Performance Evaluations: Bialecki Inc.

The case looks at Bialecki, Inc., a boutique search firm based in NYC for senior level managers in the financial services industry. The case protagonist as well as the firm’s founder and president, Linda Bialecki, struggles to reconcile consistent reviews by clients of various senior managers against inconsistent (or noisy / high variability) reviews of those same bankers by their co-workers (peers, superiors and subordinates). She questions both the sources of information (the reviewers themselves) as well as her 5-Star rating system itself that measures the following seven characteristics and skills for each senior manager: brains, team player, management, new business, technical and analytical, ethics, and drive.