New Wave Music is an international company that develops music software that is used to compose music, play recordings i
Posted: Wed May 04, 2022 8:23 am
New Wave Music is an international company that develops music
software that is used to compose
music, play recordings in clubs, and produce albums. Founder and
CEO Moritz Halbach is the company’s
biggest fan. He said “I started this company from nothing, just me,
my ideas, and my computer. I love
music---love playing music, love writing programs for making music,
love listening to music---and the
money is nice, too.” Moritz says that he never wanted to work for
someone else or to give away his
ideas and let someone else profit from them. He was keen to keep
control over this idea and their
image. “New Wave Music is always ahead of the pack. In this
business, if you can’t keep up, you’re out.
We are the company that everyone else is concerned about keeping up
with. Everyone knows that when
they get something from us, they’re getting only the best and the
newest.”
The headquarters for the company is in Berlin, Germany. It is the
nerve center for the organization,
where new products are developed and organizational strategy is
established. The company does a
great deal of its coding work at its office in Kiev, Ukraine and
its marketing efforts are increasingly based
in its Los Angeles, California office. This division of labor is
partially based on technical expertise and
cost issues. The German team in Berlin excels at design and
production tasks. Because most of the
company’s customers are English speakers, the Los Angeles office
has been viewed as the best group to
write ads and market products. The Kiev office is filled with
outstanding programmers who don’t require
the very high rates of compensation that are found in Germany and
the United States. In terms of
management style, Moritz makes the final decision on hiring every
employee for the company and
places a heavy emphasis on independent work styles. He states “Why
would I want to put my company
in the hands of people that I can’t count on? My employees have to
believe in what we are doing here,
really understand our direction and be able to go with it. I’m not
a babysitter, this is the real world.”
The work environment is that employees want to work for the firm
because it has a reputation for being
cutting edge. New Wave Music’s software is used by a number of
dance musicians and DJs who have
been the firm’s core market. They view the product as expensive but
a very high quality and innovative
brand. Whenever the rest of the market for music software tends to
go in a certain direction, New Wave
Music heads in a completely different direction to keep itself
separate from the pack. This strategy has
paid off. While competitors develop similar products to one another
and have to continually lower their
prices to compete with one another, New Wave Music has kept its
revenues high by creating completely
new types of products.
Unfortunately, computer piracy has eroded the company’s ability to
make money with just software-
based music tools and has had to move into the production of
hardware (such as drum machines and
amplifiers) that incorporates computer technology. Making this
change would be challenging for some
companies but for a company that reinvents itself every 2-3 years
like New Wave Music does, the bigger
battle is against stagnation and rigidity. With only 115 employees,
the original management philosophy
of allowing all employees to participate in decision making and
innovation is still the lifeblood of the
company’s culture. One employee notes “At New Wave Music, they want
us to be part of the process. If
you are a person who wants to do what you are told at work, you are
in trouble. Most times, they can’t
tell you what they want you to do next----they don’t even know what
comes next! That’s why they hire
employees who are creative, people who try to make the next thing
happen. It’s challenging but a lot of
us think that it is a very exciting environment.”
Because so much of the work can be performed on computers,
Moritz decided early on to allow
employees to work outside the office. The senior management in
Berlin and Los Angeles are quite happy
with this arrangement. Because some marketing work does require
face-to-face contact, the Los Angeles
office has weekly meetings. Employees who like the company are
happiest when they can work through
the night and sleep most of the day, firing up their computers to
get work done at the drop of a hat.
Project discussions often happen via social networking on the
company’s intranet.
Employees at the Kiev office have been less eager about this work
model. Managers say that their
computer programmers find working with so little structure is
rather uncomfortable and are more used
to a more structured environment with strong leadership and
well-defined work processes.
One Kiev manager stated “When I started, Moritz said that getting
in touch with either him or those in
Los Angeles would be no problem. We’re small and like a family, he
said. Well, it is a problem. When I
call Los Angeles, they say that I need to wait until their meeting
day. I can’t always wait until they decide
to get together. I call Moritz and he says ‘Figure it out.’ Then
when I do, he says it isn’t right and we have
to start again. If he just told me in the first place, we would
have done it.”
