Technosoftware Company

Technosoftware Company was established by Rive, Benjamin and Walter. They were graduates of Purdue University. It is a small company, making on-line software packaging. Now they want to bring revolutionary software, RavWeb. This requires additional employee who can be a positive contributor to the company. The responsibilities of the new employee included product management, product introduction, packaging & user manual writing, pricing & product announcement, positioning strategy, promotion and advertising and sales. They are looking a candidate who is highly motivated, self sufficient, familiar with personal computers and degree in technical field. They are ready to pay about $65,000 per year. If RavWeb is successful, they pay bonus 20%, but other benefits Two months later... Based on his recruiting effort, Walter received a total of. 150 resumes. He managed to narrow down the list of potential applicants to three. Walter, Darrell, and Ben reviewed the resumes, conducted brief telephone interviews, panel interviews, and gave several paper-and-pencil tests to the three candidates. In order not to affect your judgements, Walter, Darrell, and Ben have tried to be as objective as possible in writing up this information. The results of these selection devices are summarized next. Background information: Based on an examination of resumes, an initial phone conversation, and preliminary questions in the interviews, the company obtained educational, and experience information from each candidate. This information is summarized below: Candidate 1 : Jack Smith. Has B.S. in engineering and MBA from Harvard (1970); worked for last 20 years in a large computer products firm (both hardware and software). Began as product manager, ended as assistant vice president, business-to-business marketing. Terminated due to restructuring of the workforce. Prior to this worked as salesperson for several manufacturers. Has had broad range of experience in all phases of marketing to businesses. Familiar with Internet marketing and basic spreadsheets. Appears to be about 50 years old. Candidate 2 : Ann Real. Has B.S. in mathematics; M.S. in information systems (1992) from Purdue University. Also took some business courses in marketing. From 1996 to present has worked in developing computer software for large computer firm. During last year worked with a team responsible for designing and marketing of a new PC statistics package. Experience and familiarity with popular computer software is extensive. Appears to be about 30 years old. Candidate 3: Tom Vanfleet. Has B.S. in computers; MBA with concentration in marketing (1988) from California State University at Fresno. From 1988 to present has worked in marketing positions at five different firms. Each job involved slightly broad responsibilities. Second job was for a computer products firm, which involved marketing of computer hardware; other jobs have been with office supply companies. Appears to be about 35 years old. Interview results. Each of the three candidates was interviewed in a panel session with Walter, Darrell, and Ben. Each candidate was asked the same set of questions, with follow-up probs. A summary of each candidate's responses follows:

The key questions were: 1

1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

What strengths can you bring to this company? Describe your managerial style. Describe your ideal job. What are your career plans? Describe a time when you had a major disagreement with a coworker. How do you resolve the conflict? 6. Why are you interested in this job? 7. What is your current (or most recent) salary? Candidate 1 : 1. A great deal of experience in the marketing of computer products (but primarily hardware); many contacts in the marketing world, which will help in the introduction and promotion of a new product; exposure to other functions, including production and accounting. 2. Believes in open communication, delegation, ongoing feedback, and frequent goal-setting sessions. 3. Ideal job would be one with a great deal of responsibility, challenging assignments, and a great deal of influence over marketing decisions. 4. (Candidate chuckled when asked this question) "To stay employed." 5. Several years ago, candidate had a major disagreement with vice president of sales regarding some promotional plan. After days of heated debate, they agreed to present their arguments in a one-hour session to the executive vice president of sales and marketing. He agreed, listened carefully to their arguments, and candidate lost. 6. Job offers many of the points in response to question 3. 7. Salary less important than potential share in company. Willing even to forego base pay for first year or two as long as can get ownership in company. 8. Earned $ 120,000 plus "substantial" bonus ($20,000-$30,000). Candidate 2 1. Great knowledge of computer software products, well versed in user needs. 2. Although she never has managed anyone... open style, judge on the basis of results, democratic, encourage participation in all areas. 3. Ideal job would have lots of responsibility, challenging assignments, involve computer software in some way, lots of opportunity to learn. 4. Career plan is to be involved in all aspects of computer software, including marketing, design, R&D, etc. 5. Got into major disagreement with a coworker regarding a software development project. Had on-going debate for weeks about it; finally, came to work over an entire weekend to resolve disagreement. In the end, found they were both wrong. 6. Allows candidate to devote full to marketing. Also, want opportunity to work for small firm, where one can have much impact. 7. At least $ 75,000. 8. $59,000. Candidate 3 1. Has worked several phases of product management and introduction as they relate to software, including pricing, product announcement, market research, and positioning strategy. "Outstanding performance in every job." 2. Establish close supervision, careful monitoring of subordinate performance, give ongoing

3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8.

feedback. Ability to achieve ongoing advancement in the marketing area through increasing responsibility, continuous development of new products and innovation. Advance into a senior marketing position in a small computer software firm. "Have never had such a situation Always able to deal with such situations before they became major conflicts." Position offers a "fast track" opportunity to learn about a whole lot of marketing tasks that a larger company cannot offer. Negotiable, but at least $50,000 depending on opportunities for bonus or stock ownership. $50,000 plus "large bonus" that he agreed to keep confidential.

Test Scores. Each of the three candidates was then sent to a management psychologist, who administered to each candidate three tests. One test, the Thurstone Cognitive Ability Test, provides a verbal ability (V) and mathematical ability score (M). The second text, the Guilford-Zimmerman Temperament Survey (GZTS) is a standard personality measure - the psychologist relies on only four scales, so only four scales are reported here, namely, energy (E), emotional stability (ES), thoughtfulness (T), and personal relations (PR). Finally, the psychologist had each candidate complete the computer programmer Aptitude Battery, which measures one's ability to write computer programs (CP). Provided below are the scores for each candidate, in terms of their percentile (a percentile score indicates the percentage of test takers that the individual did as well as, or better than. For example, a percentile score of 50 indicates that the individual did as well as or better than about half the people who have taken the test). ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... .. ... ... ... ... ... ... ......... Candidate V M E ES T PR CP ... ... ... . ... ... ... ... ...... ...... ... ...... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...... ... 1 80 15 50 99 40 95 5 2 90 99 99 50 99 70 99 3 80 50 80 40 25 90 40 ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... .. ... ... ... ... ...

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