Publications
Publications
- December 2003 (Revised April 2004)
- HBS Case Collection
Sherif Mityas at A.T. Kearney (A): Negotiating a Client Service Predicament
By: Ashish Nanda
Abstract
Sherif Mityas, recently promoted as project manager at A.T. Kearney, faced a client service challenge in his very first project experience. Mityas had been working closely for six weeks with the management team of the U.S. subsidiary of a Japan-headquartered consumer products company to identify ways to turn around the U.S. operations. Following the midproject status meeting, executives from the Japanese parent company made an unexpected request that placed Mityas in a quandary. Mityas related the situation: "At the conclusion of the midproject meeting, I felt confident that we had made solid recommendations about turning around the U.S. operations, but the Japanese parent company executives made a difficult request. They wanted us to evaluate the ability of the U.S. management team to carry out the turnaround. U.S. management had been instrumental in our being able to understand and analyze the situation comprehensively, and we would need their cooperation for our future work to be meaningful. If they came to know that we were simultaneously evaluating them, we could lose their trust--but, then, the Japanese executives represented the client. I didn't know how to proceed."
Keywords
Management; Conflict of Interests; Business Subsidiaries; Trust; Consumer Products Industry; Japan; United States
Citation
Nanda, Ashish, and Kelley Elizabeth Morrell. "Sherif Mityas at A.T. Kearney (A): Negotiating a Client Service Predicament." Harvard Business School Case 904-031, December 2003. (Revised April 2004.)