Final PaperGreatPoint EnergyTeam 1 – OBillionaires OB221 Professor Jack McCarthy

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ASHITA GOPALSARAH ALVY

CHRIS GORDON MANUEL HADJIBAY

TERESA KIM MIN SON

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Table of Contents 1

Introduction 2

The Organization of Great Point Energy

Leadership 2

Motivation 4

Communication and Interdependency 5

Values 8

Employee Relationships 9

Conclusion 10

Our RecommendationThe Future of GreatPoint Energy

End Notes 12

Appendices 16

Interview Transcripts 30

Thank You Notes 54

Works Cited 57

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Introduction

GreatPoint Energy (“GPE”) was founded in 2004 by Avi Goldberg, Aaron Mandell and

Andrew Pearlman in Cambridge, Massachusetts with the idea of developing a proprietary,

highly-efficient catalytic process, known as hydromethanation, (Appendix J) by which coal,

petroleum coke and biomass are converted directly into low-cost, clean, pipeline quality natural

gas, while allowing for the capture and sequestration of carbon dioxide.1 GPE was recognized by

BusinessWeek as one of the “Top 25 Companies to Watch in Energy Tech” and has been

awarded as the overall winner of the 2009 Going Green East 50 competition.2, 3 (Appendix F)

GPE has proved itself the underdog in the increasingly competitive industry of green energy.

Observation of its culture, values, motivation and characteristics exposed why it is on its path to

great success.

The Organization of GreatPoint Energy

As a startup company, GPE currently employs fewer than 100 employees. This characteristic has

made its culture distinctive through its artifacts, shared values and shared assumptions.

Observations of the close-knit environment show that the culture is based on interdependence

and employee relationships. Moreover, the employees are consistently motivated by the idea of

creating a “greener world,” which has created innovations such as Bluegas and

hydromethanation.

I. Leadership

Our concept of yesteryear’s leadership has gone and reshaped itself. The image of a controlling

and commanding boss has been erased and replaced with bosses of strategic vision and

empathy.4 The co-founder of GPE, Avi Goldberg, represents this change and the effect of his

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leadership is seen through his empowerment of employees in the company. Unique to GPE is its

flat level of hierarchy. Plant Engineer, Nicole Chaplin commented that “if we’re working on

project development and there is need for technical assistance from a manager, you don’t need to

go through a lot of channels to get help. You basically just yell at the person next to you and say

‘what do you think of this?’” 5 This exemplifies that the role of leadership in this company is

broadly distributed rather than reserved for the CEO. GPE’s commitment to keeping its shared

leadership image has helped sustain its organic culture and helped orient a participative path-goal

leadership environment. All managers at the research plant strengthen the effort-to-performance

expectancy by giving support, alignment and supplying all resources necessary and help needed

for the employees to complete their tasks in an efficient manner. Managers at GPE use their

leadership behaviors to motivate and influence employee performance to boost goal attainment.

Chaplin also commented saying that because of the company’s relatively small size it leads to a

greater amount of individual responsibility and thus a motto at GPE is “let’s just get the job

done, let’s not overanalyze, we must always get to the next step.”6 Striving to always get to the

next step entails that management pushes to align employees to work together to get the job done

efficiently. “The idea of getting people moving in the same direction appears to be an

organizational problem. But what executives need to do is not organize people but align them.”7

GPE is a technology driven company; not all aspects of leadership draw from

interpersonal skills, but rather more technical skills. Charles Powell, plant manager said that “as

a general rule, I’d say that my interpersonal understanding is critical, but in research my

technical skills come back to play.” 8 Leadership is defined as “influencing, motivating, and

enabling others to contribute toward the effectiveness and success of the organization of which

they are members.” 9 All leaders of the company have knowledge of the industry and business,

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self-confidence, integrity, and a drive for achievement to pursue the companies’ objectives and

high reach goals. 10 This flat level of hierarchy suits the company well since it is only doing

research as of now, however, once the company markets at a commercial level, the structure of

its leaders will change dramatically.

II. Motivation

Employee motivation is a crucial component in any successful organizations. Because

“emotions play a central role in employee motivation”, it is important to create and maintain a

positive environment for employees.11 Every information we receive and share is unconsciously

tagged with emotional markers; consequently, emotional drives indeed affect logicality and

productivity of business.12, 13, 14 Therefore, GPE uses both extrinsic and intrinsic motivators as

tools to empower their workers while fueling the main underlying motivational drivers to bond,

acquire, learn, and defend.15

Many of GPE’s managers agreed that their main extrinsic motivators are a large salary,

stock options, gym membership ($500/year), and a fully stocked kitchen which increases

opportunities for informal interaction.16 GPE’s employees have the drive to bond (Appendix A)

with the increased level of informal and interpersonal relationships when sharing a simple snack

or bonding over a lunch break. With these aspects in mind, the employees at GPE desire to work

efficiently because of the beneficial and tangible rewards it offers.

Aside from its extrinsic benefits, GPE does not overlook the importance of intrinsic

motivators.17 Thomas Robinson, VP of Projects and Operations, stated that it is important to

“create a climate for motivation to flourish…with no walls or structure.”18 The horizontal and

informal structure of the company allows employees to communicate easily unlike other

companies with formal organizational structures; this comfortable environment gives employees

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a sense of a family-like unit and further increases employee involvement with more risk-taking,

which can be explained by the four-drive theory.19

Because an organization’s culture is linked to its motivational success, it is important to

understand GPE’s invisible shared values and assumptions. (Appendix B) Its friendly

atmosphere fosters common values and assumptions in providing positive feedback by showing

recognition of another’s hard work, which empowers its workers. (Appendix C) Robinson and

Ron Ewan, Project Manager, show appreciation to their co-workers by verbally thanking them or

giving a simple pat on the back which satisfies an employee’s drive to acquire.20 Ewan even

purposely shows gratitude to his co-workers by emailing upper management of an individual’s

hard work.21 Also, GPE’s shared values of creating a more environmentally friendly, clean

technology explains their drive to defend the environment.

Since motivation is additionally derived from the “desire to learn new skills or contribute

to an organization,” Chaplin, a young and eager employee, has an inner drive to learn more from

her fellow co-workers because she sees them as intelligent and hard-working.22

III. Communication and Interdependency

Communication and a strong interdependence both foster and enable work coordination,

organizational learning, decision-making, and strong employee relationships. Therefore,

effective communication is essential to almost all organizations interdependency and no

company can exist without it. Chester Barnard, a famous telecommunication CEO, said, “an

organization is born when there are individuals who are able to communicate.”23 GPE, being a

young company, excels in strong communication skills with employees, management, board of

directors, as well as with offices around the nation through effective team meetings, use of

technology, relationships among employees and norms.

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Employing weekly team meetings is just one example of how GPE focuses on

communication. Within these team meetings, employees gather to share ideas, find areas for

improvement, and give feedback and plan for the new plant in Texas. (Appendix F) Furthermore,

because it is a young company, Jaime D’Angelo, Vice President of Human Resources, states “the

company is trying to steer away from this [formal performance evaluation] and focus more on

constant feedback, communication” to achieve more productive working environment.24 What

makes the communication with in the company so effective is that employees at GPE are all a

part of a high performing team. What classifies GPE employees as a high performance team is

the diversity of atmosphere they work in. The employees come from very different backgrounds,

some with PhDs from elite schools, others with work experience, and some who are recent

graduates from college. The more differences that exist on a team, the smarter it can be. As

D’Angelo describes, “many professionals will find themselves defending their views and

positions and conflicts will most likely arise. What needs to be prevalent is the idea that

everyone is focused on the same goal and healthy disagreement is good sometimes because it

produces many good ideas which can be used.”25 A diverse set of skills, experience, and

knowledge needed to divide tasks effectively almost precludes high levels of friendship. GPE

employees exhibit this through the personal level of relationships and friendships the employees

maintain outside the work force. Having a fully stocked kitchen and barbeques on site also

doesn’t hurt the case when it comes to building team bonding.

GPE’s friendly, warm, family-like environment with minimal hierarchy encourages its

employees to communicate less formally. However, such unstructured and informal grapevine

communication has high possibility of causing rumors and gossips during the times of

uncertainty.26 Consequently, the grapevine can cause communication barriers in which

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employees misinterpret messages due to their established perceptual biases.27 Powell reveals that

the earlier founders of the company, concerned with negative aspects of less formal

communication, “are trying to build a more vertical arrangement.”28 However, he describes the

company’s communication process should be “even more horizontally structured.”29 As all other

interviewees prefers communicating informally, it proves that the most efficient, effective, and

appropriate communication occurs when its medium fits the organization’s social influence such

as team norms, individual preferences, work routine, and culture.

