Name: Yashasvi ram v.s Case Study The root problem in this case is that the company here has the decentralized autonomy of the business units, but there is a lack of coordination between operating groups. To compensate this, Al was appointed as CIO to coordinate different I/T approaches of the business units and to advise the executive committee on the strategic aspect of I/T. But another problem here apart from the lack of coordination is that Al had line of responsibility for I/T in his previous job but in the current job he is given any authority over I/T and is accountable for any changes in there. Also, his advices on the strategic aspects were rarely sought and were never followed. He is struggling to take decisions regarding staffing, budget and he is wondering how other senior staff is able to manage. The first solution would do nothing/maintain the status quo, if nothing is done in this scenario, it would result in the downfall of the company because; there would be no proper coordination between I/T and if the advice given by Al on strategic aspects are effective but are not followed then that would result in huge loss to that unit.
The minimum solution would be to follow some of the advices given by Al to the personal lines division that corporate policy demands a package to be used instead of writing premium system in COBOL. A CEO should consider this decision on the business grounds and find out the pros and cons of implementing some of these decisions and to later implement them. The ideal solution would be to give authority of I/T and the right amount of funding for Al to implement his ideas. As he already has a good experience previously in this field, his ideas of funding, strategic agendas should be followed with some consideration. Also, he should be given a chance to interact with other senior supervisors to know how they are managing the funds, their staff and so on.
The long lasting solution would be, CEO considers the experience and also a skill set of their senior staff so that they can be assigned to the exact positions. This makes them work effectively and would contribute to the positive growth of the company. I would recommend the long lasting solution because, the main failure of the company here is not to identify their employees’ potential in the particular field and also implementing some of the functionalities (using COBOL) without any research on that. If these problems are rectified then coordination of all the business units can be done effectively and this minimizes failure risk of Surething Insurance company. Things that can be done to prevent future failures:
1. Rapid expansion.
2. Under-reserving.
3. Unforeseen claims.
4. Under-Pricing.
5. Gross Incompetence.
6. Expansion into new areas.