A Comedy of Errors (With apologies to William Shakespeare)

Abstract

This case details the visit of the Group Chairman, Sir John Reddington-Savage of Taiwan International Bank plc of India. This was the first visit by a Chairman to the country in over fifty years. Naturally, this resulted in a considerable amount of excitement for all the staff based in India. The CEO for India at the time of the visit was Terence (Terry) Dyer, who considered himself an India hand as he had an earlier posting in India when he was a junior officer . Thecase details the large amount of advance planning which was done for the Group Chairman's visit and how Dyer, through trying to micro manage the event, caused a number of things to go wrong. With the benefit of hindsight mistakes under Dyer's overzealous guidance which could have been avoided were made by officers directly involved with the visit. All in all it was a very tense few days for those directly involved in the event. The case highlights the importance of proper delegation and having people management skills for any important event to be successful.