The nature of the company also requires strong communication and interdependency

when it comes to being in contact with offices outside the Boston area. When it comes to the

work process of GPE, much of the research and development portion is conducted in Chicago

offices, thus it is extremely crucial that constant contact is kept especially when small-scale

models are being sent to the plant for initial testing. To ensure that information is up to date and

communicated effectively GPE implements information technology to their advantage for more

efficient communication process. Not only do the employees constantly use the internet,

telephone, e-mail and instant messaging to share and exchange their information one another, the

company seeks to use telecommunication as inter-department and inter-plant scale through the

use of walkie-talkies and other radio communication systems. As company expands, the role of

communication has become even more vital. With the new building of the power plant in

Houston, TX next year, top managers expect to oversee operations and employees through the

constant use of email and video chatting.

Any organizations experience problems from communication which are often emotional

conflicts. Therefore, it is an organization’s best interest to create and encourage communication

that effectively manages conflict as well as minimizes problems. D’Angelo once again has the

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responsibility of making sure that everyone in the office is happy and satisfied, and if by chance

there is some conflict, it is dealt with efficiently. GPE uses what they call a progressive

discipline policy. (Appendix C) Employee satisfaction is a very important to GPE and being a

small startup company, enough focus is given to each individual making the environment very

personal and comforting.

V. Values

In 2004, GPE was founded on the desire to create green energy. Within the past five

years, GPE has clarified that their espoused values include creating an efficient and

environmentally friendly process that will convert common minerals into alternative energy. The

company’s enacted values support this declaration as they created and received the patent

(Appendix G) for their Hydromethanation process. GPE also values Corporate Social

Responsibility (Appendix F). This is exemplified through their hydromethanation process, as

described by Elizabeth Shogren, “The catalyst also enables GreatPoint Energy to separate out

about half of the carbon dioxide, a chief cause of climate change… Other pollutants also are

removed at the plant, which makes the product much cleaner than the synthesis gas produced by

other gasification processes.”30 As described by D’Angelo, two other essential values that GPE

possesses are integrity and safety.31 Thus, GPE has appointed their lead operator, Ewan, the task

of creating a safety manual that will be applied to all company plants. Additionally, the company

values interdependency and employee relationships, which is strengthened by their horizontal

structure. However, to allow an employee to become an integral part of the company,

management must make sure that there is value congruence. As described on the company

website, “The strong entrepreneurial values and integrity of our founders are reflected

throughout the members of the GreatPoint Energy family.”32 To further support this point, when

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asked if there are discrepancies between his values and the company’s values, Robinson replied,

“We have aligned values.”33 Thus, to work at GPE, one not only need to be qualified but must

also possess intrinsic motivation to create an eco-friendly source of energy. To persuade the

qualified employees to work at GPE, the company offers superior benefits (Appendix F) as well.

For further information on GPE’s values, refer to the Schwartz and MARS models found in the

Appendix H and I.

VI. Employee Relationships

In the workforce, it is the employee relationships that a company possesses that will

determine how successful that company will be in the future. Relationships are

multidimensional, situational, and are a part of every aspect of a company.34 An aspect that all

relationships have in common is that they all rely on the same attributes. At GPE these variables

lead to relationship strength and future commitment. (Appendix D, E, F) Without out all of these

attributes present in a relationship, the relationship is less likely to be positive and excel. Because

of the existence and high levels of these attributes, GPE has strong employee relationships

needed for growth and success well into the future.

As previously mentioned, leadership is the foundation of positive relationships at GPE.

(Appendix F) The small size and stage of development that GPE is currently operating within

creates an opportunity for leadership to have a lasting effect on the relationships of its

employees. Leading by example and motivation are aspects of leadership that GPE thrives in.

Communication (Appendix F) and balance of power are essential to the strength of

relationships within the company. Also previously mentioned communication is straightforward

with no middle-man involved. This enables the relationships to be truthful and efficient; no one

worries about hurting each other’s feelings. Ewan describes the communication as “I just say

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what needs to be said”35

Balance of power (Appendix F) is a product of communication. The managers at GPE do

not place themselves on a pedestal above the employees and through their relaxed

communication channels, employees feel that they can say what needs to be said to whom it

needs to be said to with no hesitance. In turn this creates a level of equality within the company.

The common goals, values, and cooperation (Appendix F) at GPE are astounding.

Robinson says that, “we have the future in mind. We want long-term technology that will

improve the environment. So our main value is focusing on how to improve that.”36 Everyone at

GPE is focused on the future of the company and what it can bring, this focus shows what the

goals and values of the company are, and when the goals and values are aligned cooperation is

automatic. Ewan states, “My only motivation is what the future of this company can bring.”37

Relationships can have all of the attributes listed above but without trust the relationships

are not strong enough to carry a company forwards (Appendix E, F). Ewan looks for trust in

those he works with. He says, “I look for go-getters. I do not like micro management and I trust

that my co-workers will do what needs to be done with me asking them to do it.”38

Commitment (Appendix F) is the last variable that completes an employee relationship.

The employees that work at GPE are committed to the company’s goals because they know that

the possibilities of achievement at GPE are endless.

Conclusion

In the coming years, GPE will experience challenges in maintaining their culture during

expansion phases. In the short-term, once the company commercializes its process, it will send

many of their current employees to Texas in an attempt to transfer their cultural ideology to their

commercial plant. However, the company will change one aspect of their culture, as top

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management is looking to create a more vertical structure. Also included in the company’s future

outlook is an expansion into China and India, two countries with a rapidly growing energy

market. Although GPE could achieve exponential success by expanding internationally, the

company’s culture might experience significant changes. For this reason, top management must

first decide whether to change the culture in foreign plants to adapt to the societal norms or to

impose their current culture in those plants.

After reviewing the company’s future outlook, we have developed certain

recommendations that will help them achieve long term success. However, due to the different

societal norms domestically and internationally, the company must customize their expansion

methods for each new plant. With regards to the plant in Texas, we understand the company’s

desire to become more hierarchical, but to achieve success, we believe that among top

management and the managers in all of the company’s offices and plants should stay

interdependent, and have a flatter-hierarchy among them. Additionally, management must create

a formal feedback system. This will not only strengthen communication in the company, but it

will also allow management to preserve the company’s culture. However, once GPE expands

internationally, we believe that it is foolish to assume that by imposing their current culture in a

foreign location, GPE will achieve the same success that they’ve experience domestically. We

recommend that certain aspects of the current culture, such as their values, dependence on

communication, and strong leadership should be transferred to foreign plants to ensure that GPE

will experience the same cultural and structural success that it has today.

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End Notes

1. GreatPoint Energy, “Our Company: About.” http://www.greatpointenergy

.com/about.php (accessed November 17, 2008).

2. A. Aston, P. Engardio, and J. Makower, "25 Companies to Watch in

Energy

Tech," BusinessWeek,

http://images.businessweek.com/ss/09/07/0714_sustainable

_planet/12.htm (accessed November 21, 2008).

3. E. Ring, "GoingGreen East 50 Winners," AlwaysOn, February 2009.

http://alwayson.goingon.com/permalink/post/31372

(accessed November 19,

2009).

4. S. L. McShane and M. Glinow, Organizational Behavior: essentials

(New York: McGraw-Hill Irwin, 2009), 231.

5. Nicole Chaplin, interview by Sarah Alvy. October 27, 2009.

6. Nicole Chaplin, interview by Sarah Alvy. October 27, 2009.

7. J. P. Kotter, “What Leaders Really Do,” Harvard Business Review,

Breakthrough Leadership (2001): 90.

8. Charles Powell, interview by Chris Gordon. October 27, 2009.

9. S. L. McShane and Mary Ann Von Glinow, Organizational Behavior:

Essentials, (Boston: McGraw-Hill Irwin, 2009), pp. 231.

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10. S. L. McShane and Mary Ann Von Glinow, Organizational Behavior:

[Essentials, (Boston: McGraw-Hill Irwin, 2009), pp. 233.

11. S. L. McShane and Mary Ann Von Glinow, Organizational Behavior:

[Essentials], (Boston: McGraw-Hill Irwin, 2009), pp. 95.

12. A. R. Damasio, Decartes’ Error: Emotion, Reason, and the Human Brain

(New York: Putnam Sons, 1994)

13. J. E. LeDoux, “Emotion Circuits in the Brain,” Annual Review of

Neuroscience 23 (2000), pp. 155-84

14. P. Winkielman and K.C. Berridge, “Unconscious Emotion,” Current

Directions in Psychological Science 13, no. 3 (2004), pp. 120-23

15. N. Nohria, B. Groysberg, and L. Lee, “Employee Motivation: A Powerful

New Model,” Harvard Business Review 86, no.7/8 (July-August 2009):

80, http://web.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.bu.edu/bsi/pdf?

vid=10&hid=5&sid=e9e09fe7- beb1-42a1-993f-

eb7338f608c9%40sessionmgr10.

16. Jamie D’Angelo, interview by Ashita Gopal, Fall River, MA, October 27,

2009.

17. G. Morse, “Why We Misread Motives” Harvard Business Review 81, no.1

(2003): 18, http://web.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.bu.edu/bsi/pdf?

vid=1&hid=

5&sid=adbbf693-b900-430e-81bb-58a178d2522a%40sessionmgr14.

18. Thomas F. Robinson, interview by Teresa Kim, Fall River, MA, October

27, 2009.

