THE SITUATION

Welcome aboard!

I just wanted to welcome you to the team. You’ll find that this place offers many challenges that give you the opportunity to go as far as you want.

I just sent an email to everyone announcing your appointment so that you could get in touch with your new employees before formally meeting them next Thursday.

I am sorry you won’t have time to go into the office and will only be able to communicate by email with people you have never met, but I really need you to come to Vancouver to discuss the business, your new position, and its many challenges.

I know that you're just starting, but I will need your plan to improve the effectiveness of this business and drastically cut spending as soon as possible. This year, we also want to focus on quality and customer service. We can discuss this when we meet on Monday.

I look forward to working with you!

P.S. My wife and I would like to invite you for dinner next Tuesday, April 13th, at 7:00 p.m. Our budget meeting should be over by 5:00 p.m. I plan to ask the Palmers as well. Let me know if you can make it before I say anything to Leslie.

Alex

Alex Hill
Chairman of the Board and CEO
604-456-7833 #315

Hi! I’m your new assistant, Phyllis Clark. This is my first job and I’m looking forward to meeting you. Everyone has been so nice to me since I started 5 months ago.

Anything I can do before you arrive on Thursday? You have your work cut out for you, as you will see from all the emails in your inbox!

You will find emails that came in since your appointment, as well as messages sent to your predecessor, George Willis, which were not handled and which I forwarded to you directly.

You should also consult our org chart to help you quickly become familiar with the names and positions of everyone. It’ll help you better respond to urgent requests.

Leslie Palmer from Vancouver called to advise you that he would meet you at the airport upon your arrival. He also asked if you could bring back some maple syrup for him.

Also, Mr. Willis had planned to invite a decorating firm in to redo his office. He kept calling it a dump. Anyway, the decorating firm has been calling every week, so I thought I would let them come in on Thursday at 10:00 a.m. to explain their ideas to you. They said they’d only need a couple of hours. I’m sure you’d like to start off with nice new office furniture.

Let me know if you need anything. Here is my cell phone in case you need it.
514-753-9521

See you Thursday
Phyllis
Administrative Assistant

George,

Can you talk to Pat Crawford about our 10-speed bicycle order for Sports Experts? They are one of our biggest customers across the country. I promised delivery on 300 of our top-of-the-line bicycles for April 2nd nearly a week ago, and Crawford says they’re still in production! It was a special order.

I need to give Sports Experts an answer Monday morning. Mr. Rousseau is not happy. The client can back out of the deal if we’re more than 2 weeks late.

What should I tell them?

Thanks,

Mike

Mike Schmidt
Director of Sales & Marketing

Welcome aboard!

I’d really like your help on a sticky problem. Leslie Palmer has been after me the last couple of weeks to find a permanent position for his youngest son Bill who lives here in Montreal. I’ve managed to evade the issue so far, but Leslie sent me an email today saying a definite answer is needed by Monday.

There is no place for the kid here as far as I’m concerned. He hasn’t been able to hold down a job since he dropped out of high school 5 years ago.

We gave him summer jobs during his last 2 years in school and his work record was lousy. He was often late or absent and when he was here, he just fooled around.

Palmer will be furious if I put this off again. What should I say? I’d sure appreciate it if you would give me some advice on how to handle this. Here is my cell number: 514-654-7532.

Thanks!

Barbara Moore
HR Manager

Hello! Glad you are joining us, just in time.

Alex has been after me this week about our financial statements for this quarter. The sales in our division are looking okay, but we have to get more shipments out. All this completed work piling up in the warehouse isn’t making us a penny.

Mike Schmidt’s employees are good at selling, but they’re still letting clients make us wait by holding off on accepting the delivery of their orders as long as they like. Can you do something about this right away?

See you on Monday in Vancouver.

Leslie

Leslie Palmer
VP Operations
Cell: 604-258-7845

Just heard you are going to be our new boss. Looking forward to working with you.

