Erik Peterson - General Manager of Green Mountain Cellular Telephone - Case Study

Background Factor:

Erik Peterson is MBA graduate hired as the General Manager of Green Mountain Cellular Telephone (GMCT). He was hired by Ric Jenkins, the president and founder and thought he would be working directly for Jenkins. Peterson studied electrical engineering as an undergraduate, was an officer at U.S. Army Signal Corp and his interest in the field was high, yet he never worked in the cellular industry or operations before hired by GMCT. GMCT was one of pre-operating system built by the CelluComm and was under construction phase year and half before Peterson’s hire. GMCT was to operate 21 cell sites, with 16 sites anticipated to be ready by the turn-on date with five sites in the eight month following. By March, GMCT was one month behind target and was revised from February 1st to April 1st. Peterson has roughly two weeks to prepare for his meeting with the new appointed director of pre-operating systems for CellComm, Chip Knight.

Effectiveness:

When Peterson took charge of the GMCT, he convinced the headquarters to terminate the contract with construction subcontractor due to poor performance and complaints from local citizen. He then hired a new subcontractor, Granite State Construction Company, based in Mew Hampshire, led by Smiley DiCicco. Also to smooth the operation, Peterson implements weekly meeting, inventory control reporting system and hired key personnel. In spite of Peterson’s effort to smooth the operations, there were significant interpersonal relationship problems with colleagues to include his relationship with the Chief Engineer, Curtis Andrews, and relationship among the other staffs.

As the general manager of the site, Peterson should have recognized the readiness of his team and organized the team with specific reporting structure. Also because Peterson is joining existing the team, he need to build the trust with his people, building respect for him. He needed to not be the one managing all the individuals or all the problems. Peterson also needed to find a way to encourage Hardy to make rational decisions and make sure to have him understand that his success would reflect on Hardy, which would motivate him and empower him.

Peterson also should have communicated with his team; not only when problem existed. He needed to make sure everyone on the team was on the same page in success of the project, building trust among the team.

Problems:

When Peterson arrived to GMCT, he was immediately faced with ambiguous reporting structure. He was assigned to Jeff Hardy, Director of Budget and Plans, but nothing was formalized from the beginning. Peterson was new to the industry but Hardy was also inexperienced; not being able to make effective decisions or provide guidance to Peterson. Lack of respect was also another problem. Peterson’s relationship with Curtis Andrews, Chief Engineer, started from Andrews having lack of respect toward Peterson. Andrews did not respect Peterson because he was inexperienced and new to the project, but also Peterson lacked respect for Andrews because he did not have college degree and build his way up from a switch technician.

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