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19. G. L. Neilson, K. L. Martin, and E. Powers, “The Secrets to Successful

Strategy Execution,” Harvard Business Review 86, no. 6 (2008): 4,

http://web.ebscohost

.com.ezproxy.bu.edu/bsi/pdf?vid=1&hid=5&sid=18e79366-db74-499b-

8bee- bf1a808e5dbd%40sessionmgr12 (accessed November 18, 2009).

20. Ron Ewan, interview by Chris Gordon, Fall River, MA, October 27, 2009.

21. Ron Ewan, interview by Chris Gordon, Fall River, MA, October 27, 2009.

22. Nicole Chaplin, interview by Sarah Alvy, Fall River, MA, October 27,

2009.

23. C. Barnard, The Functions of the Executive (Cambridge, MA: Harvard

University Press, 1938).

24. Jamie D’Angelo, interview by Ashita Gopal, Fall River, MA, October 27,

2009.

25. Jamie D’Angelo, Interview by Ashita Gopal, Fall River, MA, October 27,

2009.

26. C.J. Walker and C.A. Beckerle, “The Effect of State Anxiety on Rumor

Transmission,” Journal of Social Behaviour & Personality

2 (August 1987), pp. 353-60; and M. Noon and R. Delbridge, “News

from Behind My Hand: Gossip in Organizations,” Organization Studies 14

(1993), pp. 23-36

27. J. Kruger et al., “Egocentrism over E-Mail: Can We Communicate as Well

as We Think?” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 89, no. 6

(2005), pp. 925- 36.

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28. Charles Powell, interview by Manuel Hadjibay, Fall River, MA, October

27, 2009.

29. Charles Powell, interview by Manuel Hadjibay, Fall River, MA, October

27, 2009.

30. E. Shogren, “Turning Dirty Coal into Clean Energy,” NPR April 2006.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?

storyId=5356683 (accessed on Novembers 21, 2009).

31. Jamie D’Angelo, interview by Ashita Gopal, Fall River, MA, October 27,

2009.

32. GreatPoint Energy, “Careers: Why GreatPoint Energy?”

http://www.greatpointenergy.com/careers.php (accessed

November 17, 2008).

33. Thomas F. Robinson, interview by Teresa Kim, Fall River, MA, October

27, 2009.

34. C. Herington, L. W. Johnson, and D. Scott, “Firm-employee relationship

strength – A conceptual model” Journal of Business Research 62

(2009) pp. 1096–1107.

35. Ron Ewan, interview by Chris Gordon, Fall River, MA, October 27, 2009.

36. Thomas F. Robinson, interview by Teresa Kim, Fall River, MA, October

27, 2009.

37. Ron Ewan, interview by Chris Gordon, Fall River, MA, October 27, 2009.

38. Ron Ewan, interview by Chris Gordon, Fall River, MA, October 27, 2009.

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Appendices

Appendix A

Four-Drive Theory

Source: Steven L. McShane and Mary Ann Von Glinow, Organizational Behavior: [Essentials] (Boston: McGraw-Hill Irwin, 2009), 95.

This is the drive to seek, take, control, and retain objects and personal experiences. The drive to acquire extends beyond basic food and water; it includes enhancing one's self-concept through relative status and recognition in society. Thus, it is the foundation of competition and the basis for our need for esteem.

Drive to acquire

This is the drive to form social relationships and develop mutual caring commitments with others. It also explains why people form social identities by aligning their self-image with various social groups. It may also explain why people lwho ack social contact are more prone to serious health problems. The drive to bond motivates people to cooperate and consequently, is a fundamental ingredient in the succes of organizations and the development of societies.

Drive to bond

This is the drive to satisfy our curiosity, to know and understand ourselves and the environment around us. When observing something that is inconsistent with or beyond our current knowledge, we experience a tension that motivates us to close that information gap.

Drive to learn

This is the drive to protect ourselves physically and socially. Probably the first drive to develop, it creates a "fight-or-flight" response in the face of personal danger. the drive to defend goes beyond protecting our physcial self. It includes defending our relationships, our acquisitions, and our belief systems.

Drive to defend

ArtifactsStories/LegendsRituals/ceremoniesOrganization languagePhysical structure/ décor

Visible

Shared ValuesConscious beliefsEvaluates what is good or bad, right or wrong

Shared AssumptionsUnconscious beliefs, taken-for-grantedMental models of ideals

Invisible

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Appendix B

Organizational Culture Assumptions, Values and Artifacts

Source: Steven L. McShane and Mary Ann Von Glinow, Organizational Behavior: [Essentials] (Boston: McGraw-Hill Irwin, 2009), 276.

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Appendix C

Empowerment’s Four Dimensions

Source: Source: Steven L. McShane and Mary Ann Von Glinow, Organizational Behavior: [Essentials] (Boston: McGraw-Hill Irwin, 2009), 95

Empowered employees feel that they have freedom, independence, and discretion over their work activities.Self-determination

Employees who feel empowered care about their work and believe that what they do is important.MeaningEmpowered people are confident about their ability to perform the work well and have a capacity to grow with new challenges.CompetenceEmpowered employees view themselves as active participants in the organization; that is, their decisions and actions have an influence on the company's success. Impact

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Appendix D

According to Carmel Herington, Lester Johnson, and Don Scott in their article on firm employee

relationship strength, attachment and absence of damaging conflict are including in the variables

needed for a strong employee relationship. After visiting GreatPoint Energy and witnessing how

the employees interact with each other and learning about their culture we decided to exclude

attachment and absence of conflict as variables and include strong leadership because they do not

fit into the employee relationships at GreatPoint Energy. Attachment is very similar to

commitment and shared goals and values. It is defined as “caring and support, closeness, liking

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and social aspects of a strong relationship.” Attachment as an attribute of the employee

relationships at GreatPoint Energy is very repetitive and less pronounced than commitment and

shared values and goals which is why it is not included in the paper. Absence of conflict is not

included as well because GreatPoint Energy is a young company and no matter what there is

going to be conflict in the growing process and in our opinion through our personal team

experiences, conflict is a positive aspect of employee relationships because it often strengthens

communication skills and overall relationships.

Source: Herington, Carmel, Johnson, Lester, Scott, Dan. “Firm-employee relationship strength – A conceptual model” Journal of Business Research 62 (2009) 1096–1107

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Appendix E

As you can see in the diagram above trust is the centerfold of all of the employee relationship

attributes. It brings all of the values together to make a strong bond between the employees.

Source: Herington, Carmel, Johnson, Lester, Scott, Dan. “Firm-employee relationship strength – A conceptual model” Journal of Business Research 62 (2009) 1096–1107

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Appendix F

Definitions, Examples and Explanations:

Communication and Interdependency Section

Employee Communication: All interviewees stated they use face-to-face interaction or quick and

direct written responses to provide effective feedback and information instead of having a formal

evaluation system.

Values Section

Excelled Benefits: GreatPoint Energy employees are the Company’s greatest assets; therefore we

are proud to provide employees with high-quality benefit packages.

GreatPoint Energy benefit packages offer:

- Low-cost monthly premiums

- Quality benefit providers

- 401K matching per pay period

- Paid time off for up to 20 days/annum

- 3X paid life insurance and AD&D

- Paid annual gym/athletic club memberships

- Stock options for new hires

Employees Relationships section

Relationship Variables at GreatPoint Energy

Leadership, communication, a balance of power, common goals and values, trust, cooperation,

and commitment are the variables and attributes that are referred to in the text. These seven

variables of employee relationships are needed to form a strong employee relationship according

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to Herington. We found all variables present in the employee relationships at GreatPoint Energy.

Leadership

Ron Ewan, the lead operator at the test plant for GreatPoint Energy, explained that to motivate

others he would work with them to show that they are all working towards a common goal. He

also says that the fully stocked refrigerators and lunch breaks are motivators for the workers he

oversees and that they bring everybody together. He explains that this technique makes

GreatPoint Energy feel like a community and keeps employee relationships strong. (Ewan) Mr.

Ewan attributes a lot of the positive relationships in the company to Tom Robinson, the plant

manager. And describes Mr. Robinson as an “inspiration” and “motivator” (Robinson) The

leadership at GreatPoint is a testament to why the relationships are so strong.

