historical context
T.Ents & Co. is a Dutch tent manufacturing company that has been in business for over
ten years. The company has been very successful in the last five years, experiencing
an annual growth rate of 15% compared to an industry average of only 10%. The
headquarters are located in Amsterdam and currently employs 200 employees with
manufacturing sites in Belgium, Germany, and the Netherlands.
Due to its success, the company recently made the strategic decision to expand
into the outdoor apparel market, producing sustainable clothing. The name for the new
business venture would be CLOutdoor, with the business vision: “to make delightful
outdoor life commonplace through sustainable clothing”. A feasibility study suggested
that a new production site close to Hamburg would be viable and a Dutch general
manager had been appointed to set up and manage the new production site. As the
HR team based at the headquarters in Amsterdam, you were asked to support the
general manager with the talent management process by writing a talent management
implementation plan.

The current situation
As is often the case with reality, several things have happened while writing the talent
management implementation plan that have affected its feasibility and usefulness.
Specifically, due to its immense success, the T.Ents & Co. company has recently
garnered attention from Tigris Venture Capital LLP, a private equity fund from Malaysia.
Tigris Venture Capital LLP is keen on acquiring T.Ents & Co., under the condition that
several large-scale organizational changes are made. As part of the changes, T.Ents
& Co. is expected to replace several of its key managers with Malaysian managers
selected by Tigris Venture Capital LLP. Furthermore, Tigris Venture Capital LLP
expects the Dutch-oriented organizational culture of T.Ents & Co. to be more in line
with an organizational culture that is typical of Malaysia. Finally, Tigris Venture Capital
LLP has indicated that T.Ents & Co. is to move their newly intended sustainable clothing
production facilities into Malaysia. Although these demands are hefty, the management
of T.Ents & Co. headquartered in Amsterdam very much wants the acquisition to follow
through. Before following through, however, management wants to analyze what is
necessary for the takeover to become successful.
In addition to the external attention that T.Ents & Co. has garnered, there are several
internal issues that the company is struggling with. Due to its staggering growth, T.Ents
& Co. has had to make several quick (and potentially careless) hiring decisions for key
personnel. Resulting from these decisions, the company is facing two particular cases
of new hires that warrant further attention: (1) an administrative employee that
possesses all the right skills to perform their job, but does not seem to feel at home in
the company and (2) an underperforming junior manager that has clear ambitions to
ascend the corporate ladder, but currently lacks the skills to do so. Management would
like to have some intuition on how these two particular cases can be handled, as well
as a concrete plan on how potentially bad hiring decisions can be avoided in the future.
Furthermore, management has noticed that the coordination between the different
manufacturing sites across Belgium, Germany, and the Netherlands is far from ideal.
There are no clear communication lines between these manufacturing sites, which has

resulted in a lot of operational redundancies. Given T.Ent & Co.’s current organizational
structure, management has decided that a liaison should be recruited that functions as
a boundary spanner between the manufacturing sites and directly reports to
management. Although this liaison should be recruited as quickly as possible,
management does not want to make another potentially careless hiring decision.
Accordingly, management would like to have a thorough job description and
specification for this position, as well as a clear recruitment and selection plan.

Given your expertise in human resource management as well as intercultural
management, management has asked you to assist in handling these external
developments and internal issues. Specifically, management wants you to analyze the
situation and come up with actionable, evidence-based recommendations that they can
readily implement to prepare for the acquisition and solve the internal issues. They
have invited you for a meeting in which they want to consult you on all of this.