...Written Analysis and Communication I Assignment 1: Terracog Global Positioning Systems: Conflict and communication on project Aerial Submitted to Dr. Gita Chaudhuri By Viswesh Kurtarkar Section: B On 08.07.2014 ------------------------------------------------- Business Memorandum Date: 08 Jul. 14 To: Emma Richardson, Executive Vice President From: Viswesh Kurtarkar, Executive Assistant Subject: Recommendation to Terracog’s new venture, Project Aerial. Case Analysis summary Terracog specializes in high-quality global positioning systems. They are skilled at translating market and user feedback into outstanding products. Their GPS line of products were the finest in the market, applauded for its durability, navigational accuracy and value added features. In October 2006, Posthaste launched BirdsI, a handheld GPS that displayed satellite imagery, and it took the market by storm. Terracog had not anticipated such response from the market as they felt the users we smart enough to choose performance over graphics. The large response from the market for Posthaste’s BirdsI saw Terracog decide to launch Project Aerial by October 2008, it very own product with satellite imagery. As time was a constraint to get the product in the market, it was decided to redesign the existing GPS platform. The Design team provided the product design as requested by sales team by December 2007. Initial cost estimates of $550 provided by production department were too...
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...Emma Richardson is in a dilemma whether to go ahead with the Project Aerial or not. The poor decision making process is one of the main reasons for the dilemma caused. Had the management of TerraCog not ignored the idea of shifting to satellite imagery as soon as Posthaste did it, the damage would have been much less. The organisation suffers from inefficient group structure. The decisions were not made in the right manner. When customer requests increased, Richard Fiero on his own decided to change his mind on satellite imagery, without discussing it with anyone else. Now the product development team is not happy with the decision made because it feels that there are several other exciting projects that are being compromised upon. Moreover, with a decision of go/no-go to be made by Emma, the large size of the group involved again threatens to thwart the decision making process. The inter department conflicts add to the dilemma. The sales team headed by Ed Prior feels the new product Aerial should be priced below $425 to capture the lost market share to the competitors. The design team headed by Allen Roth, redesigned within the existing GPS platform so as to speed up the development process and avoid costs of new moldings and major configurations. As per their estimate of the pricing team, the price for sale would, at the minimum, be $475. The price is quite too high for the sales team to consider. The design team has pressed the production team to reconsider the price estimates;...
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...Terracog Global Positioning System : conflict and communication on project Aerial. Problem essay : Position statement: From the outset of the case it appears that determination of price point is the sole bone of contention between various players. However, a deeper analysis shows that the problem is beyond determination of the price point. According to my point of view the root cause of all the conflicts within Terracog is the lack of leadership, effective communication and vision and inter-groups conflicts. Lack of leadership is evident from the role the president , Richard Fiero. He was persuaded into making the decision by the sales Vice President Ed Pryor. Richard Fiero went ahead and took the decision based on only one source of information – Sales. He did not consult the other important players – Production and Design and Development. This shows his sheer lack of leadership skills. Before announcing the decision he should have consulted these important groups and come out with a consensus. The case shows Richard in a reactive mode. He thinks he can force the price he wants from Tony Barren. This is not what a leader should do. Further he clearly does not take help from Harold Whisler. As evident from Exhibit 2 Harold is a co-founder of Terracog and comes with thirty one odd years of experience. Harold also has a sound engineering background and in the past has contributed significantly to Terracog’s key sonar equipment products in 1980s. The president clearly chooses to...
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...of leadership and communication, TerraCog has found itself in a tough situation on whether to sell its new GPS system, dubbed Project Aerial, at a competitive price or at a higher price. Their main competitor, Posthaste, has been slowly taking shares from the company with their satellite imagery GPS system that has been on the market for almost two years. As the threat of this competition continues to pressure the company, TerraCog seems to be straying away from its core competency of producing higher quality products compared to its competitors. Internal issues also arise as personal goals within departments interfere with other department goals, hindering the success of their main objective. Emma Richardson, the Executive Vice President, now must make a final decision on how to price the Aerial. With Harold Whistler, the VP of Design and Development, near retirement, Allen Roth, a current director within the same department, aims to take on the role of vice president. Project Aerial has been taking away time from Roth to complete more exciting projects that he could use to promote himself as a strong candidate for the soon to be available VP position. This is an example of Value Theory of Job Satisfaction: a theory suggesting that job satisfaction depends primarily on the match between the outcomes individuals’ value in their jobs and their perceptions about the availability of such outcomes. Without the opportunity to complete the projects he prefers, and his high level of...
