying on the passed-on information. According to Mazzei and Ravazzani (2015), the correct setting of standards that prevail and have an impact on behavior performance is paramount for the success of a business.
In conclusion, effective communication always plays the largest part in the success of an organization. Jess Westerly is a type of manager that is needed in the current world. She has a goal-oriented mind and does not give up on her plans for success. Her stalled strategy is very promising to take shape if she puts more emphasis on better and stronger implementation of her idea. With this kind of zeal, she is an exceptional woman of valor who will only stop when success is achieved, and set a standard and legacy; all products of hard but focused labor. Any manager should work with such a drive for the company’s success.
