Wolfgang Keller At Konigsbrau-Hellas A.E.

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Executive Summary

When Wolfgang Keller took over as the managing director of Konigsbrau-Hellas A.E, a Greek subsidiary of Munich based Konigsbrau A.G, he created a culture of camaraderie and emphasized the strengths of the distributors by providing them heavy support and services. The company promoted personal interactions between sales force and distributors and encouraged after hours and weekend get together. Dimitri Petrou was hired as the commercial director in charge of sales primarily because of his experience and maturity. His reserved personality and distant management style has created conflict between them him and Keller. The conflict became somewhat aggravated when Keller wrote his appraisal. He claimed that Petrou was ineffective in his role and lacked the personality to maintain personal contacts with customers and sales force. Petrou countered that Keller was a micromanager and often interfere with the sales and marketing functions.

This case demonstrated how difference in management style, personality and culture can result in conflict. It also showed why managers have to learn how to trust his subordinates and offer constructive criticism in order to be effective and that appraisal system can have a negative effect if not conducted properly.

The analysis of this case resulted in the following recommendation:

1. Provide more empowerment to the directorate.

2. Re-evaluate the appraisal system.

3. Nico Chorafas as the Sales Director working under Dimitri Pterou

4. Dimitri Petrou to take over Marketing

Background

Konigsbrau-Hellas A.E.is a Greek subsidiary of a Munich based Konigsbrau A.G. which was known as the best managed and most profitable brewers of premium beer in the world. Its worldwide sales were ...

... middle of paper ...

...xperience as commercial director from multinational companies. Keller understood his strengths and weaknesses but failed to take advantage of the good and correct the bad in a constructive way.

Petrou’s personality may not fit, with the requirements of his title being in charge of sales, in a culture that the company’s Greek subsidiary was promoting. This was a culture of camaraderie within the company with strong service and support to the sales force and distributors. But Keller has to understand differences in cultures and personality and cannot assume same mentality. As a manager Keller has to learn how to utilize his resources properly and deal with conflict constructively and tactfully. The evaluation system can be a powerful tool for personnel motivation and development if properly utilized but can do the opposite and create animosity if not fully understood.

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