Assignment 2 Terra Cog Company (Amirreza Karbakhsh Ravari)

What are the most important facts in the case (the context)?
The company was a successful privately held firm specializing in high quality Global Positioning system and similar products such as fishing sonar equipment. Even though TerraCog was not always the first to market new products, the company did not have any problem in capturing the market as the products were of high quality and effectively addressed customer needs. When a competitor Posthaste introduced a GPS prototype calledBirds that displays satellite imagery, TerraCog did not see any threat, which proved to be wrong. By the time TerraCog realized their mistake in judging Birds, the product was a huge success. In order not to lose the market, TerraCog also plans to launch a GPS with satellite imagery dubbed Project Aerial. As the product was to be launched without any delay, a redesign within existing GPS platform was proposed .However, the projected costs threaten to scuttle the project. Sales team headed by Ed Pryor feels the new product Aerial should be priced below $425 to capture the lost market share to the competitors. As per the estimate of pricing team, price for sale would, at the minimum, be $475. The price is quite too high for the sales team to consider. managers gather in a pair of contentious meetings that feature anger, finger pointing, blame and bewilderment, but produce no effective conclusion. The responsibility of pushing the group towards a decision with Emma Richardson, a newly promoted Executive Vice President of the Company. (terracog entering the market late, they were very sensitive on pricing and they wanted to be able to have a competitive advantage over the other satellite imagery programs. consequently, they agreed to redesign using the existing program, which led them to be willing to trade functionality for price. the production team wanted to develop a satellite imagery GPS that had admirable external qualities while also keeping costs low)

What are the major problems? How serious are the problems?
1-There was no discussion regarding the technological capabilities (why they expected success without being aware of their abilities?!) 2-there was significant disagreement over the proposed pricing of Aerial between the different departments( Obviously people are likely to have different ideas on how the business should be , who

should be doing what and what the best interests of the business are. This can lead to disagreements and disputes which might not only harm the business, but also the relationship of those involved). 3-Lack of leadership: (As a leader, President of the company needed to give proper directions to other team members, which he fails to do. This is evident from that the company did not react to launching of Birds in time )

4- Lack of communication among executives.( Lack of communication can occur on a large scale, such as between management and employees, Failure to communicate effectively often leads to conflict, which can harm an organization. Poor communication can create conflict in a number of ways .for example: lack of communication can create uncertainty that leads to stress and conflict, Poor communication can lead to the spread of rumors and gossip, which can create tension among employees) 5- Inter group conflicts exists amongst the members of the core group of leaders entrusted with the design, marketing, production and sales of project Arial

6-Terra Cog was already delayed in its marketing response to selling a competitor Birds1 (thats why they lost their share market and stayed behind from their competitors)

7- Short sightedness in not acknowledging that Birds1 was a competitor to its existing product

8- Lack of proper research (Research is essential to collect facts and statistics about a company's customers, employees and competitors. On the basis of these numbers, companies are able to make better managerial decisions. The collected statistics are organized into reports and the management team uses them to take action. A good research mechanism is essential, irrespective of the size of the company and its client base. Research is imperative for staying competitive in the market.)

9-Lack of Innovation due to redesigning within the existing GPS platform (Innovation can help companies to discover what opportunities exist now, or are likely to emerge in the future. Successful businesses not only respond to their current customer or organizational needs, but often anticipate future trends and develop an idea, product or service that allows them to meet this future demand rapidly and effectively. Innovation will help you stay ahead of your competition as markets, technologies or trends shift)

10- Lack of motivation and enthusiasm (lack of motivation can decrease productivity at work, which can cause personnel to miss deadlines and produce substandard work. When they feel

unmotivated, routine job tasks can seem almost impossible to perform)11- Preference of Individual

goals over organizational goals (Some workers may not function well as part of a team, preferring
to work on their own and it causes some problems such as: limiting creativity ,longer process ,and inherent conflict) 12-time pressure, they should prepare product only 6 month (time pressure)

What are some of the causes of conflict?

The teams of Pryor, Barren, and Roth were not united on a common goal and were too focused on protecting their own departments. Each team had separate agendas in achieving their own individualistic goals As individualists, people cared almost exclusively about maximizing their own gain and did not care whether others did better or worse than themselves. For example, Pryors sales

department was interested in taking up the product, Aerial, and was concerned with the compensation packages. In order to compete with their competitors, the sales team felt that the product should be priced below $425 to capture the lost market share to the competitors. Pryors motivation behind this idea was his want to not disappoint his team, without taking into account the organizations goals. Barrens production team, on the other hand, was adamant about

keeping the price at sale at a minimum of $475. Pryor (Sales), concerned with compensation change and not disappoint sales team Barren (Director of Production), Recent production problem which he was held responsible for. Job insecurity and maybe resentment for being blamed may lead to him being very conservative. Roth (Design and Development), team not excited about projectother projects more excitinginterested in being promoted to be VP of design and development. Wu (software designer)at meeting defends design not understand why costs are so high since he only tweaked the firmware Whistler (VP of design and development) no longer fully involved in the company. Retirement soon. Richardson (Executive VP)-Needed to reach a solution but not hurt her relationship with other managers.

