Beuth University of Applied Sciences Berlin

MBA Renewables

WRITTEN ASSIGNMENT

HR and People Management

Lecturer: Prof. Dr. Nicola Neuvians

Student: Mario Maras, Dipl. Ing.

Berlin, 20h January 2014

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Article shows many problems with communication within company members. Sunrise Energy

presents itself as fastest growing company in the market of renewable energies with increase

business volume of 25% in 2010. Considering communication between employees, this is

very hard to believe, but which specific market should be taken into account is not

mentioned. Virtual communication does have problems as it doesn't include face to face

communication, therefore exchanging emotions between people is a very difficult task.

People live in different time zones, might have problems with internet access, mobile

communication provider can have technical problems, etc. Business meetings held online

certainly need more concentration and energy due to loss of information. Cross cultural

communication on the other hand involve other problems which are stated in the name of

communication - cultural. There are Americans, Germans, Chinese and French citizens that

can be tracked from the article. Each one of them has different background - cultural and

educational and these differences should be taken into account. Each culture has certain

pros and cons, and when discussing project that should be built together, certain rules

should be developed and followed.

Main barriers that exist in this article are: Project Planning, Project Deadlines and

Communication.

1) Project Planning - first of all, if there is an organization, especially when we are talking

about virtual organization, roles should be defined. When reading e-mails and articles, it is

difficult to track who is doing what. It is obvious that Dr. Schmitt is in charge of the project

who seems as a responsible man, which can be read from his e-mails. He is always keeping

track on deadlines and writing style, while others use more informal way of communication

and put more focus on small talk, leisure, food, wine, etc. This is a typical example of cross

cultural communication which is fine if the deadlines are being followed and project is being

built according the plan. With this type of organization, some organizational structure might

help so that each member involved knows what his responsibilities are and what are

responsibilities of people around. This structure should define roles, provide e-mails and

mobile phone numbers. These information should be mentioned in e-mail footers to provide

more information to receiver of e-mails, and it shows more business responsibility. Intranet

network or cloud system could help to store data online, accessible to everyone in the

company. In that case data will not be lost, which happened in the case of project plan.

Situation when Francois asks Mr. Schulz would be avoided, therefore less time would be

lost. Another unreliable situation occurred with missing documents for modules delivery from

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China. Some additional software system could be used to monitor all aspects of process and

external companies might have access to parts of it - to write information about deliveries,

documents that need to be sent, received, etc. Chart that would define objectives and

deadlines might be developed, shared with everyone involved and reviewed on weekly

meetings. All of these instruments might prevent another situation - Mr. Ti writing to Dr.

Schmitt, not to Mr. Schulz that there is delivery stop. It is obvious that Mr. Li is not aware

that his superior is Mr. Schulz, not Dr. Schmitt. There are many small and big mistakes that

put down credibility of Sunrise Energy and these should be avoided. Company that strives to

grow big should not have place for mistakes like that.

Example like this one might be applied:

2) Project Deadlines - it very important to define deadlines for each part of the project -

delivery of modules, engineering, other logistics, accounting, marketing, budgeting, etc.

These deadlines should be followed if the project will go online on time. As it was announced

on 15th November that biggest solar installation will be online at 1st December, and then

information came from China that there is delay in delivering modules for a week, it is

obvious that company is not ready for the worst case scenario. In this case, project will not

be finished as it was announced and this will show lack of credibility for Sunrise Energy. If

deadlines would be defined, monitored and followed in due time, all necessary meetings

would be organized in specific times, and during those meetings goals could be set,

reviewed. Each member would understand that there is a business goal and would also take

into account personal preferences of other members. There would be no situations that Paul

asks to move a meeting from 6:30AM to 9:00AM even though he already mentioned that he

is available from 9:00AM on. Also, phone call meetings would be arrange when it suits best

for everyone, so situations when French enjoy lunch would also be avoided. Probably if

everything would go according the plan, Dr. Schmitt wouldn't have problems with everyone

sending him 50 e-mails per day discussing leisure. He might enjoy them as there would be

less of them. More e-mail would be concerned to business matters and some of them would

be sent as a private matter.

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3) Communication - It is obvious that there are no standard procedures concerning

communication at Sunrise Energy. What is also lacking is business formality in exchanging

information which is more important than standard procedures. Procedures are necessary to

keep people on track of what has to be done. If there is no business culture like in case of

Sunrise Energy, then some procedures should be established. Problems could arise - there

are different nationals involved, different time zones involved, even different continents are

involved. All these problems might be mitigated with showing little more respect to other

members. From communication styles, it is obvious that people are more interested in having

fun than getting job done. Dr. Schmitt on the other hand shows by example other extreme.

He is very strict and only goal oriented individual. In this situation it is actually desirable

because deadline is coming close and project is far from finishing. In another times there

should be some cohesion between team members. Perhaps after projects is finished, team

building could be organized so that people can meet with each other, get to know each other

from business and personal perspective. When there is face-to-face communication, they

could gather enough necessary information from each other to continue their work in the

future. Communication is all about human contact. Business should be approached without

emotions, but awareness that there is another human being on other side is most important.

This contact would definitely lead to more successful business ventures in the future.