TerraCog Assessment

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Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville *

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MBA-522

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Jun 1, 2024

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TerraCog Assessment Jenise D’Cruz Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville

1. How have departmental objectives led to the current situation at TerraCog? The current situation at TerraCog is that nobody can agree on a price for the new Aerial device. Each department at TerraCog has different objectives when it comes to launching the new device. The production team did not greet the decision to launch Aerial with enthusiasm (Beer & Yong, 2008, p. 4). They felt that a redesign was only feasible if “management could extend time to market by six more months” (Beer & Yong, p. 4). The production department also had many other ideas for new products and Project Aerial was forcing them to put these exciting projects aside. The design department was trying to deliver they product with the needed features and functionality, while staying within cost constraints provided by the sales department, which seemed almost impossible to them. The design team was also against the short time period. As said by Allen Roth in the voicemail to Emma Richardson, the design department had given “the features and functionality they [Sales] wanted in Aerial, so I’m not going back now to ask my team to do the impossible” (Beer & Yong, 2008, p. 1). The design department had already cut all that they could and ended up “with only a 7% or 8% reduction to cost” (Beer & Yong, 2008, p. 1). The sales department was trying to compete with other products that were already on the market by pushing for an early launch date and lower costs. TerraCog had not seen the GPS system launched by Posthaste, BirdsI, as a threat at first, but after TerraCog’s sales reps noticed an “increasing customer demand for a GPS with satellite imagery like BirdsI”, the vice-president of sales, Ed Pryor, “began pressing for a reversal of the decision not to develop the product” (Beer & Yong, 2008, p.3). Retailers were asking for a similar product from TerraCog. All of these different objects led to the

current situation where no decision was made in any of their meetings about the retail price for the new device. 2. How have individual objectives led to the current situation? Each person involved in the case and decision has an individual objective that they’re trying to meet. Emma Richardson, the new executive vice president, is just trying to get Project Aerial moving since she has been tasked with “moving TerraCog toward greater operational alignment and increasing cross-departmental cooperation” with her new role and overseeing the product launch (Beer & Yong, 2008, p. 2). Richard Fiero, TerraCog’s president, is trying to satisfy the appeal of an innovation of this kind, after requests from the vice-president of sales, Ed Pryor. Pryor is hoping to reach sales targets by launching Project Aerial. Each individual is trying to stand up for their department and what their teams are capable of. This has led to the current situation where they are trying to decide on a price, but each department is in a short time frame and can only make so many cuts. 3. How has the group structure impacted the current situation? This organization uses a functional design, where departments are “grouped by common function” (Sweida, 2023, p. 4). Because of this functional design, each department is only concerned with their own part of Project Aerial and refuses to make adjustments to their processes. For example, the design department can only make so many adjustments to cut costs but still meet the requirements provided by the sales department. Since everyone is worried about what their own departments can and cannot

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do, nobody is willing to compromise. Compromising the design or production of the new device would also not meet the requirements. 4. Clearly, the current group decision-making is flawed. Discuss the current group decision- making process and its impact on the current situation. This group is trying to reach a consensus that satisfies all the departments that are involved. A consensus group decision making process is “finding a proposal acceptable enough that virtually all members can support” (Sweida, 2023, p. 14). In this case, the concerns and abilities of all departments are being taken into consideration to try to find a price that works. With everyone’s input on what they are able to do with the price and time constraints, they are not able to reach a decision on how to price the new product that will compete with the other products that are already available on the market. 5. What should Emma do? Emma should meet individually with each department to hear their concerns about the product and its requirements for the launch. Then, she should meet with top management to decide where adjustments can be made within each department and to the requirements so that all departments can come to a consensus. At least one department will have to sacrifice some of their requirements. I think the sales department is pushing too hard to get the product launched soon. The company is already known for waiting to introduce new products after “translating retailer and user feedback into exceptional product design and functionality” (Beer & Young, p. 2). When the company finally introduces its products, they surpass its competitors since they have taken feedback from products released by other companies into consideration. This situation should be the

same. If they wait for more users to provide feedback on the BirdsI device, they can make adjustments. Waiting will also give time to the production and design departments to figure out how to maintain functionality while also making it process faster to really beat out the competition. Emma should meet with the departments and then push for the sales department to postpone their launch of Project Aerial. 6. Consider all of your group discussions for the class. How has your group managed team decisions? Has it been effective? Why do you think this (provide examples)? OR You can reflect on another group you are a member of, e.g., work, religious, or club. Our group has managed team decisions with the majority control decision making process and it has been very effective. Each individual in our group has had the same goals while working together on all the group discussions, to put our best efforts into creating the best content. Everyone has the same goal and knows the time constraints so, we make plans to work within them in an efficient manner. We also have learned what works best for us and found the most efficient way to work together. For example, after the first assignment, we knew that we needed to meet twice a week to get the best result. We have stuck to that for the second and plan to for the third group discussion post. Our norming stage has proven to be very successful. It led to a successful performing stage of Tuckman’s Stages of Group Development.

References Beer, M. & Yong, S. (2008). TerraCog Global Positioning Systems: Conflict and Communication on Project Aerial. Harvard Business School , 2184 . Sweida, G. November 27 th , 2023, Group Decision Making. [Powerpoint Slides]. MBA-522-50B. Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville. https://bb.siue.edu/ultra/courses/_92361_1/cl/outline Sweida, G. November 4 th , 2023, Organizational Structure and Design. [Powerpoint Slides]. MBA-522- 50B. Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville. https://bb.siue.edu/ultra/courses/_92361_1/cl/outline

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