Campbell And Bailyn's Boston Office Case Study

The ‘sub-prime’ crisis triggered by the meltdown of the US mortgage backed-securities market in 2007 was a precursor to the global financial crisis. It would drastically change the competitive landscape for all firms in the financial services sector, including Campbell and Bailyn (C&B), one of the world’s five largest investment banks.

In response to a loss of clientele to competitor firms, Ken Winston (C&B’s Boston Sales Office Director) assembled the five most successful salespeople into a Key Accounts Team (KAT). Having previously enjoyed the autonomy of selling a diverse array of products to their own clients, these five ‘Generalists’ would now ‘Specialize’ only in one specific …show more content…

A dated view of knowledge sharing within organisations identifies the ‘knowledge is power’ rationale, whereby employees are averse to sharing information or ideas with colleagues in the belief that it threatens their internal power base. (Boer, Berends, and van Baalen 2011) This view is changing however, as the obvious benefits of knowledge sharing (innovation, productivity and organisational efficiency) are seen to outweigh the costs. (Chait 2012)

The challenge to Winston in this case therefore, would lie in his ability to facilitate knowledge sharing between his salespeople. The ‘Seven Methods of Influencing Behaviour’ has been identified as a tool that can be applied to develop knowledge sharing initiatives within organisations. (Nevis, Lancourt and Vassallo 1996; quoted in Chait 2012) ‘Persuasive communication’ (influencing salespeople of the importance of knowledge sharing), ‘structural rearrangement’ (assigning Specialists to a Generalist in an assistant or subordinate role) and ‘role modelling’ (identifying key Generalists to take a leading role) are the three most pertinent of these methods available to Winston.

1.3 Conclusion
Winston is a respected and trusted leader, and is viewed as a role model by many of his