A leap of faith

CASE STUDY:He had been assured that the company already had a clear strategy for developing its presence in social media, writes OLIVE KEOGH

WILLIE BRADY has always been interested in how people think. He studied psychology at university and, armed with a good postgraduate qualification, left Dublin to work in the London office of a US-based market research company.

Brady loved the job and did well. He began climbing the career ladder and was soon commuting between London and head office in New York. His expertise was back room processes, devising new approaches to find more answers with fewer questions and more accurate validation of results.

Even before the social media revolution took off, Brady was in the thick of it. He “got” the concept from the off and began pushing his superiors to set up a dedicated social media department. Impressed by Brady’s passion and foresight, they put him in charge of establishing a new social media division. His brief was to identify opportunities and propose strategies for realising them.

This involved relocation to New York and Brady relished the challenges and opportunity it afforded him. He threw himself into the job with gusto and both he and his company prospered. After five years working 16-hour days, six days a week, Brady decided he had had enough of life in the fast lane. He wanted to come home to Dublin and put out feelers on the recruitment grapevine. Within a few weeks, he was offered a senior management position with an Irish market research company keen to use his experience and expertise in social media to gain what it hoped would be an advantage over its competitors.

Brady came home full of big ideas and great expectations. He brought his usual energy to the job and burned the midnight oil writing development plans for his department. However, a few months into the job, he found that managing director, Paul Power, had painted a very rosy picture of how the company was faring. Looking through old files one day, Brady discovered that the company had already lost a lot of ground to its competitors through its failure to keep up with new developments. A number of long-standing clients had simply taken their business elsewhere.

As the weeks passed, it became obvious that Power had been economical with the truth when he had told Brady that his role was to develop social media capability in order to help the company retain market leadership. The company was already on the downward slope and the penny dropped with Brady that he was the lifeline, not the supporting prop. He had been assured that the company already had a clear strategy for developing its presence in social media. In reality, the so-called “strategy” simply involved hiring someone who knew about social media and getting them to make it all happen.

He kicked himself for being too willing to take the easy option because he had wanted to come home and for not asking far harder questions before joining the company. Power was an affable enough individual, but as Brady got to know him better, he realised that Power was optimistic to the point of denial and that the company seemed to have lost its way as a consequence.

Brady came very close to quitting but eventually decided to stay and do the job to the best of his ability. If he succeeded in pulling things around, he reckoned Power would be very grateful and might even consider letting Brady buy into the firm as a partner.

Brady identified five staff members he thought had the necessary competence and interest to help develop the social media strand of the business. With Power’s blessing he brought these people together and set about welding them into a team. He then began implementing a strategy that would at least allow the firm to match the service offerings fast becoming the norm in the research industry.

Brady was very conscious that the pace of change within this sector was incredibly fast. He was acutely aware of the resources that international market leaders were investing in research and of the increasing levels of sophistication in terms of enquiry and data manipulation.

He made his case strongly to Power that without continued investment and development the company would quickly be back to square one. His argument was accepted, somewhat grudgingly, and Brady was allowed to recruit two young computer science graduates to support the development of new services.

For his part, Power was delighted to be able to bring Brady to meet existing clients and to have him participate in pitches to potential new ones. Power’s eyes still glazed over when Brady launched into explaining the intricacies of social media, but at least he could relax now that the box had been ticked.

Around 18 months after Brady joined the firm, Power jetted off to an international market research conference. He decided to attend a presentation on social media and was captivated by the rousing speech of a charismatic young Californian billed as an emerging guru in the field. By the end of the speech, Power was wildly enthusiastic about the way in which social media could be integrated into the “new market research business paradigm”. Later that evening, Power sought out the speaker and asked him to come to Dublin to undertake a consultancy assignment with his company to help it plot a course in this challenging area.

Power returned to Dublin invigorated by his conversion to the wonders of social media and relieved that this would prove to Brady that he really did care about this aspect of the business. He was very taken aback, therefore, when Brady appeared less than pleased at the news. For his part, Brady went home that night perplexed and deeply resentful. The following morning, the pair had a stand-up row.

Brady kicked it off by pointing out that he had been hired because he had the necessary expertise and experience to do the job. Working with limited resources he had achieved far more than he had thought possible in the circumstances.

Now, without any warning, Power was clearly demonstrating that he lacked confidence in Brady’s work. Under the guise of bringing in a consultant to “help” him grasp new opportunities, Power was actually revealing that he did not believe in Brady’s ability to deliver. If money was available to pay for consultancy – and this Californian was not going to come cheap – Brady had plenty of things that could benefit from the investment.

After the row, an uneasy peace was restored. Power said he would not proceed with hiring the Californian and would leave Brady to run his own department his way. So far, neither has apologised for what happened and tension is bubbling away below the surface.

Brady is now profoundly disenchanted with his employer and is already thinking about taking his team with him en masse to set up his own business. Power cannot see why someone would take offence at a consultant being brought in to advise and he has told other senior colleagues that Brady’s outburst will pass. They are not so sure. They feel the row is symptomatic of major deficiencies in how the company is being run and that it does not auger well for the future of the business.

Should Brady leave or can things be salvaged?

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