Terracog Essay

Problem Identification: In this case, TerraCog’s management failed to respond to competition in its market. Although competitor introduced a new GPS with satellite imagery to the market, TerraCog’s team dismissed the threat and decided not to take a responsive action. However, quickly the new GPS succeed and gained a significant market share. Eventually, TerraCog’s president decided to pursue a development of a directly competing product, and named the project Aerial. Unfortunately, the projected high costs of this project questioned its profitability and doubt its wisdom. The key managers of the company were not able to decide whether to execute the project or not, and Emma Richardson, the new executive vice-president, needed to push the
Since time is crucial in this case, we see a need to decrease the time of decision making process and re-defining communication channels between the departments. We also argue that the size of this team as well as the fact that the teammates came from four different departments created complex communication channels that slowed down decision making. In this case, small groups can undertake better the urgent tasks. Hence, we think that Richardson should break the complex process of launching a new product into micro-processes. We believe that by brainstorming with the heads of every department separately, defining criteria and performance standards, and listening to each team’s requirements and reservations, Richardson will be able to clarify for the teams their importance to the company and motivate them to act toward the company’s goal. Commitment to a common goal is more easily achieved if the number of team members is small (Essentials for an Effective Team,
This meeting should be friendly and short, and most important, clear and motivating. Richardson should open the meeting with demonstrating an appreciation for the hard work done by all the departments. Then, the announcement of her decision to postpone the launch of Aerial should be followed by a short explanation about the upcoming changes: From now on, once a week, every department should email a brief description of the progress they made at the past week to the entire company. This weekly update emails will enable an efficient way to share information between the departments. In addition, wide department meetings will take place every other week, and once a month these meetings will include a friendly lunch prior to the meeting. After the meeting, Richardson should meet with the heads of design and development department. In this meeting, they need to agree and define the requirements to develop a product that is superior to the Birds1, on minimum costs and time, and draw a realistic schedule to move forward. Now, when the new product is in its first stages of creation, and there is a general idea of what specifications and characteristics it will have, as well as an expected time for launching, Richardson should meet with the VP of Sales, to create marketing plan for the new product. The production team will work alone on costs