I need your advice on a great sales opportunity. Recreational Products are considering ordering 200 canoes from us but they want a 20% discount off our regular price. They also think the delivery date should be May 30th. Crawford says June 15th is the earliest possible.

I talked to Leslie Palmer and Albert Rousseau about the price. Rousseau is in favor of the discount. Palmer is very negative about any discount, but says it’s your decision. I have to let Recreational Products know by Tuesday at the latest.

What should I do?

Mike

Mike Schmidt
Director of Sales & Marketing

Sorry to bother you with this on your first day, but you better take care of this. See email below. Tom is probably right. I know George and Barb were quite close but I have no clue as to what is going on. It was difficult to get input from Willis!

Leslie

George, I’m going to have to ask you to get marketing off my back again.

Mike Schmidt figures everything has to be dropped whenever a special order comes in. There’s no thought for engineering’s design time and purchasing’s lead time to get materials, not to mention our regular production runs.

Some people will promise anything just to look good! The deadline on this latest bicycle order is ridiculous.

P.S. I don’t know how we’re going to meet all our commitments next week without a lot of overtime. I don’t need to remind you what that does to our profits!

Pat

Pat Crawford
Manufacturing Director

Hi, it’s me again! I was just about to leave for the day and I thought of something I’d like you to give immediate attention to.

I don’t want to go into details on paper, but we have a problem with Lee Gordon, one of Crawford’s foremen. George Willis wouldn’t take any action and Gordon is a favorite of Crawford’s.

If you have to fire Gordon, you will have my full support.

I know you can’t do much until you return, but send me an email and let me know what you plan to do.

See you on Monday.

Alex

Alex Hill
Chairman of the Board and CEO
604-456-7833 #315

Hey George, I’m following up on my request for a vacation for the last 2 weeks in April.

As you know, I usually go to Florida with my family at that time of year.

Lee Gordon could fill in for me again this year. Would you let me know by the 12th so I can make flight reservations?

Thanks!

Pat

Pat Crawford
Manufacturing Director

Sorry to have to drop so much on your lap so soon, but Mike Schmidt and Albert Rousseau are up in arms because Fred Spence is holding up the delivery on a large order of bicycles.

Spence claims the quality is substandard, but Schmidt and Rousseau disagree. They are worried about losing the order if delivery is delayed any further. Spence wants to replace all of the brakes on the bicycles and it will take a couple of weeks.

Albert has asked Crawford to ship the order Monday. You can stop the shipment if you think it would be advisable. It may be costly, however.

Leslie

FYI - Here is an email from a client who is also experiencing a problem with the brakes on our bicycles. Can you settle this?

Leslie

Hi George,

I’ll have some spare assemblers next week in case you need them. One of our lines is a little slow and you know how Alex hates layoffs. I can let you have the same six people you borrowed three months ago. I believe they know all your bike assembly stages pretty well.

By the way, maybe you could do me a favor at the budget meeting next week. I’ll need your support to get some extra capital funds for some additional warehouse space. It will mean cutting out some other planned expenditures, but we really need the extra space.

I’ll be free on Friday afternoon and Monday until 10 a.m. if you want to give me a call.

Have a good day!

Lawrence

Lawrence
General Manager, Motorized Products Division
604-987-4563

This quarter I’ll be looking for creative ideas from each of you on how we can reduce both our capital and expense budgets for the remainder of the year. At the same time, I’ll accept your suggestions for extra expenses if you can demonstrate a substantial return.

Alex

Alex Hill
Chairman of the Board and CEO
604-456-7833 #315

Hello and welcome!

I was very relieved to learn of someone new joining the company. We certainly need strong leaders these days.

I’ll be counting on you to support my proposals at our budget meeting next Tuesday. We really need to spend a bundle to bring the place up to date if we expect to survive.

We’re ten years behind the times in IT. This is my number one priority. Can I count on you to support a new system implementation?

Jill Fairfield

Vice-president Finance, M.I.S. and Administration
604-456-7833 #322

Welcome to Globasports! It’s a great place to work. Chaotic, but fun.