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...Case Study Analysis 1: TerraCog GPS Terracog was a successful privately held firm specializing in high quality Global Positioning system and fishing sonar equipment. Even though TerraCog was always not the first to market new products, but their products were successful because of their high quality and effectively addressed customer needs. When their competitor Posthaste introduced a GPS prototype called BirdsI that displays satellite imagery, TerraCog did not view it to be a threat and believed it was a non-essential fad. TerraCog realized their mistake in judging BirdsI and the product was a huge success. In order not to lose the market, TerraCog planned to launch a GPS with satellite imagery Project Aerial. A redesign within existing GPS platform was proposed and the projected costs threaten to destroy the project. Ed Pryor VP of sales feels the new product Aerial should be priced below $425 to capture the lost market share to the competitors. The estimate for the price would at minimum be $475 and the sales teams deemed it too high to consider. The managers of each division gather in a pair of combative meetings that contain anger, finger pointing, and blame but do not produce an effective conclusion. Personal and individual objectives which were contrary to one another led to the current situation. The sales staffs’ main concern was to have a GPS device that would be superior to their competitors’ and would be priced competitively. The product design & development...
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...Participant Name: Munaim Akhtar (ERP ID: 10426) Case Title: TERRACOG GLOBAL POSITIONING SYSTEMS: CONFLICT AND COMMUNICATION ON PROJECT AERIAL Case Analysis: This case is about TerraCog, a well-known high-tech firm that develop product like GPS for consumer market. This case describes the failure of new project initiated by TerraCog named project Aerial due to organizational conflicts between sales, production, and design, development department of TerraCog. Problems: Posthaste, a competitor in market introduced a GPS prototype called Birds I at summer 2006 outdoor retailer show that displays satellite imagery in form of static satellite photographs. The TerraCog management were not impressed by innovation of competitor and dismissed the posthaste concept as a vogue. However Product Birds I proved to be a great success in consumer market. In order to save the position is consumer market TerraCog management decided to launch a GPS with moving satellite imagery named project Aerial without the feedback from Design, development and production department. At last, due to high production cost, non-availability of latest technology and time limit, project Aerial launching was not supported at all. Solutions/Recommendations: There was lack of Interpersonal relationship between departments at TerraCog which reflects in the quality of work/discussions. Furthermore, higher management without deciding at their own end should have consulted with design, development and production...
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...“TerraCog Global Positioning Systems” WAC II ASSIGNMENT I Submitted to: Prof. Danesh Gojar By: Vinod Dubey (FSB I - 60682) Date of Submission: 11th March, 2012 TerraCog Global Positioning Systems February, 2008 To, Mr. Richard Fiero, The President, TerraCog. Subject: Launch of ‘Aerial’ Dear Sir, This report is an analysis of options available regarding project Aerial and strategy regarding dealing with the emerging competition in the market. Executive Summary The redesigned version of Aerial which includes features like satellite imagery is planned to be launched in the coming holiday season. TerraCog is losing its market share to Posthaste’s BirdsI, a similar product already present in the market and is eager to hit the market with Aerial. But the cost of redesigned Aerial is high ($475) and it is not profitable to price Aerial below $475, which is $75 higher than BirdsI. Also at current set price of $475, company cannot expect sufficient sales due to price sensitive nature of the product. Thus company should delay the launch by six months and should come up with better technology at a lesser price. Contents Sr No | Topic | Page No | 1 | Executive Summary | 03 | 2 | Situational Analysis | 05 | 3 | Problem Statement | 06 | 4 | Options Available | 06 | 5 | Criteria for Evaluation | 06 | 6 | Evaluation of Options | 07 | 7 | Recommendation | 09 | 8 | Action Plan | 09 | Situation Analysis TerraCog specializes...
