NetApp: The Day-to-Day of a District Manager

Name: NetApp: The Day-to-Day of a District Manager (English version)
SKU: E-263

Leslie, Mark; Lattin, James; Arippol, Patrick

Product #:E-263

Supplier:Stanford University

Discipline:General Management

Details:Case (PDF) • 24 pages • 2007-08-06 (Rev: 2016-03-13)

Subjects:

Leadership and managing people Managing employees Decision making Employee retention Management training Crisis management Personnel policies Management Decision making and problem solving Talent management Developing employees Business management Human resource management

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Set in mid-2002, this case illustrates "a day in the life" of a district sales manager of a Silicon Valley company, as the technology market faced a downturn. The case enables a polarized class discussion about the tradeoffs that a new district manager might make relative to hiring / firing and setting quotas, after inheriting a mixed bag of talent in an underperforming district. It also seeks to provide with additional texture about the types of challenges and activities that such an individual would face (different from those faced by a sales representative). The case enables students to engage in discussions about four key dilemmas faced by the district manager: (a) Which representatives should he retain in his district, and which should he fire?, (b) How should he negotiate quotas/goals with his superior (regional manager), and with his representatives?, (c) Should he train an employee who will likely fall short of the company's growth goals, or replace him in hopes of hiring on a better performer?, and (d) What should Jim do about an employee who appears to insist in putting the customer's interests ahead of the company's?

Learning Objectives

Major issues raised in the case: Motivate students to take the position of a sales district manager facing a number of market and organizational challenges--as well as the haphazard schedule of a typical person in such a role--and discuss not best practices, but rather how he or she would prioritize activities in such an environment. This case can trigger students to engage in the discussion and discovery of what the most important activities for a DM really are. Allow students to role-play and experience the challenge that mid-level sales managers typically face, when defining (and negotiating) sales targets both upward and downward in the organization. It will allow students to weight how different tactics can influence the resulting inter-personal dynamics, employee motivation, and ultimate results. Trigger students to discuss the handling of non-trivial (and non-glamorous) situations often faced by DMs on a day-to-day basis, including (a) the termination/retention of a "marginal representative", (b) the termination/retention of an employee standing on questionable ethical grounds, and (c) various other "curve balls," or random personal situations encountered.