Sources:Ewan, Ron, Interview by Chris Gordon, Fall River, MA, October 27, 2009.Robinson, Thomas F. Interview by Teresa Kim. Fall River, MA, October 27, 2009

Communication“The formal as well as informal sharing of meaningful and timely information”Source: Herington, Carmel, Johnson, Lester, Scott, Dan. “Firm-employee relationship strength – A conceptual model” Journal of Business Research 62 (2009) 1096–1107

Balance of Power“Balanced power represents the level of equality in the amount of freedom and mutual reliance within firm–employee relationships”Source: Herington, Carmel, Johnson, Lester, Scott, Dan. “Firm-employee relationship strength – A conceptual model” Journal of Business Research 62 (2009) 1096–1107

Cooperation“Cooperation refers to situations in which parties work together to achieve mutual goals.”Source: Herington, Carmel, Johnson, Lester, Scott, Dan. “Firm-employee relationship strength – A conceptual model” Journal of Business Research 62 (2009) 1096–1107

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Trust“Trust is defined as having confidence in your partner’s reliability and integrity”Source: Herington, Carmel, Johnson, Lester, Scott, Dan. “Firm-employee relationship strength – A conceptual model” Journal of Business Research 62 (2009) 1096–1107

Commitment “The desire to remain in, and be involved in the success of the firm, because of the feeling of desiring to remain.”Source: Herington, Carmel, Johnson, Lester, Scott, Dan. “Firm-employee relationship strength – A conceptual model” Journal of Business Research 62 (2009) 1096–1107

Social Corporate Responsibility“the organizational activities intended to benefit society and the environment beyond the firm’s immediate financial interest or legal obligation”Source: Glinow, Mary and McShane Steven, Organizational Behavior. (Boston: McGraw-Hill Irwin, 2009

Progressive discipline policyA step-by-step process when dealing with any type of intercompany issue.Source: GreatPoint Energy.” Home Page. www.greatpointenergy.com (accessed November 20, 2009).

The Going Green East 50 competition Recognizes the top 50 next generations, game-changing clean-tech companies from the Eastern U.S. and Canada.Source: E. Ring, "Going Green East 50 Winners," Always On, February 2009. http://alwayson.goingon.com/permalink/post/31372 (accessed November 19, 2008).

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Appendix G

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Appendix H

MARS Model of Individual Behavior and Results

Source: OB221 section D1 Discussion Lecture: Values, Attitudes and Motivation by Professor McCarthy September 17th 2009 slide 11

MotivationDirection- uses process to achieve success and benefit environment

Employees are affected by intrinsic motivation and their desire to create a more efficient way to create natural gas

Intensity- “amount of effort allocated to the goal”The desire to create a successful process to create natural gas, pushes them to complete their work. Additionally, management uses extrinsic motivation by offering superior benefits

Ability = natural aptitude + learned capabilityEmployee requirements include being educated in technical skills and having experiences in similar companies. The company also uses behavior interviews to see how the potential employee will react during a specific event

Role PerceptionUnderstand their duties, assigned tasks Based on their qualifications, each employee is hired to work in the operations, engineering, or support sector. In a small company, by assigning roles, it’s easy to understand what is required of the employeeUnderstand priorities safety is the greatest priority, but integrity and team unity are also valued at a high level.Understand preferred behavior to fulfill task Every employee realizes that he/she must be responsible, be aware of his/her surroundings, be in constant communication, and be ready to solve unexpected problems

Situational factorsAlthough external situational factors are impossible to control, GreatPoint Energy does a great job of controlling the internal factors. Management has the responsibility of managing the company’s budget. Even though they invest money to keep their employees

IndividualBehavior

and Results

RolePerceptions

SituationalFactors

Motivation

Ability

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happy, they never lose focus on their main objective. Additionally, management created a state-of-the art research plan and is developing a commercial plant in Texas. However, management does not control all internal situational factors. Due to the horizontal structures, employees in the same sector often schedule their working times with one another, and make adjustments based on their personal requirements.

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Appendix I

Schwartz’s Model

Opennes to Change Self-transcendence

Self-enhancement Conservation

Currently, GreatPoint Energy is in the conservation and self-transcendence phase. However, as the company expands, I believe that the board will want to shift towards the openness to change side and become more vertically structured.

Source: OB221 section D1 Discussion Lecture: Values, Attitudes and Motivation by Professor McCarthy September 17th 2009 slide 16

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Appendix J

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Interview Transcriptions

Ashita GopalJaime D’Angelo, Vice President of Human Resources 222 Third Street, Suite 2163Cambridge, MA 02142jdangelo@greatpointenergy.comJaime D’Angelo’s Office; October 27, 2009 at 9:00 AM

Q: What are your primary responsibilities as the Vice President of Human Resources for Great Point?A: In addition to handling the recruiting and hiring process (interviews, posting jobs, finding candidates), Jaime also deals with day-to-day employee relations and being the mediator and harmonizer for the company. Another aspect of employee satisfaction includes employee benefits (insurance, gym, food...). Jaime also deals with the labor relations (unions) and makes sure that the agreements such as safety and regulations are secure when workers are on site. A unique responsibility that Jaime has is to coach the executives (the three founders of the company) and make sure that they are all on the same level and being guided by an experienced hand.

Q: What would you consider your most important responsibility?A: The most important responsibility is to make sure all the employees are comfortable and happy. Especially so as the company is very small making the relationships between the employees and personnel very intimate, versus a larger company where there is a larger HR sector and limited interaction between each other.

Q: What specific responsibilities does GreatPoint Energy expect from employees and towards your particular position?A: As the company is small and in its growing stages, it requires many hours (between 70 – 80 hours per week when the plan is running). In addition, there is a high stress level when it comes to the situation and environment of the company and many important decisions have to be made under pressure. Employees have to handle a lot of responsibility at all levels.

Q: What is your typical day like?A: Every day is different, and you never know what to expect. The main part of the job is the administrative portion which calls for many meetings with vendors, potential employees etc…

Q: What is the work process at GreatPoint Energy like?A: There are many stages to this job. The first stage is research and development where small teams in Chicago conduct lab work and ideas are put into practice in a small scale environment. Testing is done on these small scale ideas and if they are successful, they are “scaled up” directly to the plant. The data is then analyzed by process engineers where a group collects data. The data is then reviewed to see if it works or if there is improvisation needed to take place. And then the entire process is repeated.

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Q: Do you oversee a certain amount of people? If so, how many? How does this work? (Feedback, areas for improvement, training)A: As of now, Jaime oversees about 12 people directly in the office. While there is a formal performance evaluation overview system but the company is trying to steer away from this and focus more on constant feedback, communication, and focus on strengths making the working environment more productive.

Q: if your job an individual job or is it closer to a team process?A: Definitely more of a team process more than anything.

Q: What do you look for in employees or coworkers?A: Education is a very important aspect when hiring a new employee. GreatPoint looks for candidates who have skill sets specific to the job. Soft Skills are also necessary such as critical thinking, problem solving, working under pressure. The interview is conducted as a behavior interview making it easier to sort out excellent candidates from ones who would not be good for the job.

Q: How do the environmental characteristics result in communication flow with other coworkers?A: Communication flow comes mostly through technology which is one of the biggest assets to the company. There is constant work that needs to be done which forces you to communicate with other employees all the time.

Q: Is there room for promotion?A: As it is a small company right now there isn’t much room for promotions.

Q: How do you deal with problems? A: I) Identify the problem – a meeting is set up with the individual to find out what the

problem exactly is and to try resolving it right then and there. * If the problem is not resolved – a progressive discipline policy is put forwardII) Verbal WarningIII) Written warning which needs to be signed by both parties IV)Termination

Q: How do you promote team and employee bonding?A: This is a very unique company and there is only one in the world. Team work and team bonding is very necessary as there are long meetings and everyone needs to put forth a positive foot and work together during meetings. Employee bonding comes in the shape of having cook outs, stocked kitchen, and building personal relationships outside the company with coworkers.

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Q: Who evaluates you? A: The CEO of the company evaluates Jaime. But like mentioned before, Jaime acts like a support and coach for him also. So in the end it is a good balance on both parties.

Q: Since your company is very small, sixty or less employees, what is the level of interdependence? A: There is a very high level of interdependence. (from team work, to constant communication to employee relations)

Q: In a team project / setting, do you face a lot of conflicts within the team? If so how do you resolve them?A: During team meetings many professionals who hold PhDs will find themselves defending their views and positions and conflicts will most likely arise. What needs to be prevalent is the idea that everyone is focused on the same goal and healthy disagreement is good sometimes because it produces many good ideas which can be used.

Q: How does your company motivate you?A: It is very had to find a good source of motivation in a startup company such as GreatPoint. The biggest motivation comes from the fact that they are setting forth a brand new idea which has the possibility of changing the future. Small failures and setbacks may sometimes hinder the motivation level, but employees have to remain positive and hopeful for the future.

Q: What motivates the employees?A: Avi always says “we have an opportunity for greatness”. The idea is to focus on the big picture even though there may be minor setbacks even now and then.

Q: What rewards does the company offer other than financial? What particular benefit do you receive for your position? Does it give what you value or what motivates you?A: There is a annual incentives program for bonuses, gym membership ($500/yr), a fully stocked kitchen, etc..). In addition, as this is a private and startup company, there are many stock options available for employees. If and when the company does go public, there is a possibility for receiving a lot of money.

Q: What do you find is the most rewarding aspect of your job?A: The most rewarding part of the job is having a successful and cohesive culture and seeing things work out to their full potential.

Q: What are the company’s values?A: Integrity and Safety are the two biggest values of this company. Being green is also another great value as the company relies on not emitting any gases into the air and protecting the environment for the future especially when compared to coal plants which do the opposite.

Q: Corporate Social ResponsibilityA: The industry and goal for the company is to try to promote a social change which is build into what the company is actually doing.

