Questions for Wolfgang Keller Case

1) Who is Wolfgang Keller? What are his key strengths and weaknesses?

Wolfgang Keller is the Managing Director of Konigsbrau-TAK, which is the Ukranian subsidiary of a major premium beer brewer. Keller has previous experience in financially turning around a German food product manufacturer’s two subsidiaries (relatively smaller in scale than his current organization). Keller’s foremost strength is his ability to turn around an apparently difficult (for example, the economic turn-around of various subsidiaries) and at times apparent impossible situations (for instance, resolution of a distributor’s lawsuit, collection of payment from a near-bankrupt distributor, etc.). He has been …show more content…

Keller does not see Bordsky as a leader of his sales force and considers his management style as more suited to a corporate staff based job than as a line manager.

3) What would you recommend to Keller to improve his effectiveness and chances of success?

I think, Keller’s experience in relatively smaller company previously has influenced strongly his working and management style (as is hinted by his manager and accepted by himself). He tends to rely much on personal contacts with his staff and even his customers and probably dislikes corporate procedures (evident by his apparent errors in interpreting corporate policies) and standard reporting mechanisms (evident by his infrequent communication to his line management). This works for a smaller organization but in a larger, multi-billion dollar, company Keller must learn to respect the importance of formal and frequent communication both upwards to the senior management and encourage it from his direct reports. If Keller has to succeed and move further up he needs to develop this skill of taking stock of and manage a situation when it may not be possible to be directly involved in that. This I believe is crucial for Keller.

Keller needs to learn the art of