Crosby Manufacturing Corporation: Implementation of a New System

The Firm

In 2005, the Crosby Manufacturing Corporation was an electronics manufacturing firm, employing 700 employees (Kerzner, 2009). According to the company’s president, Wilfred Livingston, they have had some trouble keeping up with their competitors and losing out on contracts due to their MCCS reporting system not being up to government standards. Livingston even remarked that they were considered “nonresponsive to three large government contracts because we could not adhere to the customer’s financial reporting requirements.” (Kerzner, 2009, p. 552).
To be able to successfully compete in the market, they would need to replace their current computer system with one that is more advanced and update the MCCS reporting software. To head the project, Livingston has appointed Tim Emary from the firms planning department. Emary is not as knowledgeable as the other departments on computers, but is well adverse in scheduling techniques. Livingston has given Emary a deadline of eighteen months to complete the project (Kerzner, 2009).

Selecting a Project Leader

As mention before, Tim Emary was selected for the role of project manager. Tim, however, is not from the formal project management group nor the EDP department where their project managers are normally selected. Also, Tim is not as knowledgeable on the technical side of computers as other departments, and yet, is heading a project to advance and update the company’s current system. Was selecting Tim as project manager for such a task a bed decision by Livingston? I say no.
There are some key skills ideal project managers should possess, one being administrative skills. This includes experience in planning, staffing, budgeting, and scheduling (Kerzner, 2009, p. 152). To quote Livingston; “he does know how to lay out a schedule and get the