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Q: With the new building of the power plant in Houston next year, how will you and other mangers deal with the expansion and what will the expansion entail in terms of managing a growing company? A: Communication is a major part of this new expansion. As of now GreatPoint is beginning with 5 employees in the Houston area. They are in the beginning stages of hiring and employees including a new HR manager.

Q: Greatpoint focuses on coal here in Massachusetts but it has other operation across the nation, for example your geothermal activities in California. How is the communication with other offices going? A: Employees are spread out all over the place and sections of the company are very fragmented. Need to focus on communication and technology such as skype …

Q: The company’s technology is the biggest asset. Does the company still put a lot of effort to expand its technological boundary? If so, in what way? Aside from technology, how does the company seek to expand its size? Investing in other companies..?A: To expand upstream

Q: How soon will Futuregen be ready to be fully commercialized? A: Futuregen is the next generation of coal plant. Coal plants of future will not emit any green house gasses. As of now there are government funded projects in Illinois which are in work as of now.

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Chris GordonRon Ewan, Lead Operator407 Brayton Point RoadSomerset, MA 02725rewan@gratpointenergy.comGreatpoint Energy Research Plant Boardroom; October 27, 2009 at 9:00 AM

Q: What is your current position?A: Lead operator/ Operating supervisorI recently was promoted

Q: What are your responsibilities? A: I oversee 5 operators, make assignments and schedules for the week, prepare for meetings, safety of the plant and workers, writing safety manual for the plant and new plants.

Q: What is your usual day like?A: I will usually come in a walk the plant. Check in with everyone. Then check e-mail and attend meetings. After lunch I will usually help out on the floor or work on safety manuals.

Q: What are your expectations of those you oversee?A: To do things that without having to be asked. Ex: take out the trash and plant maintenance.Be safe. Complete training. Run a shaft every morning. ()To help each other and clean up after construction

Q: What do you look for in an employee?A: I look for go-getters. I do not like micro management and I trust that my co-workers will do what needs to be done with me asking them to do it

Q: What are the day to day safety precautions?A: Lock out tag out systemIsolating hazards. Electrical/chemicalConstruction hazards

Q: What is the team process? Horizontal or vertical?A: There is a hierarchy but I would say it is mostly vertical at the bottom and then more horizontal at the top.

Q: What is your leadership style?A: I Don’t want to assign something that I wouldn’t myselfI like to constantly meet and checking up on workersI will also meet every week with upper management and let them know how things are going

Q: How do you handle conflict?A: I prefer to tell the person straight up what is wrong and how it needs to be changed.

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I just say what needs to be said.

Q: How are you evaluated?A: We do not have formal evaluations right now but would say that I’m evaluated by my peers and upper management right now.

Q: How do you evaluate others?A: I evaluate others by if they initiate and follow through with plansI am currently working on making the official evaluations with HR. (New Plant)

Q: Is there a lot of Interdependence?A: Yes. We have a lot of close-knit groups that depend on each other but some have more responsibilitySafety first

Q: How do you motivate your employees?A: I thank them all the time. Give them a pat on the backI will also get involved to show appreciation. I also Complement them and send out emails to upper management when someone does something good

Q: How are you motivated?A: My only motivation is what the future of this company can bring. I am helping build something that is important and helps the environment.I think about what it can become

Q: What are you rewards?A: The Future and appreciationTom Robinson is a great man. I learn from him every day and enjoy being around him.HR gives us food all the timeI am rewarded by seeing accomplishments

Q: What are your values? A: Safety in the plants and putting co-workers and employees firstI also think Doing your fair share is important

Q: Any Conflict of Values?A: Sometime I work too many hours but that comes with territoryThere is a lot more work during a run (converting energy)I do get to set own schedule but when there is a run hours increaseA Run can last from a week to a month

Q: What do you attribute your success to? Technical Skills or interpersonal skills?A: I Got hired from technical skills but succeed because of interpersonal skills

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Q: Do you see yourself in a new role in the future?A: Hopefully having an upper management job.I would consider moving to a new plant but not likely because my home is here with my family

Q: Is there a lot of Expansion?A: The Company is expanding in Texas, and out westI am personally expanding by writing the safety manual, and dealing with more employees. Hopefully will become plant manager

Q: Future?A: Expand based on supply and demand of industryStarted off as coal gasificationNow do biomass etc

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Manuel HadjibayCharles A. Powell, Plant Manager407 Brayton Point RoadSomerset, MA 02725cpowell@greatpointenergy.comCharles Powell’s Office; October 27th, 2009 at 9:00 am

Q: Would you mind explaining your primary responsibilities as a plant manager?A: 2 types of responsibilities

Strategic safety, environment concerns, HR, completing the process- is more of a long term responsibility that allows them to plan for the future and

stay more efficientTactical issues issue of the day, problems due to the process and production

Q: What is a typical day like for you?A: “No such thing as a typical day. Nothing around here is typical”

Q: Do you experience any frustrations? An example?A: Whenever you are dealing with a big process that has many people working on it, your going to experience a lot of frustration. The biggest frustration usually has to do with getting everyone to work together as a team.

Q: How many people do you directly manage?A: 55 people

Q: Do you find that your success as a manager is from your technical skills or your interpersonal skills?A: Well, it depends on the situation. As a general rule, I’d say that my interpersonal understanding is critical. But in Research, technical skills come back to play

Q: Can you explain the working environment and the communication process at GreatPoint Energy, is it horizontal or vertical (structured, hierarchy)?A: Currently, the company is structured more horizontally. But the earlier founders are trying to build a more vertical arrangement. However, as the company evolves into a more coherent company, it should become even more horizontally structured.

Q: Do you often work individually, or do you work more in a team process?A: Well, due to the nature of the process, we are driven towards collaboration. So, people are expected to work with the people in front of them and behind them. As we become more commercialized, we will become more collaborative and multi-disciplinary.

Q: What would you consider ideal characteristics for your employees or coworkers? (characteristics, education, experience, skill)A: There are three levels of workers:

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Operations need a good background (at least 2 years of technical school, if not a bachelors) in Science and Math

Engineering at least a bachelor in engineering; experience in similar industry would be beneficial too.

Support (maintenance) need substantial experience and degrees

Q: With the new building of the power plant in Houston next year, how will you and other managers deal with this expansion and what will this expansion entail in terms of managing a growing company?A: Well, several steps are going to be taken:

1. there will be daily interaction via internet, email, and telephone2. They are currently planning on sending some people from the Massachusetts’ plant to

become the core managers of that plant3. “We will prototype for them” we will watch their operations and help them

anticipate problems.

Q: How often do you evaluate your employees? How do you do this (in person, in writing)?A: Because this is a small and young company, we don’t have a formal evaluation system. So far, we provide evaluation about specific instances (the most important things). As the company grows, we will have an organized feedback system, but we’re not there yet.

Q: Are you ever evaluated? If so, how often? And how do your superiors share their evaluation of your work with you?A: Not currently.

Q: What are the company’s main values?A: Corporately, we have the future in mind. We want long-term sustainable technology that will improve the environment. So our main value is focusing on how to improve that.

Q: Have you every experienced conflicts that went against the company’s values? IF so, how did you resolve them?A: Never, the biggest challenge however, is trying to get people outside the company to see the future and support us. Q: So do you find that the company and your co-workers often motivate you, or are you more intrinsically motivated?A: I am more intrinsically motivated. I am at a point in my career where I want to see the commercial plant be built and I know what I need to do to get that done. Additionally, the biggest way that I motivate the people under me is by getting them to share my view for the future.

Q: What rewards does the company offer that motivates you, other than financial reasons? Do you receive any special benefits as a plant manager?A: The corporations real motivation now is mostly monetary, especially with the economy as it is. However, the motivation factor also depends on the person. You have people that simply come to work every day just to earn a paycheck. Then there are the people who work and try to

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solve problems on personal time as well. For example, this would be a person who goes home and wakes up in the middle of the night with a solution to solve a problem at work.

Q: What are the main challenges now?A: Having others understand how unique our company is and to start supporting us. Additionally, there is the financial issue. As venture capitalists, GreatPoint does not have deep pockets, so sometimes they move faster than their funding allows.

Q: What is the biggest advantage of this new process: A: It can deal with market flexibility because the process allows them to make natural gas, oil, or other energy processes. So based on market demand, GreatPoint energy can change their output to please the current demand.

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Min SonEdward Krule, Financial and Market Analyst222 Third St. Suite 2163.Cambridge, MA 02142EKrule@GreatpointEnergy.com Edward Krule’s Office; October 30, 2009 at 1:00 PM

Q: Describe your current position at GreatPoint Energy.A: Senior Financial and Market Analyst; however, it is just a title. As a start up, he does a lot of other jobs including business development…

Q: What other particular skills does the company require, or recommend, besides certain levels of experience are required for your job? A: Manage oneself as well as understanding managing others.

Q: Around how many people do you directly manage? How do you manage them?A: None. It’s like the alone–and the whole–team (he’s the only one in the department)

Q: What are your primary responsibilities as a manager?A: He doesn’t really have responsibilities as a manager. Again, because his job is close to more like all over the place responsibilities.