What kind of manager is Richardson?

in my opinion Emma Richardson wasnt a skilled manager she couldnt cope with problems and wasnt successful in her tasks I cant understand why the company chose her as manager! What are the features of a good manager? Optimism; Confidence; Self-Motivation; Dependability/Reliability; Knowledge; Organization ability; Communication skill; Public Speaking; Constructive Feedback; and authority. Richardson didnt have these abilities or maybe had a little. Emma Richardson, Executive Vice President, didnt make her objectives clear. We can guess that she wanted to bring both the Sales and Design & Development teams onto the same page, but her lack of leadership led us to be unsure of her real objectives.

In the future, what can the company do to prevent this problem from happening again, and improve innovation and response to the market?

They should not understate their competitors They must always monitor the competitors activity and use their competitors weaknesses as their opportunity. More focus on research about all elements that may affect on companys activity. Unify all companys personnel and motivate them to achieve one common goal. They should prevent company from confliction. In order to reduce confliction they can:
Create consequence: one of the ways to discourage conflict in the workplace is to create consequences. Employees who want to engage in productive conversation are not looking to create conflict, but employees who cause problems just to create conflict need to understand that those actions will be punished. Work with the human resources department and company legal team to develop a system in which initiating conflict can be punished. Once employees understand that conflict has consequences, they will be less apt to initiate it. Listening: Encourage employees and managers to listen to each other in the course of a conversation to avoid conflict. According to CareerBuilder, conflict in the workplace sometimes can result when two parties are talking to each other but neither is listening to the points being made. Hold training sessions on how to listen and communicate more

effectively. People in the workplace will find that listening rather than arguing helps to get their jobs done more efficiently.

opening up communication :Some employees start conflict because they want to be heard. You can reduce the potential of that kind of conflict by creating an atmosphere of open communication within your company. Encourage managers and executives to leave their doors open to anyone with an issue. Open and effective communication can be a significant deterrent to workplace conflict.

Improve leadership: there are some recommendations to improve leadership; here we just mention 4 of them
Periodically ask co-workers for suggestions on how you can do an even better job in your selected behaviors for change. Pick the most important behaviors for change "become a more effective listener" or "make decisions in a timelier manner Listen to their ideasdon't promise to change everythingand make the changes that you believe will further increase your effectiveness. Use the feedback of personnels and customers.

Encourage teamwork:
Most projects will require input from several employees within the organization. Encourage these employees to work as a team rather than a collection of individuals to complete these projects. The easiest way to do this is to set up an initial meeting for the team, refer to them as a team, and give them enough autonomy so they act like a team

Give employees opportunities for personal growth:

Because people who get the chance to grow their skills and expertise take more pride in their jobs, you want to encourage employees in your organization to gain new skills. You can do this in many ways, such as providing on-the-job training and other opportunities to teach your employees new skills

Fire people when need.

Underperformers can kill an organization; they can become cancers. When other employees see these individuals getting away with underperformance, then they start to

underperform. Therefore, firing--as long as you explain to your team why people were fired--can actually motivate your employees.

Give employees clear job descriptions and accountability

It is critical to give each of employees clear job descriptions and accountability. Its not enough to just state each roles responsibilities; rather, must specify the expected results and tasks

Effectively communicate and share information.

Company also must consistently share new information to ensure that employees make good decisions

Increase innovation.
Increase investment in idea generation. Develop deep customer understanding. Increase management focus. Use outside sources of ideas effectively. Dedicate additional resources. Provide incentives for innovation. Allocate resources for training and development Create a culture for change and continuous improvement

Improvement in response to market:

In order to have acceptable response to market, company should analyze the markets, customers, and competitors. And identify target market and understand the customers need, customers tendency, and also find opportunities that may be in market .the key to have suitable and in time response to the market is to examine the market and its elements constantly.

What is your recommended solution? a. b. c. d. e. Sell product at low price point? Sell product at high price point? Wait and improve product so it can be sold at lower price? Abandon the project, and focus on other projects? Other?

My opinion is to-Cancel product launch for now. Recreate and redesign a new product . Hit the market with the new product with a BANG. Maintain Quality Surpass Competitors. Do a proper market research to identify gaps between what is offered and what is desired. Decide on a common goal and vision. Recreate and redesign a new product with major reconfiguration and moldings. focus on positioning. Executives should start encouraging and motivating their teams. Make them realize the importance of launch of this product. And also should fire Emma Richardson.

if we decide to Cancel product launch completely= No share in Satellite team members Imagery GPS market; High risk

if we choose Launch Aerial as planned with reduced margin. Focus on low price, = Very low margins; May fail to reduce the cost of the product; ultimately drive it into losses.

if we sell product at high price we will loss our customers and market share .with higher price we are not able to compete with other companies.

If Wait and improve product so it can be sold at lower price, it take a long time to improve our products and we will lose market share. (How we improve product and also reduce price)