CASE STUDY ANALYSIS: VIVID SKY EMPLOYEE WAVE 3
Lisa Borgese
School of Business, Liberty University
BUSI708: Small Business Management Spring
D
Dr. Jonathan Schultz
Facts of the Case
Vivid Sky’s mission and vision was strong; however, the company lacked the right team
to accomplish the mission. Founder Tim Hayden, though technologically savvy and enthusiastic
about his business, “lacked the skills to write the codes,” that would accomplish the mission.
(Katz & Green, 2024) To accomplish the mission Tim needed a team, so through three waves of
employee programmers, he found himself in a predicament that with more research and
CASE STUDY: VIVID SKY EMPLOYEE WAVE 3 1
planning, could have been avoided. (Meredith & Mantel, 2012) Though business got
complicated, Tim can learn from his mistakes and find a successful resolution.
Sources of Employees for Vivid Sky
To complete his mission, Tim went through three different waves of employees. The first
were trusted and know coworkers that Tim had a working history with and they all shared
common interests. (Katz & Green, 2024) With an informal agreement in place, Tim collaborated
with these programmers to create his idea of Vivid Sky. (Sollish & Semanik, 2012) Through
networking various contacts in the industry, Tim was able to recruit employees during his
second wave of the mission. (Katz & Green, 2024) Through the recruitment process, Tim was
able to hire qualified employees that shared the desire to help Vivid Sky complete its mission.
Furthermore, during this phase of employees, the programmers’ low pay helped keep costs low.
The third and final wave of employees were recruited through promotional trips for Tim’s
product. This helped applicants to have a clear understanding of the company’s mission and
vision, and these promotional trips helped time recruit outside his base location, further
expanding his recruitment base. (Katz & Green, 2024) This allowed Tim to achieve more
efficient and effective recruitment, while promoting Vivid Sky and the company’s mission and
vision.
Using Equity to Compensate Employees
During the third wave of employees, Tim compensated the employees with an equity
bonus after they successfully completed the launch of the product. (Katz & Green, 2024) This
provided the employees with a sense of ownership for their work and helped create a long-
lasting motivation and dedication between Vivid Sky and their employees. (Katz & Green, 2024)
However, equity should be reserved for long-term, permanent full-time employees, because it is
a permanent gift, and bestowing it to employees that are temporary or contracted could limit
options for future permanent employees benefits and bonuses. In contrary, according to Katz &
CASE STUDY: VIVID SKY EMPLOYEE WAVE 3 2
Green, “pay can be shifted to affect employees either positively or negatively.” (Katz & Green,
2024) Pay is the best compensation for regular hourly or salary employees, and rather giving an
annual pay increase, incremental bonuses recognize employees for their hard work while not
burdening the new business.
Managing the Third Wave of Employees
If Tim could have started Vivid Sky with the employees from the third wave, first, many
of the criteria would have been different. With more experience in technology and platforms
that the third wave employees brought to the table, they would have been able to better
predict the necessary components and skills that were essential to complete the project from
start to finish. (Meredith & Mantel, 2012) Furthermore, Tim should have implemented perks or
temporary benefits or bonuses to these temporary/short-term employees, then he could have
offered equity bonuses to the permanent or long-term employees. By doing so, Tim would have
instilled flexibility in the employee benefits options, while still giving employees the feeling of
value, commitment, and ownership. This would have also given incentives to temporary
employees to want to work for Vivid Sky permanently and would have portrayed Tim as
investing in his fulltime, permanent employees while still pursuing Vivid Sky’s mission. (Katz &
Green, 2024)
Moving Forward with the Wave 3 Employees
Thoughts of replacing the third wave employees could be disastrous because they hold
equity in Vivid Sky and they also know the blueprints of the product more than any other
person within the company. According to Pinto, “evaluating growth opportunities and the risks
that come with it, it is important to consider all possible options and decide with one works best
for the specific situation.” (Pinto, 2013)
In this case, the current team of programmers cannot keep up with the demand and lack
the knowledge of iPhone and iPod platforms, however, rather than stripping positions away
CASE STUDY: VIVID SKY EMPLOYEE WAVE 3 3
from current dedicated and passionate employees, risking negative publicity, Tim needs to hire
additional employees that have the knowledge and skills needed to bring Vivid Sky to the next
level towards its mission. These new employees could offer new insight into the already
existing technology while bringing their special expertise in the iOS operating system. Tim could
retain his current employees, who are already knowledgeable in the android operating system,
and the new employees can help educate the current employees on iPhone and iPad platforms,
therefore encompassing the entire team in Vivid Sky’s mission.
Conclusion
With three waves of employee recruitment and potentially a fourth one on the way, Tim
Hayden has had a rough start with Vivid Sky, and he needs to find a way to motivate and reward
employees without risking his own benefits. Through the expansion of his recruiting attempts,
Tim was successful in hiring dedicated and skilled employees, but at what price. Because he did
not research and plan enough with accordance with ever changing technological trends and
opportunities, Tim made critical errors by giving temporary employees equity bonus’ for a job
well done. Although he made these mistakes, I am confident that Tim will apply the right
compensation to award his dedicate employees and he will find success in accomplishing Vivid
Sky’s mission.
CASE STUDY: VIVID SKY EMPLOYEE WAVE 3 4
References
Katz, J. & Green, R. (2024). Entrepreneurial Small business (7th ed.). New York, NY: The
McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
Meredith J. R. & Mantel S. J. Jr. (2012). Project management: A managerial approach
(8th ed.). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons Inc. Retrieved from
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/247277035_Project_Management_A_Manag
eri al_Approach
Pinto, J. K. (2013). Project management; Achieving competitive advantage (3rd ed.). Upper
Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall. Retrieved from
https://api.pageplace.de/preview/DT0400.9781292269160_A37749271/preview-
9781292
269160_A37749271.pdf
Sollish, F. & Semanik, J. (2012). The procure and supply manager’s desk reference (2nd ed.).
Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Retrieved from DOI:10.1002/9781119205098
