Vigor Skin Care Case Study
Peter intuitively gathered the ideal team for Ageless Vigor’s initial launch; as a result, the team is slated to receive the company’s highest performance award. But Peter may be overestimating the team’s role in the future success of Ageless Vigor and Vigor Skin Care as a whole. It may already be too late to save the team; the manufacturing problems that are emerging reflect the need for other solutions.
Leaders need to watch carefully for cues that a team member has disengaged from a project, and they should build in precautions. For instance, Peter might have intervened sooner and prevented Sandy from burning out on the job by giving her a break or by getting her some backup support. Sandy also needs to accept some responsibility for pacing herself and managing the stress; she could have alerted Peter if she thought she needed more help. Now, Sandy’s corporate burnout may be too far along to reverse quickly enough for the second phase of Ageless Vigor.
Meanwhile, Josh is on a different trajectory— his attention is already diverted. And his personality doesn’t seem suited to the predictable routines that Vigor has settled into. Having another Josh “in the wings” is unrealistic, so Peter should have anticipated Josh’s eventual boredom with the project and set up ways to leverage Josh’s contributions after he’d moved on. Instead, Peter’s inaction has left the Ageless Vigor project vulnerable.
Even if Sandy and Josh are still invested in the Ageless Vigor project, Peter should be asking himself if they have the skills necessary for the next stage in Vigor Skin Care’s life cycle. The problems surfacing indicate that they don’t. Out-of-stock products, unexpected costs and delays, and problems with suppliers— these are all predictable challenges when a mature business markets new products. But they seem to be piling up fast and could overwhelm Vigor’s momentum.
Peter didn’t anticipate these challenges and didn’t take appropriate corrective measures
Leaders need to watch carefully for cues that a team member has disengaged from a project, and they should build in precautions. For instance, Peter might have intervened sooner and prevented Sandy from burning out on the job by giving her a break or by getting her some backup support. Sandy also needs to accept some responsibility for pacing herself and managing the stress; she could have alerted Peter if she thought she needed more help. Now, Sandy’s corporate burnout may be too far along to reverse quickly enough for the second phase of Ageless Vigor.
Meanwhile, Josh is on a different trajectory— his attention is already diverted. And his personality doesn’t seem suited to the predictable routines that Vigor has settled into. Having another Josh “in the wings” is unrealistic, so Peter should have anticipated Josh’s eventual boredom with the project and set up ways to leverage Josh’s contributions after he’d moved on. Instead, Peter’s inaction has left the Ageless Vigor project vulnerable.
Even if Sandy and Josh are still invested in the Ageless Vigor project, Peter should be asking himself if they have the skills necessary for the next stage in Vigor Skin Care’s life cycle. The problems surfacing indicate that they don’t. Out-of-stock products, unexpected costs and delays, and problems with suppliers— these are all predictable challenges when a mature business markets new products. But they seem to be piling up fast and could overwhelm Vigor’s momentum.
Peter didn’t anticipate these challenges and didn’t take appropriate corrective measures