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...Terra Cog new project GPS (Global Positioning System) named Aerial. Old customers of TerraCog keeps asking about the same type prototype of GPS as new competitors lauched named ,,Ibird’ –with satellite imaginary system. That product is almost the same quality as the old TerraCog GPS model ,but people find need to have separate product with satellite imaginary function.Firsly TerraCog was not impressed with product .But after ,,Ibirds’’ success and grown custumers asking ,about TerraCog’s version of product,they decides to launch version Aerial on minimum price level. Agreement about price setting on Aerial. Sales team and director decides to make aerial product,but only redesign the product what they have.They talk to r&d team but they aren’t enthuasiastic about new product,1.time they should prepare product only 6 month (time pressure) and 2.there are few other projects they are working and believing in those success Research & Development team developed product with high costs and because the cost price could not compete with competitors, sales team keeps asking to reduce product costs.In meeting ,people from different teams and sitting together, talking problems with each other and not trying to solve the problem,sales team asking to reduce costs,r& d team saying that they cant reduce costs. After the week they also can’t set the price, r& d acting like they don’t care ,they feel that they did everything what they can, sales people believing that...
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...Stephanie Wander MBA 230 Fall 2012 Humans and Organizations An organization is a social division of people that is managed and structured to meet a need or to pursue collective objectives. While the management structure from organization to organization differs, all organizations have some form of a management structure that determines relationships between the different activities and members. This structure also sub-divides and assigns roles, responsibilities, and authority to accomplish different tasks. Organizations are “open systems” in that they are affected by their environment – both macro and micro. As far as the role organizations play in society, the detailed role varies geographically, but overall, organizations greatly influence the culture of the surrounding society. My experience and observations throughout my life have shown that organizations with similar missions tend to geographically cluster together. I believe that the mentality and personalities of the people working at these organizations hold significant weight in the formation of the environment and attitudes of the surrounding society. For example, San Francisco is approximately 49 square-miles, but it has several very diverse societies that are broken up into districts. People who are interested in finance will most likely gravitate towards Market Street and the Financial District because the organizations in that area are of that “personality.” Through investigation and analysis of...
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...TerraCog Global Positioning Systems: Conflict and Communication on Project Aerial GEB314 – Group and Organizational Dynamics Professor Barry Atkins Carlos Albizu University Monica Estopinan Spring 2013 Introduction TerraCog is a private company specializing in high-quality Global Positioning Systems (GPS) and fishing sonar equipment. In spring 2007, the company took on a project to enhance their high-quality GPS handheld with satellite imagery; the project was named Project Aerial. The decision to develop the new enhancement resulted from increased customer demand, and loss of market share to competitor Posthaste, who in October 2006, introduced BirdsI, the “only handheld GPS with satellite imagery” (Beer, Young, 2008). By the end of 2007, TerraCog had developed a prototype of their version of a GPS unit with satellite imagery and planned to launch the product by the holiday season of 2008. Emma Richardson, the new Executive Vice President, was tasked with the launch of the newly developed GPS unit; she needed to finalize decisions on costs, pricing, and initial production volume. Emma’s main focus as the new EVP was to move the company toward greater operational alignment and increase cross-departmental cooperation. This focus was in response to existing tension between the U.S headquarters in Chicago and the production team in China. The development of the new Aerial would no doubt add to this tension. The design conditions of the Aerial GPS were handed off...
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...The Case Study of TerraCog Global Positional Systems Xu Yang, 005767016 The company of TerraCog enjoys the flat organization juts like the typical law firm.The benefit of this structure is better communication between departments and efficient examination through production process. However, it also leads to the serious situation which TerraCog is facing now. Case question one: Richard Fiero as the president of this company regard quality reputation and market shares equally important which leads to divarication between sale department and design&development depattment. (Ed pryor is encouraged to reoccupy the market while Allen Roth is allowed to focus on product quality.) Besides the alternative goals president has set, all managers hold different opinions toward the price point and they are speaking for both their department and themselves. For example, Ed Pryor ask to proceed Aerial in order to hit the target of sales department. However, Ed make one-sided agreement of price point without negotiation with production department. Also, Tony Barren as the director of production department is on thin ice as the result of last failure. He decide to make more comprehensive cost estimate to cover the potential risks. According to the article, Allen Roth really wish to get the promotion of the vacant position. Thus, She is eager to design a functional product for company. As we can see from above analysis, every manager has individual...
