The Story

Three years ago, Biotex Inc., a chemical engineering firm, was purchase by The Best Group, a conglomerate of some 30 firms which constituted vertical integration starting from a perceived industry need all the way to the actual manufacturing of the designed chemical. Biotex was a link in the chain that the Best Group badly needed: a research and development capability founded on 18 years of hard work and careful nurturing of the highest calibre chemical research scientists in the country. Now, there was a rumour afoot that the conglomerate was dissatisfied with the performance of Biotex over the past 28 months and was planning to dump the company on the open market.

At the Biotex site, morale was running at an all time low. Prior to the take-over, Biotex had been a proud, boutique-sized company with its roots firmly planted in the community. The small town of Esker Falls was mostly made up of the scientists, technicians, support staff and their families. They had close-knit social ties and appreciated deeply the quality of their community life built up over the years it took for the Company to reach its prominence as a first class research organization.

The “Biotex Way” was one of the reasons the Company became so attractive to outside purchase. The model that Biotex used for keeping itself fresh was simple: the scientific cadre was allowed one month a year to perform research they considered personally interesting. Scientists were encouraged to attend a number of carefully selected conferences and seminars. On their return, they were expected to prepare training and development workshops for their peers, technicians and support staff. It was said by detractors that people at Biotex were only 2/3 productive: the rest of the time, they were on the “training and development band-wagon”. One of those key detractors was the Senior Management of the Best Group who actively discouraged training, development and transfer of skills between scientists as a waste of productive time. Now, a most alarming phenomenon was beginning to happen for the first time: scientists at Biotex were starting to leave, thus decreasing its corporate and professional value.