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Celeritas Leadership Project
Phill Klar
Jack Welch Management Institute
Dr. Jamie Chesler
JWMI 510
December 11, 2016
Executive Summary
There are many dysfunctions of the senior leadership team, which are broken down into
four areas, a lack of trust, inconsistent decision-making, confusion over goals and poor
coordination amongst divisions. An autocratic leadership style of the CEO is contributing to the
problems. Several recommendations including establishing short and long-term goals aimed at
changing the organizational culture are proposed.
Introduction
Once a leading firm in the enterprise network optimization industry, Celeritas has
recently experienced a severe decline in growth. The senior executives were operating
independently and blaming each other for the results and brought in a consultant to address. The
Celeritas case study reveals multiple dysfunctions within the senior leadership team. The case
study provides an opportunity to identify and analyze the causes of the dysfunctions and explore
how the senior leadership can improve their functioning and move forward as a consolidated
team.
Problem
The Issue
The case’s main problem is the multiple dysfunctions of the senior leadership team. The
problems that Celeritas faced can be broken down into four main areas:
• A lack of trust and communication amongst the senior leadership executives:
Senior leaders were not communicating and sharing information and ideas with
each other.
• Inconsistent decision-making: Decisions would be made and then changed by the
CEO without consultation or approval of the other divisions.
• Confusion about company goals and priorities: Each division had goals; however,
each was independent of the bigger picture and overall company goals.
• Poor coordination amongst business functions and units: Information exchange
was not occurring amongst the divisions. -For example, the sales department was
making commitments that the research and development department could not
honor which created an unhealthy working environment and mistrust.
Case Study Overview
Celeritas, a leading firm in the enterprise network optimization industry, recently lost its
market share and experienced slow growth. The Chief Executive Officer has an autocratic
leadership style (Vroom-Yetton 1973) which helped create dysfunction. He was asking for
information and then making the decisions himself without involving the leaders in the final
decisions. The senior leadership was not aligned and blamed each other for missing deadlines.
Phil Boyer, CEO, hired Carla Reese, an organizational consultant to re-establish relationships
amongst the senior executive team.
Senior Team Dysfunction
The senior executives lacked alignment and were blaming each other for the slow growth
in the company. They operated well within their respective functional areas but there was no
