1. Was Linderman Industries’ adoption of project organization an appropriate one for getting the Mexican subsidiary started? 2. In consideration of Robert Linderman’s letting the division managers know that the project manager would be asking for some of their key people, why would Conway have any difficulty in getting the ones he wanted? 3. Would you expect that many people would turn down a chance to join a project organization, as Bert Mill did? 4. Why would Conway take his problem with the engineering vice president to Linderman and have it resolved in his favor, yet back down in two disputes with the manufacturing vice president? 5. What could Linderman Industries have done to assure good jobs for the people coming off Project Mexicano, including Carl Conway, the project manager?
1. Was Linderman Industries’ adoption of project organization an appropriate one for getting the Mexican subsidiary started? 2. In consideration of Robert Linderman’s letting the division managers know that the project manager would be asking for some of their key people, why would Conway have any difficulty in getting the ones he wanted? 3. Would you expect that many people would turn down a chance to join a project organization, as Bert Mill did? 4. Why would Conway take his problem with the engineering vice president to Linderman and have it resolved in his favor, yet back down in two disputes with the manufacturing vice president? 5. What could Linderman Industries have done to assure good jobs for the people coming off Project Mexicano, including Carl Conway, the project manager?
1. Was Linderman Industries’ adoption of project organization an appropriate one for getting the Mexican subsidiary started? 2. In consideration of Robert Linderman’s letting the division managers know that the project manager would be asking for some of their key people, why would Conway have any difficulty in getting the ones he wanted? 3. Would you expect that many people would turn down a chance to join a project organization, as Bert Mill did? 4. Why would Conway take his problem with the engineering vice president to Linderman and have it resolved in his favor, yet back down in two disputes with the manufacturing vice president? 5. What could Linderman Industries have done to assure good jobs for the people coming off Project Mexicano, including Carl Conway, the project manager?
1. Was Linderman Industries’ adoption of project organization an appropriate one for getting the Mexican subsidiary started?
2. In consideration of Robert Linderman’s letting the division managers know that the project manager would be asking for some of their key people, why would Conway have any difficulty in getting the ones he wanted?
3. Would you expect that many people would turn down a chance to join a project organization, as Bert Mill did?
4. Why would Conway take his problem with the engineering vice president to Linderman and have it resolved in his favor, yet back down in two disputes with the manufacturing vice president?
5. What could Linderman Industries have done to assure good jobs for the people coming off Project Mexicano, including Carl Conway, the project manager?
Transcribed Image Text:He would give Mr. Linderman his resignation, so Carl decided to back down. He finally accepted a man
that Burke recommended. Filling the equipment buyer's slot was easy. The director of procurement
phoned Carl and said that a senior buyer, Humberto Guzman, had requested permission to ask for the
assignment, and that he strongly recommended him. Guzman has been purchasing agent for a large mining
company in Mexico for about 10 years. C arl had about the same experiences in getting the people he
wanted for the functions of engineering, quality control, cost, marketing, and advertising as he did for the
first three positions; in other words, he won some confrontations with the division managers and lost some.
For personnel, he got Dr. Juan Perez, who was slated to be personnel director of the subsidiary company,
to affiliate temporarily with the project team. The first brush that Project Mexicano had in getting a
functional division to do work for it came when Carl's engineering man, Frank Fong, reported to him that
the engineering vice president, who was formerly Fong's boss, refused to authorize top priority to the
changing of dimensions in the production drawings to the metric system. Carl had to take this issue to
Linderman, who ruled in his favor. The defeated vice president, of course, did not take kindly to the
decision. The next incident revolved around Carl's desire to have a pilot run of products made with metric
measurements for shipment to Mexico. The purpose was to test the market acceptance of the Linderman
articles. Jim Burke stated flatly that there was no way that his production workers could be trained to work
with metric drawings. Carl quickly saw that this was an issue that he was not going to win, so he had his
buyer, Guzman, work with the newly appointed manufacturing manager for the subsidiary in getting a run
of the products subcontracted in Mexico City. Bob Cates made a special trip from Mexico City to present
Carl with an interesting problem.