Some recent events have also shaken up the company’s usual way of
doing business. Developers in the
corporate office had a major communication breakdown about their
hardware DJ controller which
required many hours of discussion to resolve. It seemed that people
who seldom met face-to-face had
all made progress but had all moved in different directions. To
test and design the company’s hardware
products, employees were finding that they needed to do more than
send each other code and that
face-to-face collaboration was necessary. Some spirited
disagreements have been voiced within the
organization about how things should move forward with regard to
this problem.
The Los Angeles office is also experiencing difficulties. Sandra
Post, a key employee in that office, has
been more critical of the company since its shift to newer
products. “With the software, we were more
limited in the kinds of advertising media we could access. So, now
with the hardware---real instruments-
--we finally thought ‘All right, this is something we can work
with!’ We had a whole slate of musicians,
producers, and DJs to contact for endorsements but Moritz said ‘No
way.’ He didn’t want customers
who only cared that a celebrity liked us so he scrapped the whole
campaign. He says we’re all about
creativity and doing our own thing---until we don’t do things his
way.”
Although the organization is not without problems, there is no
question that New Wave Music has been
a standout success in the computer music software industry. While
many are shuttering their
operations, the company is using its market power to push forward
the next generation of electronic
music-making tools. As Moritz puts it, “Once the rest of the
industry has gotten together and figured out
how they’re all going to cope with change, they’ll look around and
see that we’re already three miles
ahead of them down the road to the future.”
Question
Is the current organizational structure and division of labor
appropriate to the needs for
flexible communication and coordination? If changes to the
structure, communication, and
coordination should be installed, explain where might resistance to
those changes, as described
in Chapter 12 (ISBN: 9781260478716), comes from?
Hint # 1 The current organizational structure is "Functional"
and based on what is performed in each location. Hint # 2 Be aware
that Ukraine Cultural Values are much like Russia. And, is very
different than U.S. and Germany (See Hofstede study)
Please answer the question thoroughly and in paragraph form.
Thank you!
software that is used to compose
music, play recordings in clubs, and produce albums. Founder and
CEO Moritz Halbach is the company’s
biggest fan. He said “I started this company from nothing, just me,
my ideas, and my computer. I love
music---love playing music, love writing programs for making music,
love listening to music---and the
money is nice, too.” Moritz says that he never wanted to work for
someone else or to give away his
ideas and let someone else profit from them. He was keen to keep
control over this idea and their
image. “New Wave Music is always ahead of the pack. In this
business, if you can’t keep up, you’re out.
We are the company that everyone else is concerned about keeping up
with. Everyone knows that when
they get something from us, they’re getting only the best and the
newest.”
The headquarters for the company is in Berlin, Germany. It is the
nerve center for the organization,
where new products are developed and organizational strategy is
established. The company does a
great deal of its coding work at its office in Kiev, Ukraine and
its marketing efforts are increasingly based
in its Los Angeles, California office. This division of labor is
partially based on technical expertise and
cost issues. The German team in Berlin excels at design and
production tasks. Because most of the
company’s customers are English speakers, the Los Angeles office
has been viewed as the best group to
write ads and market products. The Kiev office is filled with
outstanding programmers who don’t require
the very high rates of compensation that are found in Germany and
the United States. In terms of
management style, Moritz makes the final decision on hiring every
employee for the company and
places a heavy emphasis on independent work styles. He states “Why
would I want to put my company
in the hands of people that I can’t count on? My employees have to
believe in what we are doing here,
really understand our direction and be able to go with it. I’m not
a babysitter, this is the real world.”
The work environment is that employees want to work for the firm
because it has a reputation for being
cutting edge. New Wave Music’s software is used by a number of
dance musicians and DJs who have
been the firm’s core market. They view the product as expensive but
a very high quality and innovative
brand. Whenever the rest of the market for music software tends to
go in a certain direction, New Wave
Music heads in a completely different direction to keep itself
separate from the pack. This strategy has
paid off. While competitors develop similar products to one another
and have to continually lower their
prices to compete with one another, New Wave Music has kept its
revenues high by creating completely
new types of products.
