A case study for a manufacturing company called AcuScan, Inc was fulfilled. The case study involves “Operation Optimize” which plans to bring a new retail iScanner to the market. The study is given in two parts. The first part summarizes the case study and provides the assumptions, arguments problems, and issues of the situation. The second part is an executive summary written for Cliff O’Conner, CEO at AcuScan, Inc. including recommendations for a solution for the company’s crisis.
Assumptions
Four employees that are employed at AcuScan and are involved in this case study they are the following; Kelly Thomas, Chief Engineer of Products Software, Pat Lambert, Director of Marketing, Cliff O’Connor, CEO and Chris Martinas, Vice President of Product Development. The assumptions of each employee are recognized and discussed starting with Kelly Thomas.
Kelly feels the budget and timeline to be impractical and thinks Optimize is putting the company on the line. He assumes that only one feature of the Optimize application can be developed by the company’s dead line of August first. Based on his conversations and e-mails with Chris, Kelly believes that together the iScann project and financial plan are at risk. Kelly assumes that quality control is of greatest significance for this project. The company’s reputation is at stake with new product development and should not be defined exclusively by the marketing department.
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Pat had an idea for the Optimize that came to her one evening in a dream. Following a brief hallway discussion with Kelly, she assumed that it was effortless to build on existing applications of previous products and wrote up the product concept. After contacting focus groups she believes that there is an interest for Optimize and thinks AcuScan can add considerable advantage if the product is ready by year-end. Pat assumes that the 15 % company budget reduction will not have an effect on the Optimize project and feels that they will meet the August first deadline. Pat feels Kelly is being irrational and is assuming product development has ample of time and resources to complete the iScann project. In reaction, Pat assumes by out sourcing programmers to complete the project would cost around $350 thousand, but would be worth it to increase in the market lead.
Cliff assumes that the new iScanner product can be developed and brought to market by the end of the year in spite of a 15% budget reduction. Cliff also desires a 30% budget reduction in the original investment request for “Operation Optimize” from Chris. Without documentation of any further discussion, Cliff is assuming there is no issue in reducing the initial investment from$575 thousand to $400 thousand.
Based on marketing research Chris believes there is an instantaneous need to increase technology into new markets to once again become the top selling leader in the industry. He feels that the competitor, Secur-A Corp., is manufacturing a program similar to the Optimize product and sees a huge advantage to getting the product into market by year end. After discussions with the marketing director Chris feels that the only product requirements for the iScanner are additional programming, design and development of repackaging, marketing, and advertising using existing employees to cut down cost. Chris thinks the August first deadline is aggressive but realistic. Additionally, Chris challenges the department heads to reduce their budget by 15% without layoffs. On the contrary, he assumes requests for voluntary layoffs and retirements will be accepted, so number of employees may drop with natural attrition.
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Arguments
Existing arguments that are offered in this case can be acknowledged as emotional or logical as well as sound or unsound. Cliff O’Conner argued for a budget reduction since mid-year revenue forecasts appear unfavorable. In able to compete with other competitors, expenses must be reduced drastically and instantaneously. He describes the action as intense and urges all department supervisors to do their part to get over the companies short-term budget crisis. At the same time Cliff mentions the new endeavor should be ready to launch by year-end and boost revenues in the future. His arguments appear logical, but unsound. Developing a new product is a great expense and cannot be done without the appropriate capital investment. If Cliff expects Optimize to be successful, the project must be given the correct resources to do so. To bring a new product to market that is only insignificant and may not generate industry excitement as projected. It will disappoint the company as well as customers who may not wait for an updated version and instead customers will take a look at other competitors’ products.
Chris appears to offer sound and logical arguments. He tries to get all departments that are involved to talk and work the problems out together as a team. Chris understands the company’s mission statement along with the goals and wants to get a plan developed that is realistic and successful. He is secure enough to know what it will take to get Optimize designed, developed, tested, and marketed, but has difficulty getting his message to the other staff members for the reason that Chris gets emotional and makes personal attacks. Additionally, by making the issue personal he puts his co-workers on the defensive side instead of effectively working with them in a professional manner. On the other hand Kelly makes sound, but emotional arguments
Arguments from Pat are both unsound and emotional. She does not have the people skills to communicate with others and likes to jump to conclusions instead of listing to all the facts before making a decision. When Pat attempted to speak with Kelly about her idea for the situation at hand it was informal on her part and unplanned as Pat had a hallway meeting with Kelly. Pat based many of her assumptions on the impromptu comments and never followed up for assistance with the product concept. Her attentions are good but she works around others and looks only for evidence to support her case.