Q: What are your day-to-day responsibilities? Most important one?A: Working on numerous projects spontaneously such as a-month-long project (such as getting government grant), daily projects, temporary projects, data, presentation…

Q: What specific responsibilities does GreatPoint Energy expect to employees and to your particular position?A: Do your job, proactive, spirit of going out there and try out.

Q: What is your typical day like?A: Working on projects: from temporary to long-term. (He did not mention anything more than that.)

Q: What kind of frustration do you experience in your position?A: Deadline is stressful: making sure to get lots of things on time and especially when he has a lot more to do. Besides, when projects he has been working on does not succeed or turns out to be not selected or not working out.

Q: Where do you see yourself in the next 5 years?A: Working at another start-up office he likes.

Q: Any particular reason?A: “Because I like the atmosphere of startup companies”(He did not mention a thing about staying within the organization.)

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Q: Are the working environment, communication process, working process… etc. horizontal or Vertical?A: It’s horizontal, informal, friendly, and really close relationship with coworkers.

Q: So it’s more like a family like environment?A: Yes. Like a family. But as the company gets bigger and bigger, the company moves from the horizontal to the vertical. GreatPoint Energy is at the stage of the transformation to the vertical environment.

Q: What do you think is what differentiates GreatPoint Energy from other similar companies?A: GreatPoint Energy is different from other companies because of its informal, family like essence. As you can see, there isn’t any wall between the colleagues.

Q: How do the environmental characteristics result in communication flow with other coworkers?A: Everyone works with everyone and there is no problem in communication. Even with CEO and the founder of the company like you just saw. (A guy who was one of the founders came in during the interview and had a bit of chit-chat)

Q: Is your job an individual process or is it closer to team process?A: Both, but closer to team process because every different task ultimately reaches to the same project, or goal.

Q: How do you deal with problems with coworkers? What do you do to resolve them?A: If there is any problem, give feedback or report the issue to supervisor. (He talked a lot more about reporting to the supervisor and didn’t really mention feedback until I asked)

Q: Who evaluates you? Also, (in horizontal perspective) how does each employee evaluate one another? By feedback? Constructive Criticism?A: There is no formal evaluation system but if seeing any problem, he would reach to his supervisors. Feedback? Depending on project leader, the feedback would be different. (I didn’t get this part. I assume he was talking about giving feedback to project leaders rather than people in lower organizational hierarchy)

Q: How do you encourage your coworkers?A: I identify them importance of the project. Basically telling them “Just get into it.”

Q: Since your company is small, sixty or less employee’s, what is the level of interdependence?A: Because of the small size and the friendly, informal, laid-back environment, everyone does work interdependently. And the interdependence level is really high.

Q: What motivates you working at GreatPoint Energy?A: Honestly, salary.

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Q: Is there anything besides the financial benefits?A: Because you want to work here. If you don’t want to, you cannot work efficiently and it’s not good for yourself and the company. Also, Start-up companies give their shares…. You have the stake of the company so you want it to do well.

Q: What rewards does the company offer other than financial? What particular benefit do you receive for your position? Does it give what you value or motivate you?A: He seemed to be interested in the financial stuff as the only (or the most beneficial) source for motivation

Q: What do you find most rewarding from your job? Or your particular position?A: You feel like “you’re building something.” And that’s the merit of working at startup companies. You can see your impact on the company.

Q: Like you said earlier, you work here because you want to. Then, do you actually believe in “being green”?A: Yes, the same. If you’re not passionate about the value, you would not work here.

Q: So you experience a perfect value congruency?A: Yes.

Q: Do you find that your success as a manager is from your technical skills or your interpersonal skills?A: From experience. Learn the way to interact.

Q: How does each department inter-depend on each other?A: Interdependency is very big part. No department can work alone here.

Q: The company’s technology is the biggest asset. Does it company still put a lot of effort to expand its technological boundary? If so, in what way? Aside from technology, how does the company seek to expand its size? Investing into other company, etc.? A: Technology itself is the biggest asset but it’s done. Thus, the company tries to work more of “developing” it to make it commercially ready for use. No further investment in different technology… and so on. Just focus in one area.

Q: With the new building of the power plant in Houston next year, how will you and other manager’s deal with this expansion and what will this expansion entail in terms of managing a growing company?A: Actually, it’s a different company. Maybe from the company that developed our technology, like a branch that came out of it.

Q: How soon will the technology be fully commercialized?A: Hopefully today. (This was it… he didn’t mention specifically and in detail.)

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Q: I understand that this is a private company and that you may not be allowed to share much financial information, but can you explain how this company has been affected by the recession in comparison to the industry?

A: Startup company; thus, no documents will be available. The company is not in fact generating any revenues since the technology is not really ready to be fully commercialized. Company needs more money for development in fact.

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Sarah AlvyNicole Chaplin, Plant Engineer407 Brayton Point RoadSomerset, MA 02725nchaplin@greatpointenergy.comGreatPoint Energy Research Plant Conference Room; October 27, 2009 at 9:00 AM

Q: How did you get your current position? What level of experience and education are necessary to perform your job? What strategic management skills does your job necessitate? Planning, organizing, training/coaching, time management, directing, leadership? A: She got her position by finding out through a job posting that the position was open. There was no experience required for the position that she initially started with. She started out as an engineering assistant position. She has since been promoted and the education level that is needed is a technical field related to the kinds of things they are doing there, there is a lot of information regarding chemical processing and mechanical/electrical engineering. BSBA in chemical engineering from Cornell University. She manages 2 interns during the summer. She moved up quickly because she was overqualified from day one. Luckily, the manager noticed what she was capable and wanted her more involved in the engineering and design work. She’s had a lot of opportunities with working with senior managements, which she would not have been exposed to if she worked with a larger firm. She’s currently working with people that have 20-30 years experience. Started working two years ago.

Q: As a manager what are your day-to-day responsibilities? Most important one? Come responsibility there can be a great level of frustration, is there anything that is frustrating about your job?A. Depends on the operating status here at the facility. If they are getting ready for runs, she is preparing with all of the analysis, making sure they need the correct supply amounts, drawings are up to date, things are just ready to go for D-day from an engineering standpoint. When things are up and running her responsibilities is quantitatively communicating what the performance is of the process, how well they are doing at converting material and if there are any upset conditions in the process. What they do here, is demonstrating the core technology of the company, which is a technology that converts coal to natural gas. On a commercial scale they separate all of those gases and put them on a natural gas market.

Q: Around how many people do you directly manage? How do you manage them?A: She doesn’t directly manage anyone. They are not operating, when they were operating and not just doing research she was in charge of 2. However, there are a lot of people she must directly coordinate with when they are operating. When they are operating they must work in shifts, there are five engineers, b/c there must be someone there twenty-four-seven. Or they have between one and three people present from the engineering group. They aren’t controlling anyone, it more a team work. You have to make sure that you are replaceable at the end of your shift. No one is on call, so therefore you have to be very particular in transferring all of your data

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at the end of your shift, because no one wants to get a call in the middle of the night, asking about some data inputs.

Q: What specific responsibilities does GreatPoint Energy expect of employees and to your particular position?A: They expect their employees to work together in working as a team, and also because in the engineering group you must be replaceable, they expect each other to share information and communicate very well what they are doing. Very interdependent.

Q: Try to look at GreatPoint as an outsider (or an investor), what would you consider GreatPoint’s strongest management approach? Is your team based work, or….what? A: Usually adapt or change course because they are a smaller company, if they decide to change their business objective, they could just make a two or three person phone call. High availability for change in the workforce. They change their objectives based on the market. Two years ago prices for natural gas were in the 18-19$ range, and now they are in the 2$ range. They have had to do a change in their business model accordingly.

Q: Do you think there are certain things that GreatPoint could do to improve management? A: There’s a really big change between the way a startup company works and the way a larger company works, it is very different. She knows from working with friends, that things that happen at GreatPoint would never happen there.

Q: Since your company is small what is the level of interdependence?A: Very small, we all work together. Very flat organization in terms of there is not a lot of hierarchy in the organization. If we’re working on project development and there is a need for technical assistance, you don’t need to go through a lot of channels to get help, you basically just yell at the person next to you and say what do you think of this?

Q: What is the work process at GreatPoint Energy like? Is it more individual or team based? Can you tell me a little about its interdependence? Can you talk a little about a previous team project? And if it worked well, then why did it work well?A: Its a really small organization, your responsible for a lot, even though there are 8 other engineers. A lot of the things you have to do may be working on a team, but it is very individually tailored there isn’t really a detailed job description. Our job description is to get it done. So it depends on who is available and who has time, they will split up information and lab analysis work. Sometimes, it takes a lot of people to do- people in the field to fill out the paperwork correctly, then the engineers to do an analysis of the data and the help of the lab. It typically goes fairly well because they have the forms all ready to go, and especially since they’ve done this many times. There is still a lot of work to do in terms of accounting for things in more of an automated way. One thing they struggle with is getting it done in a more automated ways. It took them a number of iterations to figure out a form and way to get things done the most efficiently. They don’t want to get stuck in the middle of run and say shoot, I have no way of capturing this data. They give feedback to everyone, to find the easiest way to capture the information.

