Introduction
TerraCog is an extremely successful high-tech firm. It is a private firm that develops Global Positioning System (GPS) and similar goods for consumer markets. Recently, the company has been caught unprepared by a competitor who has developed a product that employs novel use of satellite imagery. When the company thoughts of developing a competing product, named Aerial, the costs involved for the project threaten the fall of the project. None of the main managers is equally prepared to take the blame, anger, and bewilderment for the failure. After consistent disagreements between the leaders of the firm, the blames follows Emma Richardson, who was the newly-appointed executive vice president of the firm. He is blamed of pushing the group into poor decision making (Beer & Yong, 2008).
Challenges facing TerraCog Company
This case is surrounded by several issues, which define the failure of the firm. The first and extremely core element is the poor decision making process. If the TerraCog’s management did not ignore shifting to satellite imagery immediately, Posthaste shifted the damage would have been minimal. Through the Posthaste, the company would have understood the loopholes ahead, and it would have been extremely easy to identify them and advance a solution (Beer & Yong, 2008).
The other issue that the TerraCog organization suffered is the inefficient management structure. Decisions in the company were not made in the right way. For example, when requests by customers increased, without consulting fellow leaders in the company Richard Fiero changed his mind on satellite imagery. The product development team was not happy with the act as it believed that there were other projects for the company that were manipulated and compromised following lack of consultation among the members of the development team (Beer & Yong, 2008).
Although, the decision of whether to conduct or not to conduct certain duties was inclined to Emma, most of the group members threatened to frustrate the decision making process. There were massive interdependent disagreements which equally played a critical role in the fall of the plan for the company. The sales department, which was led by Ed Prior believed that the new product Aerial should be sold at a price lower than $425 to recover the market share that had been lost to the competitors. Allen Roth headed the design team, which redesigned the product within the available GPS Platform so as to encourage the process of development and minimize moldings and key configurations costs. Based on the estimate of the design department, the price of the end product would be $475 at minimum although; the price would be extremely high to be considered by the sales team (Beer & Yong, 2008).
The design department pushes the production team to reconsider the estimates for the price, and if not so the case may force the sales team to reconsider the positioning of the product in the market. On the other hand, the sales team aims at pressing the design team to design the product again in consideration with the price of the product. This shows that each of the departments in the company tries to blame each other in order to avoid the blame for the failure of the strategy for the company. This is extremely dangerous for any company willing to rise. The consistent disagreements bear no benefits to the company but rears low development, which may result to failure in the end of the race for the company. At the end, Allen Roth, who was the design and development director, is given the duty to reduce the cost based on the design for the product (Beer & Yong, 2008).
Possible solutions
As observed in the case study, the most prevalent problem surrounding the company is a poor decision making processes. The success of any company highly depends on the level of management that the company is exposed into in the running of its daily activities. Most of the decisions that are made in the company must depend on the type of managers employed in the company. The ability to make concrete decisions among managers depends on the exposure and experienced gathering of skills. High skilled managers may be obtained through purposeful vetting of candidates for the management positions. When a company sets aside a team or hires a team to conduct interviews for managers of different departments in the company, it unknowingly sets aside the platform for success for the company. This is because; the company will most likely attract highly competitive individuals who will possess adequate skills on management, as well as decision making (Simon, 2001). Therefore, it will be easy to subject the company to quality services following adequate and reliable managers on proper decision making processes.
Any successful company does not operate all its activities in the same department. In this case, TerraCog is outstanding since it has undertaken the initiative of dividing roles to different departments. Although, it has succeeded in the division of roles, it has not considered the independence for each department. There are continuous disagreements between departments following failure to undertake certain roles depending on the department. The management of the company should push for independent operations for each department in the company. This will guarantee responsibility and success for each department (Rowe, 2011). In return, this will cause overall success for the company.
Communication is extremely vital for any organization. In TerraCog, this vital element does not apply causing the adverse failure in the pricing strategy. Lack of communication in an organization will always have massive negativity to the operations of an organization. The different departments in the organization are supposed to have proper communication strategies that foster development for the organization. Disagreements in the communication process for the organization come for lack of communication skills among the managers who should oversee the success of business activities in the organization. Therefore, while hiring heads to different departments in the organization consideration of communication skills would be extremely vital. Communication skills range from listening skills to talking skills. Failure to posses any of the two dictates improper communication skills (Simon, 2001). Communication enabled heads of different departments dictate the success for different departments as well as the entire organization.
Challenges to the solutions
It is not guaranteed that the provided solutions will be ample for the success of the company. All of the solutions provided may be challenged in one way or the other. Although, the hiring process in a company is extremely vital, some companies do not pay slam interest to the process. They allow impunity to cover the process. The integrity of an organization is violated following the creation of a room for corrupt hiring process. This means that people are hired in the organization for high positions through corrupt deals. This denies the company access to hardworking staff members who are adequately skilled to take the organization to the next level. This will deny the organization access to professionalism which would be extremely vital in handling challenges in the organization (Simon, 2001). During this kind of hiring processes, weaknesses are hidden and covered with one average trait.
The other challenge may be based on the view of division of roles into departments as wastage for resources. This would ensure that the departments formed do not perform accordingly. Departments will be underfinanced making it difficult for the organization to operate accordingly. Managers may try to consolidate different departments into one department. This would mean that there is no specialization in the organization and duties are handled with no emphasis to success. Different departments being operated under one department will mean failure of the roles that may be entrusted to one department (Rowe, 2011). The confusion on roles will lead to poor services in the organization.
It may also be difficult to understand the communication strength for any individual. Unless an individual is triggered through engagement in a dialogue on certain issues concerning business, it may be extremely difficult to understand the strengths or weaknesses of an individual on the communication process. The interviewing process may not take adequate time that would allow the individual expose his or her communication skills. One may possess the listening skills but may not qualify in terms of speaking skills (Simon, 2001). Therefore, it may become extremely difficult to establish an individual who has overall communication skills.
Conclusion
TerraCog Incorporation is a representation of the many companies which are facing adverse challenges in administration, as well as delivery of services and production of goods. Although, the role of pricing should be entrusted to one department it entangles all departments in the organization. This explains the challenge that the organization faces in terms of lack of proper communication skills among the leaders of the organization, lack of specialization for departments as well as poor decision making processes in the company. It is upon the management of the company to organize a meeting for all departments in the challenge for each department with its role in the organization. This will create sensitivity to responsibility and discipline to tasks among the leaders of different departments in the organization.
References
Beer, M., & Yong, S. (2008). TerraCog Global Positioning Systems: Conflict and Communication on Project Aerial. Boston: Harvard Business School Pub.
Rowe, J. (2011). Management skills. Don Mills, Ont.: Carina Press.
Simon, J. L. (2001). Developing decision-making skills for business. Armonk, N.Y.: M.E. Sharpe.
