Harvard Business School

9-694-065
Rev. March 17, 1995

Medical Products Company
At the beginning of their three-day meeting in March 1990, Mr. Roberto Hausman, the president of the Disposable Devices Sector of the Medical Products Company (MPC), welcomed the group assembled around the conference table.
This promises to be a very productive meeting. A window of opportunity has opened up for us, and it appears that we finally have a chance to resolve, once and for all, some of the issues our European organization has been struggling with over at least the last six years. The recent acceleration in the projected growth rate for our hypodermic and diabetic products makes it possible to discuss possible changes without having to worry about consolidating plants or making substantial reductions in personnel at any plant. We now operate within an organizational structure that allows us to deal with the problem as a whole, and all the key people who will be involved in implementing the changes that may be required are in this room, participating in the design of those changes. You collectively control all the resources necessary to make it happen. Now I charge you with that responsibility.
The task force assembled to plan the reorganization of European manufacturing for hypodermic products included the president for Disposable Devices in Europe, the managers of all the European factories producing hypodermic products, and several senior managers (including those responsible for strategic planning) that coordinated European activities with those in other parts of the world. It had been preceded by a three-day meeting in Europe, attended by about 20 managers drawn from the same factories as well as a group from MPC's European headquarters, where the same issues had been discussed and alternative solutions proposed. In a larger sense, however, it had