Jos has been appointed chair of a steering task force to design the
primary product line for a new joint venture between companies from
Japan, the United States, and South America. The new joint venture
company will make, sell, and service pet caskets (coffins) for the
burial of beloved pets, mostly dogs and cats. One month earlier, each
company had assigned personnel to the task force:
From the Japanese company, Furuay Masahiko from
Yokohama, assistant to the president of the Japanese
company; Hamada Isao from Tokyo, director of marketing from
its technology group; and Noto Takeshi from Tokyo, assistant
director of its financial management department.
From the United States company, Thomas Boone from
Chicago, the top purchasing manager from its lumber and
forest lands group; Richard Maret from Buffalo, the codirector of
the company's information systems group; and Billy Bob "Tex"
Johnson from Arizona, the former CEO, now retired and a
consultant for the company.
From the South American company, Mariana Preus from
Argentina, the head of product design for that company's
specialty animal products group; Hector Bonilla from their
Mexico City division, an expert in automated systems design
for wood products; and Mauricio Gomes, in charge of design
and construction for the plant, which will be located in southern
Chile to take advantage of the vast forest there.
These members were chosen for their expertise in various areas and
were taking valuable time away from their normal assignments to
participate in the joint venture.
As chair of the task force, Jos had scheduled an initial meeting for
10:00 A.M. Jos started the meeting by reviewing the history of the
development of the joint venture and how the three company
presidents had decided to create it. Then, Jos reviewed the market
for the new high-end, designer pet coffins, stressing that this task
force was to develop the initial design parameters for the new product
to meet increasing demand around the world. He then opened the
meeting for comments and suggestions.
Mariana Preus spoke first: "In my opinion, the current designs that we
have in production in our Argentina plant are just fine. They are
topnotch designs, using the latest technology for processing. They
use the best woods available and they should sell great. I don't see
why we have to design a whole new product line." Noto Takeshi
agreed and urged the committee to recommend that the current
designs were good enough and should be immediately incorporated
into the plans for the new manufacturing plant. Jos interrupted the
discussion: "Look, the council of presidents put this joint venture
together to completely revolutionize the product and its manufacture
based on solid evidence and industry data. We are to redesign the
product and its manufacturing systems. That is our job, so let's get
started." Jos knew that the presidents had considered using existing
designs but had rejected the idea because the designs were too old
and not easily manufacturable at costs low enough to make a
significant impact on the market. He told the group this and reminded
them that the purpose of the committee was to design a new product.
The members then began discussing possible new design elements,
but the discussion always returned to the benefits of using the
existing designs. Finally, Tex spoke up: "I think we ought to do what
Mariana suggested earlier. It makes no sense to me to design new
caskets when the existing designs are good enough to do the job."
The others nodded their heads in agreement. Jos again reminded
them of the task force's purpose and said such a recommendation
would not be well received by the council of presidents. Nevertheless,
the group insisted that Jos write a memo to the council of presidents
with the recommendation to use existing designs and to begin
immediately to design the plant and the manufacturing system. The
meeting adjourned and the members headed to the golf course at
10:45 A.M.
Jos returned to his computer and started to write the memo, but he
knew it would anger the presidents. He hoped he would not be held
responsible for the actions of the task force, even though he was its
chair. He wondered what had gone wrong and what he could have
done to prevent it.