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Bilal once worked as a regional sales manager for a large health insurance company called Zogo Inc. The company was once quite successful but with falling revenues and margins, it became an acquisition target and was bought by MoonLight Pvt Ltd. At the conclusion of the deal, MoonLight Pvt Ltd brought in an injection of cash, a reputation for operational excellence, and a new vice president of sales, Shumail Ali. The CEO of MoonLight Pvt Ltd described Shumail as bright, experienced, successful, and energetic. Shumail had joined the corporation immediately after college; because of his “potential” the company sent him to law school and rapidly promoted him into increasingly responsible positions. Senior management had tremendous confidence in Shumail’s leadership abilities and appointed him as the vice president of sales in Zogo Inc., even though he had no previous sales experience.

Bilal was initially impressed with Shumail’s freshness and energy. However, the sales management team soon became unhappy with his views: Bilal and his sales team were working 70 to 80 hours a week and becoming exhausted and drained. Moreover, Shumail’s interactions with internal and external clients were lessons in poor human relations. He seemed to seek confrontations, and as time passed, his behaviour became steadily more extreme. Shumail frequently scolded people, ignored appointments and made no excuses for missing them, made promises he never kept, called sales directors at 6:00 a.m. with insignificant questions, and abused brokers. Those who questioned Shumail’s leadership were summarily dismissed.

One day Shumail asked Bilal to arrange a meeting with a broker at 9:00 p.m. The broker was from a large benefit house and was older, and the meeting time was late. However, he was a long time personal friend of Bilal’s and as a courtesy agreed to the meeting. Shumail did not show up for the appointment and would not answer Bilal’s calls to his cell phone. After an hour, Bilal and the broker went home. When Bilal asked Shumail why he missed the appointment, he said he was having dinner with a friend and did not think the meeting with the broker was important. Shumail refused to apologize to the broker and was surprised when business with the broker’s organization came to an end.

Shumail loved working on high-visibility projects and landed an opportunity to convert the membership of another acquired company to MoonLight Pvt Ltd. He asked Bilal to lead the conversion project, repeatedly announcing that the acquisition was to gather new contracts and to bring quality employees into the organization. Shumail spent no time with any of the newly acquired sales team members, and as a result they showed no interest in working for MoonLight Pvt Ltd. Yet Shumail made grand statements about the quality of the sales force at the acquired company, which implied the current sales employees were unsatisfactory and fostered a sense of mistrust in both sales organizations. Because of Shumail’s shoddy treatment, the long hours, and poor sales and invoicing processes, the morale of the sales team began to fall. Tantrums and tears occurred frequently, and Bilal spent a lot of time smoothing feathers and telling team members that things would get better over time. But there was only so much Bilal could do, and as team members began to quit, Shumail blamed Bilal for the decline in department morale.

Out of the 60 people who were a part of the sales force, only one was still with MoonLight Pvt Ltd six months later. Shumail never acknowledged his behaviour and was “shocked” at the turnover in the sales group. Despite the turnover and declining sales revenues, Shumail was still considered the company’s favorite employee!

What is your opinion about whether Shumail Ali is a competent manager, an in-name-only manager, a results-only manager, or a cheerleader? Extensively identify the data in this case study that you would use in support of your argument? (10 Marks)

How should have Shumail led his team?