Case Study Description

Just Trying to Help

A manager hears enough about another team’s project to know that it is seriously flawed—and probably destined to fail. Should he butt in or butt out?

Every year, at the annual summit of Ralston Crane’s marketing group, chief marketing officer Ruth McViney homes in on an important organizational objective.

Last year, the architecture and design firm was focused on green building initiatives. This year, Ruth says, is the year of customer loyalty.
Toward the end of her keynote remarks, she introduces two kickoff projects.

The goals of one, Project Holding Pattern, sound familiar to Ralston’s Guy Christiano; if the project team structures its loyalty program to look like the one he’d been associated with in his previous job, it could be a boon for the company.

“Why didn’t they put me on that project?” he wonders. “Then again,” Guy figures, “I’ve got plenty to do already.”

Several weeks after the conference, Guy is contacted by a member of the project team. Guy’s ready to share the key success factors for the loyalty program he’d been involved with before: a marketing initiative that looks like a service offering. But what the team is proposing sounds more like a run-of-the-mill seminar series.

Against his mentor’s advice, Guy calls team leader Charyl Urquhart to make the case for a different approach, going so far as to e-mail her his suggested outline for the program.

Miffed, Charyl cuts the call short and never follows up. Guy considers going over her head, to McViney. But another friend in the firm warns him off: “If it’s as screwed up as you say it is…you don’t want to be associated with it.”

Should a colleague with strong opinions butt in or butt out? Four expert commentators—consultant and author Marcus Buckingham, Harley-Davidson’s Joanne Bischmann, former Oticon CEO Lars Kolind, and Umea University School of Business professor Tomas Blomquist—offer their advice in this fictional case study.

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