Do you think Jack is equipped with the managerial skills needed to head up a team
that develops strategies for adapting existing company products into new products for
sales in developing countries? What management skills would have helped Jack
avoid the catastrophe that befell his project at the consumer electronics firm? Defend
your position.
Jumpin’ Jack Flash
Jack Armstrong doesn’t have the cutest little baby face, but he has other qualifications for
getting ahead despite the fact that he’s still relatively young. He’s smart and creative, and he
combines a high-energy approach to getting things done with aggressive marketing instincts.
He’s just 36 now, but Jack can already boast a breadth of management experience, largely
because he’s been quite adept at moving around in order to move up. He started out in sales
for a technology company, outsold his colleagues by wide margins for two years, and was
promoted to regional sales director. After a year, he began angling for a position as
marketing manager, but when the job went to a senior sales director, Jack left for a job as a
marketing manager with a company specializing in travel products. Though a little impatient
with the tedious process of sifting through market research data, he devoted his considerable
energy and creativity to planning new products. His very first pet project – a super-lightweight compact folding chair – outstripped all sales projections and provided just the
impetus he needed to ask for a promotion to vice president of marketing.
When the company took too much time to make a decision, Jack moved on again, having
found a suitable vice presidency at a consumer products firm. Here, his ability to spot
promising items in the company’s new-product pipeline – notably, a combination oral-hygiene and teeth-whitening rinse for dogs – brought him to the attention of upper
management. Jack expected to go to the top of the list of candidates for president of some
division within the company, but instead the president of overseas operations called Jack into
his office and offered him a yearlong special assignment: How would Jack like to head up a
team to develop strategies for adapting existing company products into new products for sales
in developing countries? It was the perfect opportunity, he suggested, for Jack to broaden his
skills by working with managers from every area of the company. Moreover, there’d be a
significant bonus if he succeeded, and promotion to a divisional presidency would be next. It
was certainly an interesting opportunity, but it would side-track Jack’s projected ascent to
CEO status before the age of 40. He asked for a little time to think over the offer, which, as
he well knew, would also be a stretch for him. As luck would have it, however, he didn’t
have to make the troublesome decision, because it was then that he was offered his current
job as divisional president at a rising consumer electronics firm.
5
And that’s where we find Jack now – with his job on the line. What happened? Jack had
been in his new corner office for about six months when his marketing department came to
him with an idea for a sleek high-fashion combination cell phone and music and video player.
It was just the kind of product that Jack had been looking for, and he ordered his marketing
people to draw up some performance specs and get them to the design department. His VP
for marketing suggested that Jack assemble a project team to shepherd the product from
marketing through the design, engineering, and production stages, but Jack had heard too
many stories about projects getting bogged down in the endless processes of team decision
making, and if there was one thing that he knew from his own experience, it was that the key
to a successful new product was getting it to market as quickly as possible. Besides, he had a
reputation for aggressiveness to uphold.
Determined to take the bull by the horns, he put the project on an accelerated eight-month
schedule from design to rollout. He himself took charge of marketing and launched an
aggressive promotional campaign designed to capture the attention of not only the market but
also the company’s investors. Everything went according to plan until the middle of month
seven, when Jack got some bad news from the production facility in Malaysia. Tests on
preliminary versions of the product revealed that the placement of the cell phone antenna
inside the mouthpiece was producing a weak cellular signal. The only solution, it seems, was
either to redesign for an external antenna or to provide a kit containing an antenna and
adapter. In either case, the product design would be compromised and the rollout delayed by
months. Electronics engineers had warned mechanical engineers of the potential glitch at an
early stage of the project, but when news of the problem got back to marketing, managers had
decided to proceed because the whole project was such a high priority with Jack.
As it turns out, thousands of orders were delayed, customers got mad, and when the news got
out, the company’s stock price began to slip.