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...Issues: The case of TerraCog’ conflict to reach on a common ground is due to lack of communication among various departmental functions, lack of single company vision, fulfilment of personal objectives, and absence of leadership that eventually led up to group conflicts. As stated above, departmental functions responded to their personal objectives in having the final decision sway in their own directions. Sales teams wanted to ship the product which is technically stronger than the competitor’s product and yet the retail price is lower or equal to competitors. The personal objective of company’s president Richard Fiero ran with those Ed Pryor which were to create the quality product quickly at a low cost. Richard failed to consult Allen Roth, Director of Design & Development, or with Harold Whistler, Vice President of Design & Development, before making the decision to move forward on the project. Lack of leadership was evident not only in case of Richard, but with Emma as well, who despite given the full ownership of the project, failed to bring Design & Development and Sales team together on single ground. Allen Roth, Director of Design & Development, who was stepping up for Harold Whistler (since he would be retiring shortly) wanted to produce a quality product without being rushed into cutting corner or cutting costs. He didn’t want his other projects to suffer as a result of Project Aerial. As a consequence of the conflicting departmental and individual...
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...Flame School of Business Written Analysis and Communication II To : PGDM Students From : Danesh Gojer WAC II ASSIGNMENT 1 Case : Terracog Global Positioning Systems Class : Wednesday, 7 March, 2012 Assignment : You are Emma Richardson, Executive Vice President. Using the WAC format prepare a full report on your decision concerning Project Aerial. The report is to be sent to your direct boss – Richard Fiero, President. Deadline : 12 AM on Monday, March 12, 2012 in a soft copy format to the following address fsbwac@flame.edu.in. Please send the copy in both a doc or docx format as well as a PDF format. Guidelines for submission 1) Word limit Word limit for your report: 1200 (Exclude from the count the cover page, executive summary, the contents page, and any exhibits). Penalty for exceeding the word limit: one sub-grade if the total number of words is between 1201 and 1300; one full grade if the number of words is more than 1300. Please write down at the end of the assignment the number of words you have used in the body of the assignment. Please block the body (that is, the report excluding the executive summary, contents page, references, exhibits, and cover page) and use the word count in MS Word to arrive at the number of words. Any verbal tables (as opposed to predominantly quantitative tables) and footnotes (other than references) that you use in the body of the report should be counted. If you use any text boxes in the body of the...
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...TerraCog GPS: 1. How have departmental and individual objectives lead to the current situation? * There are no OBJECTIVES/ Goals no clear agenda of what needs to get done * Emma needs to become more assertive and instructive * She doesn’t know what she wants * Pressure to get it onto the shelves is stressing everyone and thus ruining the cooperation among members * There are different departmental objectives they are based on a functional form of organization * Advantages of it: * Economies of scale * Greater specialization * Opportunities for technical development * Disadvantages of it: * Coordination problems * Slower adaptation * The departments only care about what they want to do there is no cooperation thus resulting in conflicts and also no concrete decision * Each department is stubborn not willing to corporate to find a solution together team-building activities needed 2. What is the current decision-making process? * They are in a conflict stage no one listens to one another and everyone states that it is impossible instead of jointly figuring out a solution * They have defined the problem and found a solution and are running into problems that they are slowly identifying. However, they have not found any alternatives yet since there is no corporation. * The separate functions are not coordinating with one another * Every department decides...
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...Case Study Overview Trip Hawkins founded Digital Chocolate in Silicon Valley in 2003 to “develop outstanding games for mobile devices.” Hawkins’s previous experience as CEO of Electronic Arts helped him appreciate the challenges with coming up creative content and making that contain available on different platforms. By 2008, Digital Chocolate had expanded its operations into four countries: San Mateo, California; Helsinki, Finland; Bangalore, India; and Barcelona, Spain, and had become one of the top developers of solo-player games for standard mobile phones and iPhones. The structure of the company is based on these the global teams where each one has expertise and a defined role and function during the development of games. Digital Chocolate’s culture is an example of cooperative environment and fine inter-personal relations. These features are results of the well-established communication methods followed. Functional departmentalization and communication is an important factor in every company and Digital Chocolate has achieved an exceptional flow of information between all levels of employees. Hawkins’s general strategy followed incorporates acquiring small but talented gaming companies. This way Digital Chocolate went into operations in very short period and captured a great market share. Moreover, one of the strategic tactics involves industry research. The competition of the gaming industry is fierce and in order to maintain a strategic position the companies...
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