Rick Drumm (C)

Rick Drumm (his real name), once a teen-age drumming contest winner, is facing the most promising, but also the most challenging, career transition in his career as a manager and a leader. While a second-year MBA student in a fast-track program, and working as President of Vic Firth Inc, a $20 million-sales drumstick manufacturer, he is being recruited to become president of J. D'Addario & Co., the largest manufacturer of musical accessories in the US. Having survived a series of interviews - by the headhunter, various Board members, and the Chairman of D'Addario - he is informed that he has to be interviewed by Jack Welch, the legendary CEO of General Electric, as the final step in his selection process. Rick has to decide how to prepare for this interview, how to approach this final test of his qualifications to assume the leadership of a much larger and more complex organization. The (C) case focuses on Jim D'Addario (the scion of the D'Addario clan, and Chairman and CEO of the company), and his views about the growing needs for executive leadership at this historically venerable musical accessories company. The case provides the history of this enterprise through various transitions in business focus and leadership, and of how Jim came to ask Welch to interview his "best candidate". The case also describes Jim's views on what the company needed at this point in time, and his perspective on Rick Drumm's key attributes. The case closes with Rick describing his initial steps to diagnose the most pressing problems at D'Addario, and the actions he took to take charge of the situation.

• Leadership
• Career changes
• Organizational behavior
• Hiring and recruitment
• Career planning