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Q: How does GreatPoint generate new ideas? A: When we are thinking about new ideas in a technical standpoint we do that more independently and present it to the group. She had an idea on estimating how long it would take to fill up a particular vessel so she did a preliminary analysis, she reviewed it with the manager, and the manager liked it and then all the shifts were required to do it. It is very hard to get everyone there because they have to work twenty-four seven.

Has anything gone wrong that everyone had to fix together? Typically if something goes wrong its because it wasn’t communicated very well. For example, huge trailers of hydrogen and they are very expensive. Either you work together to order the right amount. Also, we’ve had mistakes in communication in not ordering the hydrogen. They would then have to shut down in the middle of a run. It takes very careful management of the inventory here and communication of okay who ordered what. Typically that’s where we go wrong, it puts an entire run campaign in jeopardy.

Q: Besides working on a team, what do you look for in your employees, or coworkers? Ex) Personal characteristics, education, experience, skills…A: Since this is a small organization, there is a lot of work to do. There is not much room for people who loaf- people who want to take the easy way out. There is so much work to be done and not all of it is going ot be easy, or impressive or amazing or gratifying all the time, but it has to get done. There is also a lot of things that have to get done and you think “wow I am so under qualified to be able to do this and its amazing that I can”. There is a lot of opportunity here, and what she looks for in her fellow co-workers is someone who at least tries their best and really can get the job done. There is no one else to really do it. Someone who communicates well and who is willing to meet them halfway. Lets work together in solving this problem instead of…will you do it for me? It’s very frustrating to work with people who loaf because at GreatPoint you must rely very heavily on your fellow co-workers.

Q: How would you describe Greatpoint’s culture? Are there any norms that stand out?A: The norm is that it is a very dynamic environment- things are constantly changing because it is a start up company and there is a high level of responsibility because there are so few employees. Their mentality is very much lets just get the job done, lets not overanalyze, they must always get to the next step. They are a R & D company, they can’t sit there for two years thinking about things because they will run out of capitol. It is a very dynamic culture almost to the point of “shoot from the hip”. Its almost expected from a small organization.

Q: How does the environment at GreatPoint cater to the communication flow of business? What is communication like at the Fall River Plant? GreatPoint focuses on coal here in Massachusetts but it has other operations across the nation, for example your geothermal activities in California. How is the communication with other offices going?A: There are many offices- lab in fall river, Houston office, Cambridge, Somerset, Chicago office and lab. You have to be really good at coordinating with people who you can’t see every day. If there is something that she needs she calls and e-mails them. She just got back from Houston and is going out to Chicago later on that day. She is coordinating with the lab chemist manager in shipping some samples out to the lab in Chicago. It takes a lot of coordination about preparing and it takes a lot of planning. Definitely a lot of communication with other offices.

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Q: Who evaluates you? Do employee’s ever get the chance to evaluate one another? By feedback? Constructive Criticism? A: Good question, I ask that every day. Every person there evaluates her. There is no regular annual review. There is alto of face time with the people that are very senior. They don’t tell her what to do, but she gets a good chance to observe how they behave in their positions and she models her behavior accordingly.

Q: What are the current issues you face today in trying to expand GreatPoint?A: Business development perspective, current issues are in forming strategic alliances and partnerships. We’re in the project development stage in forming those partnerships and talking to the right people. They are talking to huge organizations, they want to make sure to talk to someone at the top, someone with real authority to say yes or no to the deal.

Q: What motivates you at work? To make your work harder, more efficiently, smarter?A: I am that person who has that little person in my head that tells me to work harder. I think that working in the field with people in that have so much experience in the industry, really bright people, really motivates me to learn as much as I can from them. She doesn’t want to burden anyone with stupid questions, so she studies what is going on.

Q: How do you motivate your coworkers? A: Something she is still figuring out. She is realizing that maybe just doing a good job is always the answer. What does she want? She thinks that her needs and motivation to advance in her career is what she wants. She wants to continue to advance into her career, she doesn’t want to peak very early.

Q: What rewards does the company offer other than financial? A: Avi is a big believer in feeding his employees. He likes to make sure that we are well fed. He gets groceries delivery at the kitchen in the plant.

Q: What do you find most rewarding from your job?A: What is most rewarding is how much she can learn, and how much she can be exposed to such a broad range of activities, in terms of business development and project managements, and very technical process designs. Just so many things that she can learn and contribute to.

Q: What are GreatPoint Energy’s main values? A: Not sure.

Q: Have you ever had a value that conflicts with your company’s values? If so, how did you resolve this? A: Not sure.

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Q: Do you think that coal gasification has the potential to fit into our domestic supply?A: Mostly working on the commercial design over in Houston. She is working on getting a lot of partners in the industry figuring out what they need and what they can provide and if they having any standing partnerships that could be beneficial. So the actual building time is a couple years, and the design work that has to happen before and the project development (making the deals) that must happen first. So a couple more years after that.

Q: Coal sequestering is not a new technique, and many companies, such as the huge power players in the petroleum industry, have been investing in this renewable resource for a while, what makes your small company measure up against them?A: Conoco Philips they are a competitor. They have a similar technology. We have certain, our technology is a little bit different and they have different flaws in their technology where we may have advantages. People are more interested in a new venture in developing technology. But it is always a question that we face. Why are we better than GE or Conoco Phillips.

Q: Coal may be an abundant and cheap resource but the costs of new reactors and equipment is not cheap. Will there be a gain on investment in the next 5 years, 10 years? A: Still figuring out what type of market they will enter, once they have their strategic partners, it will give them a better idea of what the deal should look like. Some partners may want a firm contract for ten years.

How much money has been raised to date? We initially raised 130M, and a lot of that went towards building this facility here and operating it. Once everything works out will there be a great return on investment? That depends on how much they put into it, it depends on us and a lot of the success here is in the management. Success is determined on the preparation here.

Q: Because of the American Recovery act, the government has put in great investments into wind and solar energy. Do you find this to be a threat to the coal sector in the energy industry?A: If they wanted to produce electricity instead then there would a competition. Certainly there is more interest because it’s a more passive form of energy commercialization and its more green.

Q: Natural gas is a growing market in Asia, is the company looking to expand internationally?A: It is in GreatPoints future providing that we want to pursue that opportunity although the natural gas market in asia has potential. There are however many IP issues. What happens is that they will essentially steal proprietary information and they will copy the companies plant and technology techniques.

Q: Since this is a private company I don’t have access to the financial statements, is there anything you can tell me financially about the health of GreatPoint? Has it been affected by the recession?A: It gets investments from Kliner Perkins and other venture capitol firms.

Q: Are there any policies in the US that are prohibiting the scale and development of natural gas? Like the ARS standard (agriculture research center)? Aaron Mandel at the

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BU Energy Club meeting stated that natural gas prices have fallen significantly in the past year. Has this deterred any potential investors?A: Forced them to look at other products they could make, Its not to say that natural gas will be this cheap forever. Its changed their perspectives on what else they could make and what else is valuable now. Lets come up with a couple of different process schemes, instead of just one just incase the market won’t perform the way they think it will.

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Teresa KimThomas F. Robinson, Projects/Operations ManagerOne Broadway, 14th FloorCambridge, MA 02142trobinson@greatpointenergy.comThomas Robinson’s Office; October 27, 2009 at 9:00 AM

Q:What are your primary responsibilities as a manager?A: To manage the organization that operates plants. We run tests with data.

Q: What are your day-to-day responsibilities? Most important?A: I have to manage operations where data is copied. I’m the leader of the operating team. The number one issue is safety like dangerous gases and the electricity. The next is to operate the plant according to test plan and make sure the data is valid. We don’t product products, but data. We put numbers on paper; it is a scientific experiment.

Q: what specific responsibilities does GreatPoint Energy expect from their employees?A: I take roles seriously, especially safety. I expect them to have a close communication cycle and to understand the plans before doing so. They must speak up(communication)! When we’re doing a test, they should behave professionally. There are grueling tests with 12 hr day shifts 10-12 days in a row. It “turns life off” so they need dedication and commitment. It is “beyond normal jobs”.

Q: What is a typical day like?A: In general, it is a normal life when there’s no tests, but abnormal when there are tests. Test days include 12 hrs while I overlap with my partner. When there’s no test it is a 10 hr. day. My job is rewarding because I get to see things get done, like “real time”. I see things happen and it’s a sense of accomplishment.

Q: Do you find that your success as a manger is from your technical skills or your interpersonal skills?A: It is a combination because I must communicate complex technical things to a wide audience. I must speak with doctorates and people of high school(1/2 of staff) education but make them understand, a “spectrum of people”.

Q: What are the frustrations of being a manager? Examples?A: 1. “me” being driven. Also planning, there can’t be enough. When coming into an operation, I may say I could’ve planned more, but you didn’t foresee them. 2. “bringing people out” has a lot to offer but people aren’t all extroverted, but I want to get people to speak up. It is a long term thing, need trust and a “need to feel they’re not at risk… or be criticized…” I want them to try their best to contribute to participate by meeting every day, frequency of opportunity.. and a climate creating during opportunities; build team and collegial relationship instead of officer and enlisted man relationship, which I don’t like.

