Case: Aston-Blair Inc.
Aston-Blair had suffered significant loses in the first quarter of 1991 and expected even worse in the second quarter. Casey (vice president of marketing) and Trott (vice president of corporate planning) were asked to reexamine the company’s procedures for forecasting sales, which was considered as one of the several underlying problems contributing to the firm’s poor performance by Aston, the CEO and chairman of the board.
Bacon was asked to form a task force to do the task, and after some discussion with Casey and Trott, he formed his team and had his first meeting with his team members, since they didn’t know each others, they didn’t have the great start but finally they decided to divide the people into different sub groups for different things.
After some time in July 23, they thought they made enough progress and wanted to do a presentation in August 4. But just before the presentation time, Bodin had some new finding but it’s sensitive so he need to handle it with his boss first and can not be presented in the coming presentation, so they agreed to keep those information confidential first.
After Meir’s back, they did a presentation but they didn’t get the positive comment from the top. And they were asked to do a presentation at the afternoon to figure out what they were going to do. They all faced much pressure. Even worse at noon, the confidential information from Bodin was disclosed to Meir’s boss (vice president of economic analysis), and he would talk about the related thing with Bodin’s boss and ask for that information.
In the above case, the task force made the following problems:
a.At the start:
1) Bacon didn’t set up the schedule with his managers
2) Bacon didn’t clarify the team’s decision-making power with his managers
3). Bacon was new in this field and was not appropriate to the leader
4).Some people they selected didn’t have the organizational influence and credibility
b. First meeting:
1).In the first meeting, they
Bacon was asked to form a task force to do the task, and after some discussion with Casey and Trott, he formed his team and had his first meeting with his team members, since they didn’t know each others, they didn’t have the great start but finally they decided to divide the people into different sub groups for different things.
After some time in July 23, they thought they made enough progress and wanted to do a presentation in August 4. But just before the presentation time, Bodin had some new finding but it’s sensitive so he need to handle it with his boss first and can not be presented in the coming presentation, so they agreed to keep those information confidential first.
After Meir’s back, they did a presentation but they didn’t get the positive comment from the top. And they were asked to do a presentation at the afternoon to figure out what they were going to do. They all faced much pressure. Even worse at noon, the confidential information from Bodin was disclosed to Meir’s boss (vice president of economic analysis), and he would talk about the related thing with Bodin’s boss and ask for that information.
In the above case, the task force made the following problems:
a.At the start:
1) Bacon didn’t set up the schedule with his managers
2) Bacon didn’t clarify the team’s decision-making power with his managers
3). Bacon was new in this field and was not appropriate to the leader
4).Some people they selected didn’t have the organizational influence and credibility
b. First meeting:
1).In the first meeting, they