The Mexican industrial engineer, whom Bob was supposed to be training, had his own ideas about plant
layout. When they differed from Bob's as they usually did, he would take his complaint directly to Felix
Delgado, the president of the Mexican subsidiary. Because Delgado's competence was primarily in
finance, he would not know how to decide the argument and would simply table it. Carl took examples of
some of the disagreements to Bob's former boss, Sam Sargis, who quite unexpectedly ruled against Bob's
proposed methods. Carl saw that there was bad feeling by Sargis against Bob for leaving his department,
which boded ill for Bob's return. To solve the immediate problem, however, Carl asked Dr. Perez to try to
reconcile the situation in Mexico City. Despite these problems, and many more of a similar nature, Project
Mexicano was successful, and the transition to Mexican management was made in just a little over two
years. By a curious twist, through Dr. Perez's intercession Felix Delgado became very impressed by Bob
Cates and convinced him to accept the job ofdirector of industrial engineering for the Mexican company.
Humberto Guzman also stayed on to head the procurement operation.
Other members of the project team were not so fortunate. Linderman Industries was laying off personnel
when the project ended, and only the project production man was able to get a job in the company at as
high a level as the one he had when he joined the team. The cost expert elected to leave Linderman
because he said the glamour of Project Mexicano had spoiled him for any routine job. Carl Conway had a
difficult decision of his own to make. Robert Linderman said that he was extremely pleased with his
performance and that something good would open up in the company for him soon. In the meantime, there
was a staff assignment available for him. Carl had seen enough project managers in the aerospace industry
who had figuratively rotted on staff assignments when their projects were completed to be somewhat wary.
Transcribed Image Text:CASE STUDY
"The mission of the project which you will head is to get our new Mexican subsidiary ready for take-over
by Mexican managers. My hope is that you will be able to do this in about two years," explained Robert
Linderman, president of Linderman Industries, Inc., to Carl Conway, newly appointed manager for
"Operation Mexicano." Conway had been hired specifically for this assignment because of his experience
in managing large defense projects in the aerospace industry. " The first thing that I will have to do is put a
project team together," said Conway. "I imagine that you have in mind my drawing people from the
functional divisions." "Yes, I have already sent memoranda to the division managers informing them that
you will be asking for some of their key people to work under you for about two years," said Linderman.
"In addition, I have advised them to be prepare
personnel and equipment of their organizations. Later on in the project's life, you will begin to get
Mexican personnel, both managers and technicians, in to your organization. These people will have
Mexican supervisors, but until the mission is accomplished, they also will report to you. I will have to
admit that you are going to have some complex authority relationships, especially as you personally will
be responsible to the president of the subsidiary, Felix Delgado, as well as to me."C onway began to make
his plans for the project team. The plant building was available and empty in Mexico City, and it was
important to get equipment purchased and installed as soon as possible. A plant layout would have to be
prepared, but before that could be done there would have to be a manufacturing plan.
to process work orders from
peration Mexicano with the
Therefore, he needed to recruit an industrial engineer, a production planner, and an equipment buyer. They,
in turn, would have to build their own staffs. He made an appointment with Sam Sargis, corporate
manager of industrial engineering. “I have had a preliminary talk with Bob Cates about his joining
Operation Mexicano, and he is quite interested," Carl said. “Will you release him to me?" "Why, I’m
grooming Cates to take over my job when I retire," replied Sargis. "He is my best man. Let me pick
someone else for you, or better still, you just tell me what industrial engineering work you want done, and
I will have it done for you." "Sorry, I want Cates," said Carl firmly. “And besides, you are not due to
retire for five years. This will be good experience for him." For production planning, Carl had in mind
Bert Mill, an older man with extensive experience in managing production operations, but Mill rejected
his offer. "I talked it over with my wife," he said, "and we feel that at my age I shouldn't take a chance on
not having a job to come back to when Operation Mexicano is finished." Carl next talked to Emil
Banowetz, who was assistant to Jim Burke, the vice president for manufacturing, and Banowetz decided
that he would like to join the project team. However, Burke told Conway that if Banowetz were forcibly
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