Medisys
Situation Analysis
MediSys Corp., founded in 2002, is a privately held U.S.-based medical device manufacturer. The company develops, manufacturers, and sells medical monitoring systems for the healthcare industry. The culture of the company is entrepreneurial which encourages innovative thinking from its employees. MediSys is planning to launch IntensCare, a new remote monitoring system for intensive care units, in August 2009. This is a major launch for MediSys Corp who has invested $20 million to ensure rapid development. MediSys has two outside competitors who are also seeking to launch a similar device.
Opportunity/Problem
Historically, MediSys approached product development in a sequential order. In August 2008, Art Beaumont, President, introduced a new parallel system for product development in which he assigned a core team of people from critical functions to work together to move the product from conceptual stage to final production. Due to this new structure, there are two main issues that the IntensCare team is facing. The first issue is the lack of shared leadership between the IntensCare team. The cross functional team’s purpose is to put people with diverse expertise from different departments in a team to work jointly to come up with more innovative solutions and ideas. The core team is not effectively sharing leadership and communicating which makes the group ineffective in launching the IntensCare product. The lack of communication is slowing down the decision making process while isolating upper management, particularly Valerie Merz (marketing manager), from knowing about product launch issues. Unresolved conflict and ineffective communication between Merz and Brett O’Brien, Lead Engineer, is also causing frustration amongst the team. Merz is considering resignation while O’Brien wants to be taken off the project. Either of these outcomes could cause the launch of the project to be delayed or possibly lead to failure allowing the
MediSys Corp., founded in 2002, is a privately held U.S.-based medical device manufacturer. The company develops, manufacturers, and sells medical monitoring systems for the healthcare industry. The culture of the company is entrepreneurial which encourages innovative thinking from its employees. MediSys is planning to launch IntensCare, a new remote monitoring system for intensive care units, in August 2009. This is a major launch for MediSys Corp who has invested $20 million to ensure rapid development. MediSys has two outside competitors who are also seeking to launch a similar device.
Opportunity/Problem
Historically, MediSys approached product development in a sequential order. In August 2008, Art Beaumont, President, introduced a new parallel system for product development in which he assigned a core team of people from critical functions to work together to move the product from conceptual stage to final production. Due to this new structure, there are two main issues that the IntensCare team is facing. The first issue is the lack of shared leadership between the IntensCare team. The cross functional team’s purpose is to put people with diverse expertise from different departments in a team to work jointly to come up with more innovative solutions and ideas. The core team is not effectively sharing leadership and communicating which makes the group ineffective in launching the IntensCare product. The lack of communication is slowing down the decision making process while isolating upper management, particularly Valerie Merz (marketing manager), from knowing about product launch issues. Unresolved conflict and ineffective communication between Merz and Brett O’Brien, Lead Engineer, is also causing frustration amongst the team. Merz is considering resignation while O’Brien wants to be taken off the project. Either of these outcomes could cause the launch of the project to be delayed or possibly lead to failure allowing the