8/2/2019 Technosoftware Company

1/3

Technosoftware Company

Technosoftware Company was established by Rive, Benjamin and Walter. They were graduates ofPurdue University. It is a small company, making on-line software packaging. Now they want tobring revolutionary software, RavWeb. This requires additional employeewho can be a positivecontributor to the company. The responsibilities of the new employee included product management,product introduction, packaging & user manual writing, pricing & product announcement, positioningstrategy, 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 payabout $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. Hemanaged to narrow down the list of potential applicants to three. Walter, Darrell, and Ben reviewed theresumes, conducted brief telephone interviews, panel interviews, and gave several paper-and-penciltests to the three candidates. In order not to affect your judgements, Walter, Darrell, and Ben have triedto be as objective as possible in writing up this information. The results of these selection devices aresummarized 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 informationfrom each candidate. This information is summarized below:

Candidate 1 : Jack Smith. Has B.S. in engineering and MBA from Harvard (1970); worked for last 20years 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 ofthe workforce. Prior to this worked as salesperson for several manufacturers. Has had broad range ofexperience in all phases of marketing to businesses. Familiar with Internet marketing and basicspreadsheets. 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 indeveloping computer software for large computer firm. During last year worked with a teamresponsible for designing and marketing of a new PC statistics package. Experience and familiaritywith 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 atfive different firms. Each job involved slightly broad responsibilities. Second job was for a computerproducts firm, which involved marketing of computer hardware; other jobs have been with officesupply 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 ofeach candidate's responses follows:

The key questions were:

1

8/2/2019 Technosoftware Company

2/3

1. What strengths can you bring to this company?2. Describe your managerial style.3. Describe your ideal job.4. What are your career plans?5. 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 anew product; exposure to other functions, including production and accounting.

2. Believes in open communication, delegation, ongoing feedback, and frequent goal-settingsessions.

3. Ideal job would be one with a great deal of responsibility, challenging assignments, and a greatdeal 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 aone-hour session to the executive vice president of sales and marketing. He agreed, listenedcarefully 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 21. 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 resolvedisagreement. 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 31. 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

2

8/2/2019 Technosoftware Company

3/3

feedback.3. Ability to achieve ongoing advancement in the marketing area through increasing

responsibility, continuous development of new products and innovation.4. Advance into a senior marketing position in a small computer software firm.5. "Have never had such a situation Always able to deal with such situations before they

became major conflicts."6. Position offers a "fast track" opportunity to learn about a whole lot of marketing tasks that a

larger company cannot offer.

7. Negotiable, but at least $50,000 depending on opportunities for bonus or stock ownership.8. $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, whoadministered to each candidate three tests. One test, the Thurstone Cognitive Ability Test, provides averbal ability (V) and mathematical ability score (M). The second text, the Guilford-ZimmermanTemperament Survey (GZTS) is a standard personality measure - the psychologist relies on only fourscales, 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 completethe 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, apercentile score of 50 indicates that the individual did as well as or better than about half the peoplewho have taken the test).

... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... .. ... ... ... ... ... ... .........

Candidate V M E ES T PR CP... ... ... . ... ... ... ... ...... ...... ... ...... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...... ...

1 80 15 50 99 40 95 52 90 99 99 50 99 70 993 80 50 80 40 25 90 40

...... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... .. ... ... ... ... ...

-------------------------------------

3