Rondell Data Corporation
Exam Answer — Rondell Data Corporation
Word Count ~ 2,082
q1. What is your analysis of the situation at Rondell Data corporation?
Summary
Rondell Data Corporation is suffering from an extreme case of an innovative company that has let the technical aspect of its business processes overwhelm everything else. As a result, although continual innovation is essential for the company to remain competitive, the culture this has fostered has increasingly hindered its ability to make the products customers are demanding. This, combined an increasingly blame driven culture, is causing serious problems and hindering Rondell’s ability to ship on time. Forbus, having recently joined the company as manager of ESD Division (ESD), finds himself at the center of these problems dealing with the conflicting demands of sales, engineering and production. Most recently, the 802 wide-band modulator, which was supposed to ship on October 2, slipped by 2 months due to 4 iterations of changes to iron out bugs between design, production and ESD.
Rondell’s Business
Rondell’s business is developing and manufacturing leading edge broadcast and data transmission equipment. Rondell competes by delivering products to unique specifications to its primarily OEM customer base. Being relatively small[1], Rondell’s competitive advantage is its ability to innovate and deliver what the customer wants. However, customers have been increasing their demands for unique products, worsening the strain on Rondell’s development cycle. This has lead to delays and decreased customer satisfaction.
Furthermore, it is unclear whether all of the business which Rondell is doing for customers is profitable —some of its business is probably generating more cost & pain than is justified. Indeed, net profits have been declining over time.
Overall Organizational Culture & Tensions
The organization houses units of many different cultures with production relatively isolated and design really dominating the overall
Word Count ~ 2,082
q1. What is your analysis of the situation at Rondell Data corporation?
Summary
Rondell Data Corporation is suffering from an extreme case of an innovative company that has let the technical aspect of its business processes overwhelm everything else. As a result, although continual innovation is essential for the company to remain competitive, the culture this has fostered has increasingly hindered its ability to make the products customers are demanding. This, combined an increasingly blame driven culture, is causing serious problems and hindering Rondell’s ability to ship on time. Forbus, having recently joined the company as manager of ESD Division (ESD), finds himself at the center of these problems dealing with the conflicting demands of sales, engineering and production. Most recently, the 802 wide-band modulator, which was supposed to ship on October 2, slipped by 2 months due to 4 iterations of changes to iron out bugs between design, production and ESD.
Rondell’s Business
Rondell’s business is developing and manufacturing leading edge broadcast and data transmission equipment. Rondell competes by delivering products to unique specifications to its primarily OEM customer base. Being relatively small[1], Rondell’s competitive advantage is its ability to innovate and deliver what the customer wants. However, customers have been increasing their demands for unique products, worsening the strain on Rondell’s development cycle. This has lead to delays and decreased customer satisfaction.
Furthermore, it is unclear whether all of the business which Rondell is doing for customers is profitable —some of its business is probably generating more cost & pain than is justified. Indeed, net profits have been declining over time.
Overall Organizational Culture & Tensions
The organization houses units of many different cultures with production relatively isolated and design really dominating the overall