Weng Chan is a Director of IT in the Information Technology Department of the Regional Office of a mid sized hotel chain. He reports to the VP, IT, Deepak, who heads up the department. Weng Chan has been in this role for the past 3 years and his boss has been the head of the department for the last 5 years. The next career step for Deepak is a corporate role in their Divisional Office, while the next career step for Weng Chan is Deepak’s role. Deepak has been grooming Weng Chan for the role.At the last performance review meeting Deepak had informed Weng Chan that he is on track and he is ready to step into his shoes. Weng Chan was very happy as he had worked very hard and has impressed everyone in the office. He as also done well in all the projects that he had been assigned, including the inter-department ones, such as assisting Marketing, HR and the Rooms Divisions in finding solutions for their IT problems and concerns.Two months has passed and Deepak’s promotion is announced globally and together with it there was an announcement of Deepak’s replacement, which wasn't Weng Chan but a David Fletcher from another region. This shocks Weng Chan and he is very disappointed and angry. So, he makes an appointment to see Deepak, who has been avoiding him. After 2 weeks of trying, he gets a meeting with Deepak, at which when asked about his replacement, Deepak tells him that his superiors in the Divisional and Corporate offices did not think Weng Chan was ready for the promotion. Obviously, Weng Chan’s follow-up question was “did you not tell them that I was ready according to your assessment?” Deepak’s response was “they did not agree with him” and decided to proceed with their choice.What went wrong here? If you were Weng Chan what would you do next? Is there any way this situation could have been avoided? What happened to the Talent Development strategy Deepak had put in place for Weng Chan?
14. May, 2020