MATTSON PROJECT DELTA (A): A NEW RECIPE FOR INNOVATION Case Solution & Answer

MATTSON PROJECT DELTA (A): A NEW RECIPE FOR INNOVATION Case Solution

Technical, Managerial & Organizational Causes of Problem

 There are many implicit causes which have led to the emergence of the above identified problem faced by Gundrum. Since the inception of the company, the management and the product development team of the company have relied upon the traditional hierarchal method for product development.These methods of product development worked on the integration of the two inter disciplinary teams. Moreover, the communication process was top-down where a single boss directed both the teams. However, this hindered the cross-functional cooperation and the information flows across the teams (Managing Innovation, Chapter 10, Page 449, Para. 4).

The current hierarchal structure of the organization is highly rigid and hinders the integration of the inter-disciplinary teams of the company in the production development process(Managing Innovation, Chapter 11, Page 474, Para. 1). The product development process is not a programmed process but it is subject to high level of variation but the formalized relationships and management structures of the organization are somehow hindering the innovativeness of the product development process(Managing Innovation, Chapter 11, Page 474, Para. 2). Apart from these problems, user involvement, closer market links and parallel working is also missing within the current product development process (Managing Innovation, Chapter 11, Page 475, Para. 4).

Moreover, the hiring of the new employees would not simply resolve the main problem of achieving innovativeness but this would be done on the basis of the organizational and tacit technical knowledge of the employees collected through experience (Managing Innovation, Chapter 05, Page 170, Para. 1). However, developing and reshaping them for the new method would prove to be problematic. The top management acts as the undisputed authority within the company currently, and this hinders the employees to work as gatekeepers and encourage informal communication within the organization (Managing Innovation, Chapter 11, Page 483, Para. 4). High involvement in the innovation process at the employee level is missing within the current product development process (Managing Innovation, Chapter 11, Page 485, Para. 3).Lastly, the absence of the self-managed teams within the organization hindered achieving the kind of agile and a decentralized operating structure (Managing Innovation, Chapter 11, Page 497, Para. 3).

Alternative Solutions

The three alternative courses of actions for addressing the required innovation change in the product development process are as follows:

Alternative 1: Traditional Hierarchal Method

 The first alternative available to Gundrum is to stick to the current product development process of the company, which is based on the traditional hierarchal method. The manager should still have the control over the multi-disciplinary teams and this single boss would still have the undisputed authority and the clear unity of purpose. Gundrum could continue to focus on developing the products for the food and beverage industry without implementing any change within the organization.

Alternative 2: Open Source Method

The second alternative available to Gundrum is to go ahead with the open source method. Under this method, different people would be submitting different solutions to the same problem. The structure of the teams would be informal and employees can choose to work on the problem for which they can provide the best solution. In order to make this product development process work well within the organization, the employees within each of the teams need to have a very good understanding about the issue and cooperation with one another so that there are no conflicts or disagreements created among the employees. Moreover, this method offers the greatest chances of success for the company. This code is open for all and the programmers can use it in the way they see fit…………

This is just a sample partial work. Please place the order on the website to get your own originally done case solutiona