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A. C Peterson Farms 1) I feel that this ice cream company has provided examples of matrix structure because it 9 is a structure in which the task of the organization is grouped along with two organizing dimension. 2) Advantages of centralizing decision making for a firm like AC Paterson Farms are more control to top managers and maximizing efficiency. The main disadvantage is it may limit the ...
Fallacious Arguments
Pat and Kelly are both resourceful and argumentative. However, Pat rushes into conclusions and is close minded when hearing other members data and research for the Optimize project. She only hears data that will support her assumptions and arguments. With the impromptu hallway meeting she made a plan that could not be supported appropriately by product development with a budget that was too conservative. By making quick decisions and conclusions sometimes results in lack of time to do an analysis for the product or pressure to perform and find a solution to the problem at hand. An additional problem that Pat is faced with is the attitude of “mine is better” which made her close-minded along with not allowing her to see other co-workers perspectives on the matter.
Since the preliminary concept was Pat’s idea, she felt she could develop the product concept by herself with little or no participation from other departments such as product development or engineering. Furthermore, unnecessary assumptions were made by most or all departments that were involved. With the assumption that Optimize did not get to market by the end of the year, other competitors would take AcuScan’s place as market leader. There are many factors and data that were not considered in the development of the Optimize project. For instance that it was only unconfirmed report an AcuScan competitor was working on a similar product to the one that the company was developing. In addition, there was no discussion or plan if Optimize did not make there deadline and instead made distribution to the market of spring 2004. What’s more there was no plan or analysis to say that the Optimizer would be better product then the other products that the competitors had on the market. Little revenue would be show in the books in 2003 for Optimize assuming that it was ready for December distribution, so it would not directly affect the current year’s budget.
Case Study Conclusion
At sometime every individual experiences workplace rejections and adversity at some point during their career. However, the employee must be able to challenge his or her workplace rejection and progress forward with his or her career. One method of accomplishing this task is to continue to educate themselves and to exchange information with other people in their line of work to develop new insights into the work from colleagues. Both increased education and exchange of information builds confidence in an employee’s abilities. One could come across that AcuScan as many issues and problems with communication and developing their ideas to each other.
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How ever in this situation the central problem was that the marketing director, Pat Lambert took upon herself to develop a new product called Optimize. Usually when a company decides to develop a new product or concept they call for a meeting with all department supervisors to research and discuss the design and develop of that new product. Given that Pat initially developed the idea she failed in communicating it with the other departments that she lacked skills in and did not organize appropriate meetings to develop the product. Instead she caught engineers in the hallway to discuss feasibility or resource issues, but never formalized the plan on paper causing the vision to fail. In addition, Pat oversimplified the product concept based on discussions and e-mails she had with the chief engineer. Since she does not have a technical background this does not give her the ability to add requirements to the specifications without discussing it first with the engineers that do have this skill.
Pat should have formed formal meetings with the other departments where the product concept could have been discussed and developed together as a team. Finance or a Business Manager should have also been included in the meeting to assist with the budget development as well. A further problem the company faced was poor and unprofessional communication between each other. E-mail correspondence should not replace face-to-face meetings where many individuals can discuss ideas and concepts together in one place. Personal attacks or innuendos serve no purpose and have no place in emails or in a work setting. Putting co-workers on the defense breaks down communication as well as working relationships become strained. A company needs departments to work together as a single team even though this means individuals have different backgrounds and skills this is what makes a company unique and succeed in the market with a common purpose. In consideration Pat was new to the organization and probably should have been directed by Cliff to work more closely with Kelly and Chris on this Optimize project.
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Final Recommendation
AcuScan has enhanced its popular product offerings in the past. Over several years, the company has retrenched from hundreds of products with little customer impact to a truly remarkable and focused stable of products that offer great value and tremendous appeal to their customers. Acuscan’s merchandise initiatives are critical to growing sales and increasing the frequency of customer visits. Specifically, AcuScan is seeking to provide better value through more attractive products assortments in both price and quality. To accomplish this; the company must increase its emphasis on product development and communication as a whole team not as an individual entity. AcuScan needs to be within three percent of the competition on image items, three to five percent on all other products and guarantees the customer lowest sale prices every time.
