Keller also instituted a very aggressive distributor support and service program to the retail level, which includes all the elements any channel partner would love: high margins, excellent quality service, heavy advertising, strong promotional strategies and extensive information technologies (it) support. Keller also unified all of these diverse initiatives into a very focused and aggressive service-oriented commercial strategy to win over Ukrainian distributors. Keller also realized that distributors ruled his market and industry and if his company was ever going to be successful they would need to serve the distribution sales forces daily. In addition to all of these factors about Keller, he clearly understands he is in a battle for mindshare and only by continually adding more value to distributors will he win.
Amidst all of his accomplishments and excellent insight into how to make Konigsbrau's business succeed, he is also challenged with managing Dmitri Brodsky. Dmitri is leading the sales team at Konigsbrau, chosen due to his experience and maturity, which the Vorstand would bring balance to the younger groups of managers that Keller had attracted. Given the fact that Brodsky is intellectual and cultivated, no doubt he comes across arrogant at times, even condescending to the younger managers. This can be inferred from the portrayal of Brodsky in the case study. He is politically...
Brodsky also has significant international experience, another asset that Chairman Antonov sees as a reason to hold onto him despite the many problems with his performance. He has worked in the U.S., Ukraine, and France and has excellent analytical skills. His background also shows an exceptional level of task orientation and focus on results.
For all his strengths, it is obvious however that Brodsky is not suited for the sales job. His lack of interpersonal skills, ability to connect with distributors, and lack of communication skills are interpreted as apathy in the most positive situations and antagonism in the worst. He also has an exceptional level of perceptional blindness about his own abilities in his role. Due to this perceptual blindness of his own limitations, he doesn't take criticism well. He also struggles to make decisions quickly enough to save the company money, and also causes major problems for Wolfgang Keller due to inattentiveness to detail. His lack of willingness to be tough on distributors, part of his perceptual bias of his own limitations, nearly costs the company well over €87,000 in bad debts that Brodsky is not aggressive enough in pursuing. His focus on the overly formal processes and procedures in the company hurts the company's ability to compete.
