Erik Peterson Case Analysis
Organizational Behavior and Leadership
Written Analysis of the case: Erik Peterson
Case Background
Cellular Communication Services Inc (CelluComm),a growing cellular telephone service provider, founded by Ric Jenkins, started as a small California based system and quickly grew to be ranked among the top 20 in the Cellular industry. Much of its success was attributed to the ability and aggressiveness of its founder. CelluComm was an early winner of some larger metropolitan area licenses including Sacramento, California and Tampa, Florida. It also had an aggressive campaign in obtaining the rural area licenses from the small entrepreneurs who were awarded the licenses by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and was success in gaining 12 of these rural area licenses, 9 of which were operating while 3 were in the pre-operating stage. GMCT was one such system.
The Green Mountain Cellular Telephone Co, Inc (GMCT) was a subsidiary of the parent company CelluComm. The system was in its pre-operating stage and was intended to service a customer base of approx. 400,000 people in several cities and towns of New Hampshire and Vermont. Erik Peterson, a recent MBA was made the General Manager of GMCT. Erik had previously worked in U.S. Army Signal Corps and had a Bachelors and Masters Degree in Electrical Engineering.
Challenges Faced by Erik Peterson
When Erik joined GMCT, the company had been in legal existence for one and a half years and had a working organization of 6 people. The task assigned to Erik was to bring the system to operations by the turn-on date (initially Feb 1, but later changed to April 1). There were several key issues which contributed to the delay of this task which are identified below.
Broad Problems Identified:
Communications Gap
Erik Peterson initially thought that he was going to report directly to the President, Ric Jenkins as he showed great interest in the project, but to Erik’s surprise, he was
Written Analysis of the case: Erik Peterson
Case Background
Cellular Communication Services Inc (CelluComm),a growing cellular telephone service provider, founded by Ric Jenkins, started as a small California based system and quickly grew to be ranked among the top 20 in the Cellular industry. Much of its success was attributed to the ability and aggressiveness of its founder. CelluComm was an early winner of some larger metropolitan area licenses including Sacramento, California and Tampa, Florida. It also had an aggressive campaign in obtaining the rural area licenses from the small entrepreneurs who were awarded the licenses by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and was success in gaining 12 of these rural area licenses, 9 of which were operating while 3 were in the pre-operating stage. GMCT was one such system.
The Green Mountain Cellular Telephone Co, Inc (GMCT) was a subsidiary of the parent company CelluComm. The system was in its pre-operating stage and was intended to service a customer base of approx. 400,000 people in several cities and towns of New Hampshire and Vermont. Erik Peterson, a recent MBA was made the General Manager of GMCT. Erik had previously worked in U.S. Army Signal Corps and had a Bachelors and Masters Degree in Electrical Engineering.
Challenges Faced by Erik Peterson
When Erik joined GMCT, the company had been in legal existence for one and a half years and had a working organization of 6 people. The task assigned to Erik was to bring the system to operations by the turn-on date (initially Feb 1, but later changed to April 1). There were several key issues which contributed to the delay of this task which are identified below.
Broad Problems Identified:
Communications Gap
Erik Peterson initially thought that he was going to report directly to the President, Ric Jenkins as he showed great interest in the project, but to Erik’s surprise, he was