Strategic management: Celerita Inc. case study

Résumé du document

Celerita is a leading firm in the enterprise network optimization industry, offering solutions for businesses to accelerate and enhance the existing computer network. Celerita has always been in the top 6 leaders on the market, but its position become more and more uncertain. In fact, because of bad strategic management, the company is facing now a slow in its growth, and the management team is threatened about the future. Thus, Philippe Boyer, CEO of the company has decided to hire an external consultant, Carla Reese, in order to create a team building and to solve Celeritas problems.

Even if the annual growth revenue has declined since 2008 (from 50% to 17%), Celeritas remains the top player of the network optimization industry. During this time, its competitors have seen a better growth and have launch before Celeritas the new cloud computing technologies. Celeritas is still an effective company but it's necessary for the company to address internal problems first.

Extraits

[...] The merger would allow Celeritas to increase its market shares, to make economies of scales and to invest more in research and developments in order to stay one of the six main players of the market. Moreover, it would give them a better credibility on the cloud computing market if they merged with a company that has a strong reputation in that field. There are some barriers to the implementation which are: the lack of open- mindedness from Boyer, the lack of credibility that feels the VP against the SVP and the lack of trust of the VP against Reese. Who/what is the problem with top management? [...]

[...] Thus, the team building process allowed the company to solve some of the problems but this process needs to continue in order to find solutions for the three other topics. Moreover, the team building process is not finished yet because the VP meeting had failed and was not enough complete. In fact, Boyer decided to organize it too early after the SVP meeting, which had for consequence to lose credibility in front of the VP and to lose time. This VP meeting did not bring clear and detailed answers about how to solve the problems. This meeting should have occurred later, as it was advised by Reese. [...]

[...] What went wrong? First of all two weeks later the meeting with the SVPs is quite late, one week would have been better because the ideas should have been still very clear. Then the announcement in the conference room is not a place to talk about the big changes of a new way of working and simply accept it, it is too much conventional, the effect is that the VPs are not a part of the project, we have this feeling that there are two distinct parts and it doesn't correspond to the project of team working. [...]

[...] What are some barriers to strategic implementation? The team building meeting was very useful for Celerita's because it helped to identify the main reasons why the company is facing difficulties today. However, this team building meeting did not solve all of these reasons. In fact, the main reasons why Celerita is facing difficulties today are the lack of trust and communication, the inconsistent decision making, the confusion about goals and priorities and the poor coordination among divisions. During the first day of meeting they worked on those four topics trying to explain the reasons of the situation and proposing some ideas to resolve it. [...]

[...] Their relationships between each other are what could make the company evolve. Boyer can recall Reese and make another meeting like the one with the SVPs in order to tell them that now that the situation is clearer with the departure of Lloyd, Boyer is ready to hear what Vps want to share. It could be difficult because they are numerous so Boyer can't satisfy everyone. But it is significant to do this because it will show that Vps matter to the company. [...]