Project Case Study: A New Direction for Delta Pacific

Introduction

In a global business environment where organizations can no longer rely on traditional factors that historically lead to a competitive advantage such as access to proprietary technology, exclusive rights to raw materials, or proximity to customers and markets, many organizations have re-structured to capitalize on new success factors. In the United States that has resulted in a shift in many cases from product or service-based businesses to knowledge-based businesses (OECD, 1996; Powell & Snellman, 2004). Powell & Snellman (2004) define the key components of a knowledge economy as. .a greater reliance on intellectual capabilities than on physical inputs or natural resources.” (p. 201). This case presents the challenges facing an organization as it transitions from its traditional business model to one that incorporates greater reliance on the knowledge of its workforce. The focus of this case is on the role of the organizational behavioral system in facilitating a successful transition to the new corporate strategy.

The Case Scenario

The Delta Pacific Company (DPC) has a long history of success. The company has been at the fore front in the development of information technology since the 1970s and led the market in technology development, manufacturing and sales throughout the 1980s to the mid-1990s. DPC was a success story. They consistently met or exceeded their profit targets, successfully integrated new technology into their products, and they were considered one of the best employers in the country. With generous benefit packages, a high quality of work life, industry leading salaries, and a corporate culture that considered its employees to be part of a family, potential employees were lined up for opportunities to join DPC.

However, with the advent of globalization, freer trade, and low cost overseas labor, DPC found itself slowly losing market share for its primary product: computer hardware. DPC had prided itself on producing and selling the best products and training its sales force to develop long term relationships with clients that brought them back year in and year out for DPC’s technology. Along with hardware, DPC also sold service contracts and training classes for the end users of their products. By the late 1990s it became clear to the leadership at DPC that they could no longer compete with less expensive products being produced overseas. At one time they could sell their higher priced goods on the premise that they were of higher quality, but that was no longer the case. Foreign-made products were now being produced to match or even surpass the quality standards set by DPC. However, conversations between sales representatives and their clients did indicate one thing: the clients valued the personal interaction they had with the sales reps and the personalized advice that they could provide to their clients to help them to reach their goals. DPC recognized that they needed to make a change and they believed they had a new vision for their company.

As they entered the 21st century DPC moved away from hardware solutions to business challenges and shifted instead towards knowledge-based solutions. Rather than selling equipment, DPC began to market the extensive knowledge of their workforce. DPC would no longer sell the equipment; they would instead provide integrated knowledge-based solutions to information management problems. Essentially they would become a consulting firm that would assist their clients to set up systems that would facilitate information management. But now their solutions would go beyond hardware and encompass software, organizational design, data collection management, work flow and overall information management re-engineering. Sales reps underwent significant training to prepare them for their new roles. However, the redesigned jobs were not a good fit for all of the sales reps. some moved on to other types of positions within the company, but others left to pursue opportunities elsewhere.

As expected, profitability declined during the initial introduction of this new organization mission as employees became accustomed to their new roles. Due to the time taken to train employees, they were spending less time in the field with their clients generating revenue and more time in the classroom being oriented to their new roles. However, the decline persisted much longer than anticipated and the company’s leadership team, board of directors and the shareholders were growing impatient with the slow returns. It became increasingly apparent that while the training, resources, and equipment were in place, significant changes in the organizational behavior system at DPC were necessary to ensure long term success.

Competency

Examine leadership’s role in executing successful change.

Instructions

Delta Pacific Case Study

As the change leader for Delta Pacific Company (DPC), you know certain elements need to be in place by leadership for a change to be successful. DPC wants to change the culture from the more traditional manufacturing environment to one of a contemporary consulting environment. Now it’s time for you to help the leaders execute a successful change:

• Determine how leadership impacts the organizational culture during this change
• Examine elements that are critical to making this change sustainable
• Assess the top mistakes leaders make and determine the best way to avoid those mistakes

As the change leader, it is your responsibility to help ensure a successful change in the shift of DPC’s organizational culture. Part of this includes alerting leadership to how their own behavior impacts change and how change can be sustainable.

