Master In Professional Development

   

MASTER’S DEGREE FINAL PROJECT
MASTER IN PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

CASE STUDY: BOSCH CONSULTING COMPANY

PART I
BOSCH is a recently created and small consulting company located at the north of the country. In spite of its short dimensions and history, the company has experienced a huge development these latest years, becoming one of the most dynamic and innovative companies in thearea. Its client’s amount has increased from 200 to 300 in just 8 years. Nevertheless, its offer of services hasn’t followed the same development, being nowadays one of the main problems of the company. This company has experienced a sudden and huge development since Mr. Rubén Zapata assumed his role as General Manager several years ago. It has been adapting to changes, efficiently answering toenvironmental needs and creating an offer of services in accordance with its national and international clients’ demands. Mr. Rubén Zapata is 64 years old. He is the highest authority in his company. He is also the company’s main shareholder and he acts as its legal representative. His functions are to run, administer and manage the company. He also follows the courses of action approved by thecorresponding Professional Associations and implements its agreements.
General Manager

Mr. Rubén became widow 9 years ago. That was the reason of his full devotion to the company. He travels and supervises all aspects and key negotiations.

Financial and Accountant Department

Executive Department

Marketing Department

Human Resources Department

Tax

The company’s structure is based onfour department managers and five strategic business units (SBUs): the manager holds meetings frequently, almost once a week, with the

Accounting Labor  Consulting Other services

    manager of each one of these departments. In addition, a meeting all of them should attend is called at least once a year. In this particular meeting the manager asks them about the development of the companyas a whole and the guidelines to be followed the next months. Formally, the company has not a Board of Directors. They discuss with the manager the different topics affecting their departments as they go along. Mr. Rubén Zapata is not just a manager but the leader of the company and he supervises the decisions made in all departments. Although the articles of association of the company make clearthe role of the manager, they are not taken much into account. At the end, it is always him who has the last word. Although this system has been a great advantage until now since it speeds up the decisions making process, it is starting to create inefficiencies in a short or long-term because in several cases the decisions made are poorly planned and coordinated. In the last months the managers ofeach department have started to dissent regarding the management of the company. They also had had different opinions and questions that were not answered by the manager of the financial and accountant department. These problems had created some tense situations overcame by the personal and professional respect that had always existed among them. However, they are putting the Board of Directors’confidence and stability to the test. One of the most controversial aspects are the dissenting assessments regarding the performances of the manager of each department which are not supported enough by some members of the financial and accountant department. Differences appear when projects which required to be supported by all departments in order to be funding and implementing are considered.Those differences impede and make difficult the definition of objectives and responsibilities. There are also differences to evaluate the manager’s role played for each one of them. The same happens to create a budget, since there is not enough severity in its implementation. Although formal requirements for its presentation are made in a correct manner, it is finally the manager, or in some cases,...