Hickling Associates Ltd. Case Solution And Analysis, HBR Case Study Solution & Analysis of Harvard Case Studies

Hickling Associates Ltd.

Hickling Associates Ltd. was a medium-sized trading organization in Vancouver that specialized in the import and export of several types of canned and frozen foods. The company was founded by James Hickling's father and it grew steadily throughout the years. It was mainly an importer of canned foods such as mushrooms and oriental foods from several Asian countries. It was a well-established and financially strong company.

Problem Statement

The economic conditions and the changing competition of the industry led the Pisces Exporters Ltd. to let go some staff members of the fresh and frozen seafood export division of Pisces Exporters Ltd. Tony Azzara was one of those employees who had to leave the job in this situation. For this purpose, he started looking for another job and was ready to accept a job even at a lower pay scale if it offered good bonuses. Finally, he found a very good opportunity at Hickling Associates Ltd. but couldn’t fit there because of the cultural barriers and differences with his previous experience and several other factors.

Discussion

Tony Azzara joined Hickling Associates Ltd. after his earlier firm, Pisces Exporters Ltd., seized the entire division of fresh and frozen food sea products and lay off the employees of that division. His ex-firm was one of the leading exporters for fresh and frozen seafood on Canada’s WEST Coast. They were generating around $40-$60 million in revenues per annum that fluctuated with the demand and the fishing season. The primary market that they catered was in Europe and in various parts of Asia and Japan.

About Pisces Exporters Ltd

Pisces Exporters Ltd. usually compensated the employees very well. Tony Azzara, who served as the sales manager there, climbed up the ladder in two and a half years from sales person to a decorated post and was rewarded substantially. Sometimes, the annual bonus based on group sales in the best years was elevated to 100% of Tony’s base salary i.e. $42,000 and 20% in the poorest of years. Providing the best compensation to sales squad definitely boosted the morale of the team that lead to the boost in sales.

In this competitive global arena, companies are trying their level best to grab the highest market share from their competitors by using diversified range of techniques. Giving handsome compensation and commission will motivate employees in a way that they start giving value to the company. It is because they start realizing that the company is rewarding them financially, which is directly connected to the amount of sales that they achieve, hence, they will work more so as to boost sales for the mutual benefit.

Employee tries in a paramount manner to make more and more sales to increase company’s profit margins because of which commission is added into the fixed salary.

Pisces Exporters Ltd. used a blend of custodial and supportive model to manage its employees. It was a well organized company as they delivered what they promised their employees. They always gave accurate and deserving commissions to their employees. Overall office environment was quite comfortable for an employee that gave a fine custodial feeling. Pisces Exporters Ltd. allowed its employees to visit the potential customers abroad and appreciated them to enhance business relationships in an optimistic manner. Reflecting towards the employee engagement model, the employees of Pisces Exporters Ltd. looked quite satisfied from all aspects and seemed to be satisfied cognitively, physically and expressively while performing the routine activities (Kahn, 1990).

About Hickling Associates Ltd

The owner of Hickling Associates Ltd. promised, Tony Azzara about a good compensation, high rewards and bonuses and many other benefits. However, none of them were communicated in black and white. The standards and policies were very informal.

The fact that the bonuses were not based on the performance of the individual but they were claimed to be associated with the company’s performance that was the first de-motivating factor for the employees. For this purpose, the turnover rate of the company was relatively higher and in an incident, one of employees also joined the rival company and benefitted them instead of Hickling Associates Ltd.

When Tony Azzara joined Hickling Associates Ltd. he was caught completely off guard and was required to work in an environment that he never dreamed of. Hickling Associates Ltd. followed an autocratic model to manage the employees. He faced severely out of order workplace ethics, blurred authority, communication barriers, severe commitment issues, low moral standards, lack of support, barriers to work effectively and lower benefits.

Hickling Associates Ltd. used an autocratic model to manage the employees, and had severely dented workplace environment practices. Work ethics relies on diligence and hard work (Daniel, 1978). Hickling Associates Ltd. never followed the employee engagement model and did not maintain a professional environment, which actually degraded the company in all possible aspects.

Hickling Associates Ltd. did not provide ........................................

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