MANAGING TEAMS
Allied Signal Pays for Team Performance
AlliSignal Aerospace manufactures components for the aerospace industry. Their customers include the military as well as commercial firms in the private sector, such as Boeing. In an industry where cuts in defense budgets have caused overall contraction and downsizing, AlliedSignal has been growing rapidly through mergers and acqui sitions. But as earnings stalled, this company reassessed its strategy and concluded that focusing on customers was the only way to keep the company from going into a tailspin. This change in strategy represented a major shift in focus. Driven by an engi neering mentality, historically the company had focused inward. external focus, the company would need to build a strong sales and service organization The new organization is structured around account teams, which draw together employees from different business units, regions, and markets. Typically a core team includes a sales representative, a customer support manager, field service engineers, and one or more business unit representatives. In conjunction with this structure, AlliedSignal adopted a new pay plan that put earnings at risk. The new task of designing the new pay plan was itself carried out through teamwork. It managers, HR generalists, compensation