Interviews

Maurice Gagnon - CEO · Very worried about present managerial state · Need a leader · Not happy with Brian · Thinking about coming out of retirement · Company changed a lot since Brian took over · Company may have grown too much · Likes Brians cost containment initiatives · Market has changed · Company should be doing better · Company has great resources · Bit performing as well as competitors · Need action and results · There should be two divisions 1:military, 2: commercial · Not happy · Problem is Rob Brown is a problem, thinks problems wouldn’t be around if union and Rob weren’t around
 * __Administration__**

Brian Johnson – President · Company is largely result of his ideas · Feels like has failed because has to bring in consultant · Exceptional departmental strength and cutting edge R&D, high quality manufacturing, decent marketing department · Occasional communication breakdown “when this happens, all hell breaks loose”. Occurs a lot · No need for organizational shake up, cant afford it · Creating ad hoc or semi-permanent cross-functional teams · Bad communication between departments need to “break down walls” · Team approach will help communication problems · Wants people to know how serious situation is · Union and Robert brown a problem · Jennifer smith good ally and great supporter · Will not leave company in crisis

Jennifer Smith – VP Tech · Job is to integrate the efforts of R&D, Marketing and manufacturing · Create new good products fast · Has been dealing with a lot of mediation between departments · New employee who has experience to give R&D a commercial orientation · Cross functional teams are critical · R&D desiging what manufacturing cant build and what customers don’t want. (problem with R&D) · Department structures are very isolated · Need to get people to communicate more and problem solve together · Company needs restructuring · A lot of tension between management · Brian not fond of Robert Brown. · R&D and Marketing hate each other not communicating

__**Marketing**__

Cathy Lalonde – VP Marketing

· First priority – reorganize marketing along product lines · Long run goal - Meeting demands of the market · Less on fine tuning and more on developing user friendly consumer demands · Hiring young sales people · Recognize commercial market is the future · Create technologies for the commercial market · Claims that Scott Bell is a biggest obstacle to change o He’s old school and not used to the new commercial approach o Focuses too much on the big ‘R’ of research and not enough of development

John Simmons – Marketing Coordinator

· Communicate new market information and opportunities · Think we communicate well, but not well within and between departments · Good idea to bring people together and get them talking · Responsibilities: o Provide market support to commercial and military groups o Coordination of resources for marketing activities o Look for new business opportunities · Thinks growth is going to be found in the commercial market. · Thinks marketing in the firm is good · Brian Johnson made a good decision in hiring Catherine Lalonde because of her ability to think into the future · Thinks R&B needs a lot of work o A conflict between military and commercial groups · Think the military market does not have much growth left, but the commercial market has room for potential growth · Thinks Roger realizes the limited growth in the military market and offers excellent experience for young talent in the firm · Thinks Sam Seto’s ambitious and agile characteristics are crucial to success in the commercial market

Roger Thomas – Military Contracts

· “The Old Guy” · Thinks that the sales force is young and inexperienced, but believes that Lalonde brought everyone on board for a reason. · States that the market for military contracts have dried up. Recognizes not much more room for development in military products. · R&D used to deal with customers directly, but now, the roles have reversed and marketing deal with customers and relay the information to R&D. And believes that R&B has problems adjusting to role reversals. · Problem – R&D does NOT listen to marketing · Solution – Scott Bell needs a “kick in the ass” because if he won’t listen to changes, no-one in the R&B department will listen. · Think Catherine is doing an admirable job · Thinks time is running out for him since he is no longer the ‘big gun’

=**Manufacturing**=

Richard Wright

Ralphy Jones

Jane Crown- Quality Assurance


 * Its her job to maintain the quality of the products that GlobalTech is known for.
 * Feels that manufacturing department isn’t ready for commercial operations.
 * The increasing product variation is slowing manufacturing down. Need to re-organize manufacturing.
 * Initially, they only produced a handful of systems, quality was easy to maintain. Then became harder, in a meeting of the heads of depts. R&D was requested to make manufacturing easier.
 * Durability is the key quality standard. They try to apply their same strict standards as military to commercial products.
 * Two more inspection centres needed.
 * With the current product mix her stations are over crowded and over worked.
 * Important feedback loop with R&D on products and defects etc.

Rob Brown- Union Representative

· Thinks the union has done great things for the company, increased wages etc. · Recently, he feels that job security is a problem. People are worried. · NAFTA and other trade agreements are the problem; cause for decreased military contracts. · The solution is to get rid of NAFTA (Politically) and within the company; be prepared to make concessions. · Diverse workforce at GlobalTech both ethnically and skill set wise. Union covers everyone. · Argues that Brian Johnson is rarely around. Jennifer Smith is taking up a lot of the slack. · Personal dislike towards Maurice Gagnon, partly because Brown formed the union to get ride of Gagnon's old school tactics. · Brown gets along with VP of HR Guy Tremblay pretty well. Upcoming round of negotiations will be tough- Brown has full support of membership and is ready to strike, if needed.

= **Research and Development** = Scott Bell- VP Research and Development

· Likes pushing the limits of technology. He is really proud of work that they do; his department has over a dozen patents, 4 of which are his. · Department operates as teams. (Slight bitterness towards Marketing Department who isn’t marketing as well as he thinks they should). · Unhappy about management cutting the R&D budget by 30%. He argues that its their only competitive advantage. · Thinks the management is a problem. Before Johnson ‘blew up’ ideas were passed out around. Nowadays, not much exchange of ideas. Cross functional teams wont work according to him. · Situation isn’t as bad as it seems. Some people holding company back, once their gone and things will get fixed. · He isn’t too happy with where its going or the leader of change; Jennifer Smith. Excellence in research is most important for him. · Claims that GlobalTech’s most valuable asset is their technological advantage.

Ganesh Seth- Technology Manager


 * He is responsible for allocating resources to requests of scientists.
 * Good relations with Scott Bell, working on projects with him. Feels he has done much good for R&D dept.
 * The problem is a leadership one. And cutting the budget for the R&D department.
 * Really bad time to cut budget. They are on verge of exciting discovery.
 * They are supreme in military products, not in commercial. Either way, technology is superior, just not getting marketed right.
 * Some long term projects have been cut due to budget cuts.
 * James Clarke (commercial manager) is working hard as well as allocation of many top scientists.

Seanna Grey- Military Manager


 * She is the military manager.
 * Less resources but capacity doubled (military and commercial now).
 * Marketing Department is getting more money but sales are falling.
 * She feels that the R&D is the core of globaltech as they are the reason for their technological competitive edge.
 * The solution is to focus on military products again.
 * Some of her best workers are at the commercial department. Animosity between the two.
 * Breakthrough in military technology is coming up. Should be key to survival due to high demand.
 * GlobalTech is her home. She has done a lot for the company.

James Clarke- Commercial Manager


 * His role is to impose marketing’s product requirements into their products.
 * He is trying to increase co-operation between R&D and marketing.
 * He is facing problems getting resource allocation for his commercial products.
 * R&D department is too research focused.
 * The problem is the switch of focus of the R&D department.
 * There is not enough resources/money and military products get priority.
 * Teams are needed, but difficult to implement.
 * Scott is a good scientist, but bad manager.

Summary: The R&D began as the most important department, who developed all the key technology that made GlobalTech a leader in military GPS set-up. As the number of military contracts has been falling, the R&D department is getting less and less resources due to 2 main reasons: 1) Falling revenues 2) Creation of commercial products. James Clarke is put in place to maintain good ties with Marketing who set the agenda in regards to what commercial products need to be created. Scott Bell and Seanna Grey are heavy pro-military supporters who have been around GlobalTech since the beginning.