I was going to speak to George about Lee Gordon, but George is gone now, as you know.

I received an anonymous telephone call yesterday from a woman accusing Lee of selling canoes on the side to friends and neighbors. I find it hard to believe, but we’d better look into it fast before anything happens. Alex will hit the roof if it’s true.

Looking forward to meeting you in Vancouver next week.

John

John Hewitt
Vice-president Personnel & Public Relations
604-456-7833 #436

You had better deal with Pat ASAP if you don’t want to have problems with him.

Leslie

Dear George,

Is it still okay for the Boy Scout tour on Thursday the 15th? They need to know by Monday the 12th. They are arriving in Montreal from Vancouver on Tuesday for their national annual jamboree, and this would be a great addition to their itinerary.

There will be 50 kids all together. You said you would enjoy showing them around personally.

It certainly would be good public relations.

Thanks,

John

John Hewitt
Vice-president Personnel & Public Relations
604-456-7833 #436

I was very pleased to hear that George was being replaced. I’m personally very optimistic about our division’s future.

If there is anything at all I can help out with, just say the word.

I should advise you that Mike Schmidt is still way over budget on his entertainment expenses. There must be some limit to all this wining and dining of customers.

I thought I’d let you know now so you can straighten Mike out before the budget review meeting next Tuesday at head office. Alex will not be happy unless you can nip this one in the bud.

Please keep me informed and I will do likewise.

Tom Reid

Accounting Manager

Lee Gordon stormed in here just now demanding to see you first thing Monday. I explained you would be away until Thursday, but he insisted and said he wants you to call him on his cell phone from the airport on Monday morning. His number is 514-987-6543.

I wonder what the big fuss is about.

Is there anything I can do?

P.S. I told Lee there’s no need to yell at me.

I’m glad to hear you are joining us. I expect we’ll be working together closely to whip manufacturing into shape. You won’t believe how slow they are.

I’m going to hire two more quality control inspectors next week. There are just too many defective products going out the door to be caught by the three inspectors I now have.

I really have to confront Crawford on Monday about the faulty brakes on the bikes we’ve been putting out. I presume I have your support.

Fred Spence

Product Development & Quality Control Manager
514-456-7826

George,

Just a reminder... The annual leisure and recreational vehicle show will be here in Vancouver on Tuesday evening, April 13th from 7 to 10 p.m. It’s a great prospecting night and we need the business. Our major competitors will be there.

I know you’re planning to be there too. I’m sure looking forward to it!

See you there!

Albert Rousseau

Vice-president, Sales and Marketing
604-456-7833 #854

Fyi, see email below. I thought you would want to know about this.

Barbara

Me again!

Pat Crawford just called. Apparently, Eric Hanson from purchasing wanted Pat to have a talk next Thursday with one of our major suppliers, something to do with trying to get a better deal on some fiberglass they use to make canoes.

Pat said you’d probably want to handle it. The guy from the fiberglass company will be here at 9:30 a.m. on Thursday, April 15th. Should I confirm?

Phyllis

Dear Mr. George Willis,

I am writing on behalf of the Bicycle Safety Committee to thank you for your generous support of our safety objectives.

We were particularly pleased with the kind offer extended by Lee Gordon to give us 12 bicycles along with $3,000.00 to help us run our local safety demonstrations.

Thank you very much,

Mrs. Greta Bloomfield

Chairperson
Bicycle Safety Committee
514-355-3567

Hello again!

I have a problem I need your help with, since you are going to be our new boss.

Willy Fredrickson is coming to see me on Monday (for the third time!) to ask for early retirement.

He has cancer and he wants to retire as soon as possible. He’s 55 but he only has 20 years of service. He’s at the right age, but our policy requires a combination of age and service totaling 85 for early retirement. Willy would have to have worked here 30 years.

Alex Hill hates setting precedents like this and John Hewitt said it’s up to you.

What should I do? Willy is going to be awfully upset if I delay him any longer.

Barbara