Cliff O’Conner should be more involved with this project and develop an Optimize team. Members of the team would include Pat the financial planning manager, Chris the advertising manager, Kelly Chief Engineer of Products Software and the newest employee of the company that was hired as the Vice President of Organizational Development that employee should also function as the project manager. The project’s timeline needs to be reworked using a program called Microsoft Project that way it is on paper and everyone is on the same page. Following financial review there is little evidence to demonstrate that bringing Optimize to market by year-end will substantially benefit AcuScan. In addition, an average version of Optimize would damage AcuScan’s reputation and disinterest customers from considering a newer iteration altogether. Besides company’s 15% budget reduction should not affect the research and development department this year. Sometimes company must take risks even if that means spending money to make more money and not sacrificing new product development is limiting a company’s future.
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With the sales / service revenue forecast expected to slide this year, the sales and marketing department should focus on developing new customers in its existing competitive market with its current products. Although the market is competitive, there is no reason not to be aggressive and approach other types of companies about extended security applications as Chris suggested. Banks, Government offices, and even government contractors are all organizations that could benefit from the existing iScanner applications. Attracting new customers is not an easy task but could open up new doors and bring in more revenue however this is part of AcuScan’ core business.
Executive Summary
Product Development and Marketing is an area that is constantly growing and changing to meet the new demands and challenges of a forever-evolving work force. What was once labeled “uncomplicated” and associated with a reputation for being highly organizational and dealing solely with lots of resources and funds, the field has transformed itself into the strategic entity it is today. The changes, however, haven’t stopped there. While bringing both pros and cons along with it, technology has spearheaded into the forefront of Product Development and Marketing.
Technological advancements have improved the ways we communicate, revolutionized how we learn, and expanded our capabilities. Whether it is the invention of a new machine, moderations to an existing one, or the discovery of a new application for an existing technology, the field is forever growing and expanding. In the early stages, it may seem like more of a hassle than it’s worth to keep up with these changing trends. It always proves worthwhile in the end, however, as new technologies bring both increased proficiency and productivity.
A case study was concluded to determine a course of action for AcuScan, maker of the iScanner, a retinal scanner security product to acquire on a new project called “Operation Optimize.” The marketing and product development departments were assigned with developing a new product to target a new market along with keeping existing customers loyal. As with any company, the future of AcuScan depends on the success of new products introduced to new industries and overall customer service. The marketing director and chief engineer are at odds over Optimize’s product concept, timeline, and budget. The Vice President of Product Development has attempted to involve all departments for a meeting to work out details, but has been unsuccessful. This case study does not include the company’s strategy for addressing a budget reduction for all departments or its strategy for selling and marketing its existing products.
Pat Lambert, The marketing director is new to AcuScan. She made incorrect decisions when it came to communicating with the product development department in producing Optimize’s product concept. Also, there is no indication that finance manager was involved in budgeting for the project. The resources and time required to develop the new product as presented are inadequate. Over the past few months, unprofessional accusations, innuendos, and communications have been exchanged between department supervisors in regards to Optimize. The pressure to get Optimize to market by year-end has made employees stressed causing some friction along with no solution to the problem at hand causing to sacrifice the integrity and quality of the product itself along with the reputation of AcuScan.
Developing a non-development product to market only hurts AcuScan’s market share as well as its reputation for quality and expansion for their products; it does not enhance it. Quality should not be sacrificed to be first company to distribute the product on the market, otherwise the customers will turn elsewhere forcing them to purchase from competitors. The diminutive revenue recognized for being first company on the market is not worth the loss to competitors that produce a better product and follow behind AcuScan. Still, it is unconfirmed evidence that Secur-A Corp. one of our competitors, is developing a similar application to the Optimize.
In order to recognize long-term revenues, provide a new industry standard, and maintain a reputation of integrity, AcuScan needs to extend its timeline for Optimize and contribute more resource. In the meantime, sales should focus on marketing its existing iScanners to government offices and contractors, banks and other organizations to improve its revenue forecast.
