A Case analysis of
Jensen Shoes: Jane Kravitz’s Story
Mary C Gentile
Pamela J Maus
Harvard Business School

PGP – I, BATCH 2014-16
SECTION - 7
GROUP - AL2 1. | 14S710 | Ms. Apoorva Agarwal | 2. | 14S714 | Mr. Gaurav Bansal | 3. | 14S729 | Mr. Raghunandan Balasubramanian | 4. | 14S747 | Mr. Sriman Kumar Pradhan | 5. | 14S748 | Ms. Subhasree Dantuluri |

T. A. Pai Management Institute, Manipal

Case Analysis of Jenson Shoes: Jane Kravitz’s Story

Problem Statement

In what ways can Jane Kravitz further persuade Lyndon Brooks to work in favor of completing his Strategic Performance objectives, in a restricted timeline, to achieve better evaluation incentives and bonuses for both of them?

Reasons

1. Lyndon Brooks wasn’t assigned a job role of his choice, viz. a managing staff role. This led him to be less enthusiastic on current assignments. 2. Jane Kravitz didn’t work on the negative feedback she had received about Lyndon from the employees previously associated with him, which allowed Lyndon’s focus to deviate from the company’s objectives. 3. Lyndon was additionally assigned a project on environment consumer buying trends over his Latino and African American market study indirectly by the Executive Vice President on an urgent basis. 4. In spite of Jane’s continual support and necessary interventions in order to keep up with the timeline to fulfill the s.o’s, Lyndon continued to be indifferent towards his job role. 5. Jane was not entirely aware that Lyndon was infamous amongst his peers, which added incentive to the latter’s perception to depart from the organization.

SWOT Analysis

StrengthLyndon has met the expectations in his previous project and done well in the environment project as well under the guidance of Jane. | WeaknessLyndon has a history of not completing the projects in time and adding to that he is not showing much interest in this project. | OpportunityBonuses and incentives for Jane as well as Lyndon on successful presentation of s.o.‘s. Jensen Shoes will have clarity on its marketing strategy for its casual wear division. | ThreatLyndon may exit Jenson Shoes due to less fulfillment of his personal preferences in his job role, thus the company may lose a high value employee. |

Alternatives

1. Jane could keep a carrot incentive in the form of a staff management role inside the company for Lyndon, which he may receive subject to successful presentation of his s.o. currently assigned to him. 2. The Executive Vice-President, Director of Strategic Marketing, Lyndon Brooks and Jane Kravitz must have an internal meet to streamline the various work allocations given to Lyndon in order to encourage him to improve his work efficiency. 3. Jane should conduct team building activities to improve the relations between Lyndon and his colleagues, and not concentrate on Lyndon alone.

Evaluation of Alternatives

1. There is high probability of Lyndon, not taking the incentive offered sportingly, and may get further reluctant in completing his s.o.’s in time. 2. The involvement of the upper management may either motivate him to work more efficiently or lead him to succumb under pressure and deteriorate his effectiveness. 3. Team building activities would ascertain Lyndon to like the working environment and hence would have a positive impact on his work.

Recommendations

Keeping the evaluation components in the dark, Jane should create Team building activities involving high participation to allow Lyndon to perceive himself as an asset to the organization, not only in terms of his work performance, but also as a team member. This gives Lyndon an opportunity to grow, internally in the organization, and Jane receives the expected performance from him.