Unfortunately, computer piracy has eroded the company’s ability to
make money with just software-
based music tools and has had to move into the production of
hardware (such as drum machines and
amplifiers) that incorporates computer technology. Making this
change would be challenging for some
companies but for a company that reinvents itself every 2-3 years
like New Wave Music does, the bigger
battle is against stagnation and rigidity. With only 115 employees,
the original management philosophy
of allowing all employees to participate in decision making and
innovation is still the lifeblood of the
company’s culture. One employee notes “At New Wave Music, they want
us to be part of the process. If
you are a person who wants to do what you are told at work, you are
in trouble. Most times, they can’t
tell you what they want you to do next----they don’t even know what
comes next! That’s why they hire
employees who are creative, people who try to make the next thing
happen. It’s challenging but a lot of
us think that it is a very exciting environment.”
Because so much of the work can be performed on computers,
Moritz decided early on to allow
employees to work outside the office. The senior management in
Berlin and Los Angeles are quite happy
with this arrangement. Because some marketing work does require
face-to-face contact, the Los Angeles
office has weekly meetings. Employees who like the company are
happiest when they can work through
the night and sleep most of the day, firing up their computers to
get work done at the drop of a hat.
Project discussions often happen via social networking on the
company’s intranet.
Employees at the Kiev office have been less eager about this work
model. Managers say that their
computer programmers find working with so little structure is
rather uncomfortable and are more used
to a more structured environment with strong leadership and
well-defined work processes.
One Kiev manager stated “When I started, Moritz said that getting
in touch with either him or those in
Los Angeles would be no problem. We’re small and like a family, he
said. Well, it is a problem. When I
call Los Angeles, they say that I need to wait until their meeting
day. I can’t always wait until they decide
to get together. I call Moritz and he says ‘Figure it out.’ Then
when I do, he says it isn’t right and we have
to start again. If he just told me in the first place, we would
have done it.”
Some recent events have also shaken up the company’s usual way of
doing business. Developers in the
corporate office had a major communication breakdown about their
hardware DJ controller which
required many hours of discussion to resolve. It seemed that people
who seldom met face-to-face had
all made progress but had all moved in different directions. To
test and design the company’s hardware
products, employees were finding that they needed to do more than
send each other code and that
face-to-face collaboration was necessary. Some spirited
disagreements have been voiced within the
organization about how things should move forward with regard to
this problem.
The Los Angeles office is also experiencing difficulties. Sandra
Post, a key employee in that office, has
been more critical of the company since its shift to newer
products. “With the software, we were more
limited in the kinds of advertising media we could access. So, now
with the hardware---real instruments-
--we finally thought ‘All right, this is something we can work
with!’ We had a whole slate of musicians,
producers, and DJs to contact for endorsements but Moritz said ‘No
way.’ He didn’t want customers
who only cared that a celebrity liked us so he scrapped the whole
campaign. He says we’re all about
creativity and doing our own thing---until we don’t do things his
way.”
Although the organization is not without problems, there is no
question that New Wave Music has been
a standout success in the computer music software industry. While
many are shuttering their
operations, the company is using its market power to push forward
the next generation of electronic
music-making tools. As Moritz puts it, “Once the rest of the
industry has gotten together and figured out
how they’re all going to cope with change, they’ll look around and
see that we’re already three miles
ahead of them down the road to the future.”
Question
Is the current organizational structure and division of labor
appropriate to the needs for
flexible communication and coordination? If changes to the
structure, communication, and
coordination should be installed, explain where might resistance to
those changes, as described
in Chapter 12 (ISBN: 9781260478716), comes from?
Hint # 1 The current organizational structure is "Functional"
and based on what is performed in each location. Hint # 2 Be aware
that Ukraine Cultural Values are much like Russia. And, is very
different than U.S. and Germany (See Hofstede study)
Please answer the question thoroughly and in paragraph form.
Thank you!