A few years after successfully launching a new outdoor advertising business, Sean Richeson found himself spending 16-hour days running from one appointment to another, negotiating with customers, drumming up new business, signing checks, and checking up as much as possible on his six employees. The founder realized that his own strength was in selling, but general managerial responsibilities were very time consuming and interfered with his sales eff orts. Richeson even slept in the offi ce one or two nights a week just to try to keep up with his work.
Despite his diligence, however, Richeson knew that his employees weren’t organized and that many problems needed to be addressed. For example, he lacked the time to set personnel policies or to draw up specifi c job descriptions for his six employees. Just last week, he had been warned that one employee would sometimes take advantage of the lax supervision and skip work. Invoices often were sent to customers late, and delivery schedules were not always kept. Fortunately, the business is profi table, in spite of the numerous problems.
1. Is Richeson’s problem one of time management or general managerial ability? Would it be feasible to engage a management consultant to help solve the fi rm’s problems?
2. If Richeson asked you to recommend some type of outside management assistance, would you recommend a SCORE counselor, a student consulting team, a CPA fi rm, a management consultant, or some other type of assistance? Why?
3. If you were asked to improve this company’s management system, what steps would you take first? What would be your initial goal?