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Q: Does your job entail an individual process or more of a team process? examples?A: Team! Team leadership by working hard to set examples and let people ask, listen and create a climate that creates relaxness.

Q: What do you look for in your employees/coworkers? Ex: personal characteristics, education, experience, skills.A: Willingness and curiosity and don’t expect to know everything. I like team membership. They should have technical experience in this “technical world”. Skills: operating equipment at the control panel with knobs adjustments in process in 100 feet away, a million dollar control computer system with experience at this equipment.

Q: How do the people above you manage you? How do you manage them?A: We have a daily meeting; the people there and others represented. We communicate plans and deal with things not according to the plan. I direct around 18 people. Second hand information if they’re not there. There are 2 shifts so other shift gets communicated different things. The meetings at every shift change at 7 am and 7 pm. Consists of safety and topics discussion. Supervisors have the mini meetings at 9 pm(less formal).

Q: How does the structure of the company affect the communication flow to other coworkers? How do the different sections of the company communicate with one another?A: We have sign in books at meetings(formal process) , but it’s a loose structure( informal compared to larger/older companies) it opened in October 2005, so there’s no culture; it is a composite culture of other companies of people. Positives: not bound up and constrained in culture, but negative: culture’s good and can guide in absence of formal. We cut through organizational lines and communicate. It is not as well as we could with sections. There are 3 major pieces, this facilities, Houston (staff) offices, and corporate(accounting, legal upper management). All three parts don’t communicate as well as they could and they “should be closer or feel like we’re closer”. We don’t always take advantage of it. We try to have periodic communications about specific topics to get to know what everyone’s doing.

Q: What kinds of problems as a manager do you deal with?A: Attendance for tests. Corporate communications in small company we need to be pretty nimble) because different tasks. It’s a problem because we don’t like change but in a small company, change is fast and frequent and inevitable but still stable.

Q: How do you deal with these problems? Examples?A: By direct communication. We stress the importance of commitments. We are interdependent when plants are running with GreatPoint employees and contractors. “When contractor acts like employee, we succeeded!; not like a third party”.

Q: Who evaluates you? How does each employee evaluate their co-workers by feedback or constructive criticism?A: No formal evaluation process, maybe once a year, but close communications and no evaluations. We’re open and know where we stand. Avi Goldberg evaluates me and the employees.

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Q: If there’s a team project involved, do you face a lot of conflicts within the team? How do you resolve them?A: There are no conflicts because everyone has common understanding. We communicate plans well and resolve things in a normal way through a chain of command.

Q: Does your company motivate you?A: We can create a climate for motivation to flourish. A good environment for people to do all they can do with no holding back. “No walls or structures, but freer to do what needs to be done not only because ‘its my job’.

Q: What do you think motivates your employees?A: a climate and recognition, saying thanks or “good job”, giving a “positive charge”.

Q: What rewards does your company offer you other than financial? What particular benefit do you receive for your position? Does it value or motivate you?A: Stock options motivates me. We get a “piece of the rock” . it pays well because it’s a small company with personal risks and we expect to be rewarded with this risk taking. There’s a sense of accomplishment in “real time”

Q: In your opinion, what do you find most rewarding from your job?A: Building a company, seeing people succeed on a personal level. “if all succeed, I succeed.”

Q: What are you and your company’s main values? “Being green”?A: our mission statement: we work hard at being fair with respect and giving opportunity (unwritten values). Also, Avi Goldberg’s vision.

Q: Have you faced any discrepancies between your values and the company’s values?A: Nothing strong, we have aligned values. The main is time away from the family. 2.5 years commuting from Chicago to Boston from Mondays through Thursdays. ‘some craziness to this life(job)”. I must go where the work is, if I’m willing to help it grow.

Q: What are the current issues you face today in expanding GreatPoint?A: The marketplace. 1. Market for natural gas (product). Availability of risking money(investment money). No initial public funding. Everyone’s in cash conservation mode and lay off works, and time uncertainty.

Q: GreatPoint focuses coal here in MA, but it has other operations across the nation(Geothermal activities in CA). How is the communication with other offices going?A: China, we go where natural gas prices are still high in china and active economy. People are big asset because of knowledge and creativity with patents and advanced technology.

Q: Do you have any other comments or valuable input that would describe or help our research on the analysis of the roles of managers at GreatPoint Energy? Do you think there are certain things you or GreatPoint can improve on to better manage GreatPoint and its employees?

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A: We’re in uncertain times and the more complete understanding we have of plans, the more opportunities and how employees propel us in that direction. We can improve in communications also like being available and getting out and talking in informal communication besides formal meetings. “open door policy”

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Thank You Letters

Date: Mon, Nov 2, 2009 at 2:39 PMFrom: Ashita Gopal <ash.gopal90@gmail.com>

To: jdangelo@greatpointenergy.comSubject: Thank You

Mr. D'Angelo,

I apologize for the late response, but I somehow left my portfolio at GreatPoint and did not receive it till today. But I wanted to thank you so much for giving me the chance to interview you last week for our Organizational Behavior project. The information you gave me and the topics we discussed such as motivation, dynamics of a successful team, and learning what GreatPoint does will be very useful towards our final presentation and paper.

I hope to see GreatPoint achieve many things in the future!

Thank you for your time,

Ashita Gopal

Date: Wed, Oct 28, 2009 at 6:52 PMFrom: Chris Gordon <chgordon88@gmail.com>

To: rewan@greatpointenergy.comSubjec

t: Thank you

Mr. Ewan,

I just want to thank you for the interview on Tuesday. It was great to get to know you and hear about your experience as a lead operator at Greatpoint energy. The interview is invaluable to our project on your company. I hope all is well and that the next run goes smoothly. Thanks again.

Sincerely,

Chris Gordon

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Date: Thu, Oct 29, 2009 at 11:09 AM

From: Manuel Hadjibay <manuelh@bu.edu>

To: cpowell@greatpointenergy.com

Subject: Thank you

Header: Show All Headers

Mr. Powell,

This is Manuel Hadjibay, the Boston University student whom you allowed to interview you on Tuesday. I would just like to take this opportunity to once again thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule on Tuesday to answer a few of my questions. However, you did much more than simply provide me with answers to my questions. I appreciate how you showed me around the plant and described the process of how your company creates bluegas, thus expanding my understanding of GreatPoint Energy. Hope all is well and best of luck in the future.

Sincerely,

Manuel Hadjibay

Date:  Thu, Nov 12, 2009 at 11:41 AM

From:  Min Son <happiest-garden@hotmail.com>

To:  ekrule@greatpointenergy.com

Subject:  A Thank You Note

Dear Mr. Krule: Hello, this is Min Son from Boston University who had interviewed you two weeks ago. Strangely, I just got my thank you letter returned back to me. I assume maybe my letter went into a wrong mail box.Although it is a little late to say this, I thought it would be more appropriate to let you know that I really appreciated your time..The interview was very helpful and I enjoy analyzing and discussing it with my team members. Thank you for reading, and I hope you have a wonderful day!!!   ~Sincerely, Min.

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Date: Wed, Oct 28, 2009 at 10:17 AM

From: Sarah Alvy <sarahalvy@gmail.com>

To: nchaplin@greatpointenergy.com

Subject: Thank You

Dear Nicole,Thanks so much for taking the time to meet with yesterday. Even though I had planned to meet with Avi, the information you told me during the interview was beyond helpful, and I think that the insight that you gave me is potentially better than anything else he could have said. Don't tell him that though! My team-mates and I have begun working on the project, however, it won't be done for another month. When it is though, I will send it to Avi and I can e-mail it to you if you'd like to see it. Thanks again for the interview and take care.

Sincerely, Sarah Alvy

Date:  Tue, Oct 27, 2009 at 11:07 PM

From:  Teresa Kim <teresa89@bu.edu>

To:  trobinson@greatpointenergy.com

Subject:  Thank you very much

Hello Mr. Robinson,

I am Teresa Kim, the student who interviewed you earlier on Tuesday morning at the Fall River Plant. I greatly appreciate the time and energy you have spent with speaking with me and answering my interview questions. The information that you have given me is very helpful and has definitely enlightened me on how you as a manager operate at GreatPoint Energy.

If I have any further questions for you, would you mind if I emailed you about them? Also, please feel free to email me for any questions or concerns at teresa89@bu.edu. Thank you so much again for your time and consideration.

With great appreciation,Teresa Kim

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Nohria, Nitin, Boris Groysberg, and Linda-Eling Lee. ?Employee Motivation: A Powerful New Model.? Harvard Business Review July-August, 2009, http://web.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.bu.edu/bsi/pdf?vid=10&hid=5&sid=e9e09fe7- beb1-42a1-993f-eb7338f608c9%40sessionmgr10.

OB221 section D1 Discussion Lecture: Values, Attitudes and Motivation by Professor McCarthy September 17th 2009.

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