Conduct academic research and create a plan to present to the CEO and board in which you complete the following successful change management plan:

• Explanation of leadership behaviors that impact organizational change.
• Description of critical factors that ensures this cultural shift will be sustainable.
• Examination of the top mistakes leaders make during a change.
• Explanation of your recommendations as to the best ways the leaders can avoid making those mistakes.
• Remember that this is a proposal. Make sure to format your paper properly for your proposal. A proposal is a persuasive document, so make sure to use proper language and tone. Remember, you are the change leader, and you are writing to the CEO. So use a tone in your proposal that is specific to your audience (the CEO).

Include your APA-formatted reference page with at least two credible sources.

A note about credible sources: Credible sources are reliable, accurate, and trustworthy. These sources are written by authors respected in their fields of study. You want to identify sources where the author of the article is listed if they’ve referenced other information. The sources should be cited so that you can check for the accuracy of and support what they have written.

You establish your own company and investigate the following elements in your company.

1. Establish a business model. What you want to sell. Who is your target market? How you want to market? How you want to generate revenue and so on.

2. You establish mission, vision, goal and value for your company.

3. You will establish an organizational chart for it..

4. You generate resources and capabilities. Then Skills and competencies.

5. You apply your competencies to your functions, R&D, Marketing…..

6. You define strategy and how it corresponds to your mission…..

Instruction: I already worked on point 1&2. You need to work on remaining points. focus on point 5&6 . Please don’t copy from any other sources. please write-up everything in your own points.

I am uploading other material for your reference. please give me a better output.

Deliverable Length: 1–2 pages

You will need to use MS Project Software for this assignment.

The team returned and discussed their ideas about the budget impacts on the project scope. The brainstorming session went very well, with a lot of input from the entire team. You now have more than enough project cost information to share with Sam and Gloria. The discussion again turns to the best way to present the information. Jim shares some insight on Sam and Gloria with the team.

“Sam and Gloria will have different concerns and issues on project human resources and quality management,” says Jim. “Sam will focus more of his attention on the qualifications of people, while Gloria will be concerned with the cost of additional resources and services and quality for the project.”

“Sam and Gloria really liked our MS Project schedule presentation,” says Jerry.

“I agree, we should just continue to build our MS Project schedule and this time assign cost and human resources for all activities,” says Sara. “We should include a plan on how we’re going to manage quality; otherwise, they will ask us how we plan to handle that. Let’s just prepare a simple 1-page quality management plan using this template and present it with the updated MS Project schedule” says Jerry.

“The MS Project cost should include the salary and budget information that we shared in our team discussion,” you say. “We should also consider the cost of possible overtime pay. And yes Jerry, I can fill out this simple quality management plan document.”

“Don’t forget the cost of additional people, equipment, and technology for team members and the cost of the services rendered by the vendors,” says Sara. “It should include additional maintenance and training costs as well.”

“Oh, that’s great!” says Jim, turning to you. “Do you think you can prepare another version of the MS Project Plan and the Quality Management Plan for the team? You did such a great job the last time.”

“Sure,” you say. “I’ll have it ready to review at our next meeting.”

Assignment

During your final check of your MS Project schedule, you review your notes from the meeting to be sure you have covered salary and budget information from your discussions, and the cost of overtime, additional people, equipment, and technology. Also include the cost of services rendered by the vendors.

For your quality management plan, please find any template or ask your instructor for one. Just make sure you focus on the quality management processes shown in your PMBOK guide.

In “`Touch Someone’: The Telephone Industry Discovers Sociability,” Claude Fischer discusses the diffusion of telephones in the United States and examines changing assumptions about the “correct” use of this new technology — specifically, the use of telephones for social conversation.

In an excerpt from When Old Technologies Were New, Carolyn Marvin examines the telephone’s effect on social relationships and the development of telephone norms and “etiquette.”

In this response, please address the following questions:

1) According to Fischer, how did early telephone companies view “social” conversation on their lines? What uses of the telephone did early telephone companies promote? Who was the intended user of this technology when it was first introduced?

2) What “cultural explanation” does Fischer offer to explain early assumptions about the telephone’s purpose?

3) According Marvin, how did telephones challenge traditional physical and social boundaries? Give some examples.