Here's the article: http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/the-feud-at-the-top-of-morgan-stanley-09222011.html
After reading this article, I could clearly see that co-presidents, Kelleher and Taubman are doing a terrible job of using proper teamwork and don't truly understand how important team work is in the business field. In the article it is said that Kelleher and Taubman live on opposite sides of the ocean (one in England and one in New York). This distance starts off their business career rocky. I find that it's quite hard for two people to work together when being so far apart. They are forced to do all their meetings via conference calls and emails. There are plenty of companies that have to do that especially with the increase of outsourcing in the recent years. I know that this can work but I also know how stressful this can be. At my mother's company, any employees at a lower status than she is are outsourced to India. This forces her to always be on crazy conference calls at all hours of the day. She is constantly complaining that she is forced to re-do any outsourced work and the time and effort put into the projects is double what it was before.
Throughout the article there were many instances where co-workers of the co-presidents said that they did not work well together. It was said that they disregarded each other completely and that they had completely different views on how the business should be run. One thought it was important to really push hard on a deal with a company interested in stock while the other thought that was inappropriate. They are said to never be on the same page for remarks during internal presentations. This battle between them has created loss of business and a waist of colleagues time. Many executives see their fighting as a huge problem.
In January the official position for president of the company meaning one of them could be the head and face of the company. Both of these employees are very different and give different views to the company. It is important to look at this when deciding who or even if one of them should be chosen for the position. Kelleher is a Cuban smoking, scotch drinking kind of man that enjoys going out with his employees and being more one on one with them. He was also involved in the secret borrowing of money from the Fed. On the other hand, Taubman is more of your business man that finds a strong line between subordinates and managers. He's the type of manager that will have a problem-solving intellectual conversation with you over the more sports related conversations that Kelleher would have.
I feel that the company needs to make a strong decision now on who will be moved up to the presidential position. In my opinion neither candidate is right for the job. If this company is involved in global affairs than the president of the company must be able to conduct business with employees overseas. There is no way that either of these employees can do this if they are unable to communicate between each other. Unless there is a serious change in their behavior and they figure out how to work as a team, I feel that they should be dropped from the company. What do you think the company should do about these individualistic employees?
-Rebecca Doukas
Team work and getting along with your employees is important in any job, but becomes even more so when the coworkers are stretched across the ocean. The diversity of how business is ran in the United States and in England could play a huge part of why Kelleher and Taubman don’t work together well. In England, it could be normal for the president of a company to go have some drinks with the employers after work, but in the United States it isn’t. It sounds to me that Kelleher and Taubman don’t understand each other’s cultures and are making no effort to do so. It is for the best of the company that one person will be taking the head position, instead of always having co-presidents. This will make the company run smoother. The employees, the stakeholders and the locals won’t always see the leaders of the company arguing and finally see the company come together as a team. Hopefully then, the company will prosper.
ReplyDeleteTeamwork in a job setting is a must. It is going to be hard to communicate with an employee that you do not get along with that is in the same office let alone someone who is across an ocean. The company needs to decide on one person to be the head of the company. With Kelleher and Taubman, two employees who do not get a long, sharing a joint position of being heads of the company, the company is at a loss. There have been lost opportunities because of the two and it is unkown where these opportunites could have lead. The position of being the head of the company needs to be held by one person. The company will be more successful with only one person as the head of the company.
ReplyDelete-Steven Stanek
I never thought of the cultural differences as affecting this battle. It does make a lot of sense. I guess when I was reading this article I just put my American view on it and didn't think to take into consideration the differences in culture. This then makes me question if the head of the company should be from the country that the company runs in or if that part doesn't matter. Thanks for bringing it up!
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