Letter of Tansmittal

TO: Dr. Seema Khanvilkar

From: XYZ
Date: 19.03.2015
Subject: WAC report on Martha Rinaldi: Should she stay or should she go?
This is with regard to Martha Rinaldi's dilemma about continuing in her organisation or move back to
Deep Dive. We recommend that she should go back to her previous organization Deep Dive Pizza as it
fulfils her expectations of learning and career growth reinforced by the goodwill she has with the
company's seniors

Executive Summary
Martha Rinaldi is contemplating what to do with her position at Potomac Waters. She had chosen
this position over a standing offer at Deep Dive Pizza after a thorough research and a long term view.
The report evaluates the options that she currently has. The options are staying in her current
position at Potomac Waters, asking to be reassigned to a different brand or accept the standing offer
at Deep dive Pizza. The evaluation criteria are: Marthas learning and training in marketing, industry
growth, organisations brand, team dynamics and interpersonal relations and work culture. Based on
the evaluation of these criteria, it is recommended that Martha should accept the offer from Deep
Dive Pizza.
SITUATION ANALYSIS
Martha Rinaldi is a young ambitious MBA graduate who wants a hand-on experience in marketing
skills that will reinforce her career and at the same time stability in her work life. As an associate to
the director at Deep Dive Pizza, she displayed her potential by contributing some great ideas to its
growth and was an internal part of the company's strategy. Martha was offered a higher paid job by
the CEO at Deep Dive but through her research she felt better scope for learning in the beverage
industry and brand name of Potomac Waters to be more attractive. Martha had worked a year
before college to fund her education indicating she was not very well off. Yet, She lay more
importance on learning over higher salary.
Martha tended to be slightly impatient owing to her hunger for undertaking new and challenging
tasks where she felt that she could both learn and contribute to the organisation. However, this
attitude was in stark contrast to the team dynamics she personally experienced with Jamie Vaughan
and Natalie Follet. Jamie and Natalie had an established relation between themselves and their
behaviour was resistant towards accepting opinion from young "Know-It-All" MBA graduates. There
was no particular job specification for Martha and she was being sidelined . The fact that she was
made to do clerk work, no proper training in marketing skills created a doubt in her mind about her
future prospects. Due to the judgemental nature of her Jamie and Natalie, her enthusiasm was
subdued over time. Consequentially, other peers started perceiving her as someone not taking
initiative and assertive.
After a couple of disappointing incidents for Martha during her four months at office gives a
suggestion that she was not feeling valued since her previous work assignments at Deep Dive gave
her opportunities to excel and learn. Since her experience at Potomac waters did not exactly turn
out as she had anticipated, she is now in a dilemma whether she made a correct decision or not.
The Problem
What decision should Martha take with respect to her job

The options
1. Stay in her current position at Potomac Waters
2. Ask to be reassigned to a different brand at Potomac Waters

3. Accept the standing offer at Deep Dive Pizza

Criteria for Evaluation:

1.
2.
3.
4.

Marthas learning and training in marketing

Team dynamics and interpersonal relations
Organisations brand value and future prospects
Industry growth

Evaluation of Options
1.

Stay in her current position at Potomac Waters: One of the main reasons Martha chose her
present position at Potomac Waters over Deep Dive Pizza was that she thought that a more
established company like Potomac Waters would give her thorough training in her all
aspects of marketing preparing her better for more challenging roles in the future. However,
it is evident that her training is definitely not going to be priority at Potomac Waters. Also,
Marthas team members-Natalie Follet and Jamie Vaughan were very difficult people to
work with. There was no clarity in the line of work given to her and she was not given many
opportunities to showcase her potential. Their intimacy and somewhat cold behaviour
towards her made her more of an outsider and subdued her performance. The only thing
still working in favour of this option is the brand value that Potomac Waters enjoys as a
national brand and growth opportunities that it has given the changing scenario in the
beverage industry and their expansion plans.

2. Ask to be reassigned to a different brand at Potomac Waters: Decision making at Potomac

Waters has to go through various channels, the scope for hands on learning and training is
limited. Also, if she asks to be reassigned within six months of joining, it might cast a
negative light on her reputation. The organisations brand value and future prospects are
good undoubtedly, however her primary goal of learning and training are not likely to be
satisfied here as well.
3. Accept the standing offer at Deep Dive Pizza: Deep Dive Pizza offered her to lead a new
Special Projects team in the marketing department where she would get to work directly
with the Vice President of marketing offering immense learning and training opportunities.
Also, in a dynamic workplace which allowed her to take more decisions, she stands to get
more hands- on learning in place of a workplace where she could only take orders from her
seniors and chances of her ideas being heard were very slim. She still enjoys a good
reputation at Deep Dive and will be a valued employee there. Even though, it is future is
very much dependent on rapid expansion, Deep Dive has proved to be successful till now.
The industry growth might not be as good as the beverage industry, but given that the entire
economy is in recession, the impact would be relative and hence, should not make
considerable difference. Hence, this option fulfils Marthas needs.
Recommendation
Option 3: Accept the standing offer at Deep Dive Pizza

Action Plan
Martha should firstly speak with her previous employer regarding her interest in working again at
Deep Dive since she knows of their intent in hiring her even now. She should submit her resignation
to Julius Batista stating her concerns with respect to her current position and her wish to join her
previous employer.