Median Company Case Study

Median Company Case Study. Tutor Notes.

The Median Company case study* gives the participants a real-life scenario problem to solve. They are asked to look at situation where some of the elements may be familiar to them, others will be new. The participants will be given the opportunity to be intrapreneurs in their organisation. The time is short, new material must be assimilated and decisions argued over and made. Participants will need to think creatively and laterally early in the session to get the most from the exercise. In order to do this we have outlined some ice-breaker ideas to start the session. Our experience suggests these are vital to get group into creative thinking mode.

The skills that the participants will have the opportunity to develop are group work, creative thinking, problem solving, project planning, discussion, negotiation and presenting.

The student brief materials should stand alone but please look at it carefully. There are dates on the materials. It works fine in 2001-2, for later use remember to update the material by adding years to make the whole exercise more timely.

Extension ideas. The following ideas can be used if you would like to extend the case study for example to add a written report rather than verbal presentations. If you use these ideas cut and paste the next section into page 8 the ‘Your Task’ section of the student’s notes.

You will need to: 1. Summarise the problem as your group sees it in bullet points and present this orally together with guidelines for proceeding.

2. Produce a (group written) project plan:  Define the purpose and scope of the project – ‘what needs to be done? why are we doing this? when do we need to be finished? how much will/can this cost?’  Develop objectives – ‘what benefits do we want? what constraints do we have?’  Develop a work breakdown structure – ‘what do we need to accomplish?’ Use flip chart paper and post-its to write on tasks to be completed throughout the project. You can then move the post-its around to plan your project.

You also need to produce a report with executive summary on how you plan to approach the problem and what you will do to help your company move forward. As mentioned in the introduction, Median are an innovative and driving company with a young management team. Consider how the development of this system could benefit the company. You should outline any structural changes and a plan of taking the company forward.

* This Case Study was written by Pauline Kneale, School of Geography, University of Leeds, with funding from a White Rose Universities Science Enterprise Challenge Award. Colleagues anywhere are welcome to use it. Electronic copies can be downloaded from http://www.geog.leeds.ac.uk/courses/other/casestudies/ Please email [email protected] if you use the case materials, and with comments, queries or suggestions. Setting Up the Session

We suggest participants work in groups of 6-8, 8 is a sensible maximum, 4 is probably too few, they will get some good answers but not appreciate the diversity of views and options that more people working on the problem can bring. Discussion space where everyone in the group can see each other comfortably is very helpful.

We suggest starting the session with an ‘ice-breaker’ exercise that encourages some ‘out of the box’ thinking, problem solving and creative thinking. Keep it moving, so that it is completed in 15 minutes. You might use any or all of: ‘What elements of ‘problem solving do you encounter when doing your work? Make a quick list, you have 90 seconds’ then ‘What elements of ‘problem solving do you encounter in daily life? Shout out some answers’ To encourage participation you may want to ask how the individual goes about sorting it out for him/herself: ‘What do you do? What approaches do you use?’

Then say something like: ‘Problem solving is about developing or generating ideas. It can be about looking at a problem as a challenge and approaching it in a new way. This next exercise is about thinking flexibly and creatively. Brainstorming ideas is the process we will use to express ideas, remember no solution is too off the wall to mention. Here is a chair and a Flipchart stand. What can you use these for? [Let them have the ideas, but prompt if needed – eat dinner off, sledging, hide behind ..]

‘ Up to now we have brainstormed as individuals. Now get into your groups and brainstorm in discussion a list of ideas to explain - Why a man is walking down the street with a brown paper bag on his head? You have 4 minutes and remember, 10 answers is a minimum, 20 average and 30 is good.’ And to encourage the group ethos and sharing ideas repeat this with ‘A lion tamer is just about go on stage but he has lost one of his lions, what could he do?’

This last exercise, or two, gets the group moving under time pressure. After 4 minutes, stop them and ask each group for some of the wackier examples. Thank them for all the ideas, a prize for the group with the most ideas might be a bonus. Remind them that in brainstorming you contribute ideas and no-one criticises, that this is a process to use in the next hour.

Then Introduce the Case materials ‘ For the next … minutes we have a problem for you to consider. It is based on a real industrial issue. You are aiming to be as creative as possible, to use your entrepreneurial thinking skills to find some new ways for the business to develop. Aim to get as many ideas together as possible. You have a short time frame. See the timetable on the Board / Overhead. Think about how you can solve the problems and remember there are no right or wrong answers, only creative solutions.’

Timetable 9.00 - 9.15 Ice breaker introduction to creative thinking. 9.15 - 10.30 The Task. Groups were supplied with OHT and pens to prepare their presentation. 10.20 Remind the groups that they have only 10 minutes left, and that they need to finalise their presentations 10.30 – 11.00 5 minute presentations and questions. (assumes 3-4 groups) 11.00 - 11.15 Feedback comments, and complete self-reflection sheet

2 This timetable is the minimum needed. Three hours would be better. BUT the short version helps to reinforce time management and working to deadline skills.

Students at the first session had to be chivvied to move on from silent reading of the brief to sharing ideas and starting to formulate solutions. You might choose to give each group just one copy of the brief in the first 30 minutes so they have to start reading aloud and sharing the information. Have spare copies ready for later.

Presentations: Either ask the other groups to play the panel member roles and/or use tutoring staff. If you can acquire someone with business experience so much the better. The following questions were raised following the first set of presentations and give an insight into examples of questions that might be used:

1. What does your project team actually look like? Is it cross functional, or…? 2. How many people are you asking to be assigned to your team? 3. What are you going to do to make sure it will work this time? 4. You are proposing to do this work between January and June only, but testing in the summer when the catchments are dry might pose some problems, is this an appropriate time-scale, what happens if there is a drought? 5. You have assigned 2 months for the IT consultants time, is this really long enough to get an effective answer? 6. Who is going to do what to get you organised? 7. You are going to train everyone, in depth, but do all people in the department have to be an expert on the system? 8. Your group identified problems between George Michael and Janet Foley. You solved the problem by asking them to work together, but would it be a more effective solution to put one in charge of the other? 9. You decided on a two-pronged attack on the problem. Were these the only two approaches you discussed, were their other approaches you developed and discarded? Should one of your two approaches take priority or is it really a parallel approach?

Oral Feedback This took the form of a quick questions and answer session with all the groups:

Q What did you find difficult about the whole exercise? A Not knowing how the company works in detail, the personalities and who does what? Q – but is it realistic in a big company to expect to know all the players? In a company where there may be 10k employees you may well not know the people in the office next to yours? What else was difficult? A Timescale and costings – we really don’t know how long it would take to do things or cost things in the real situation. Q How did you approach the problem – what did you actually do? A We set time limits to read, brainstorm, write and do OHTs Q Did you appoint a Chair person / co-ordinator. A No / not really Q Would having one have helped? Q Did you all read everything? A Yes Q Was that a waste of time at the start? Did you all need to ‘comfort read’ or could you have split up the reading? Q Did you all agree with the group solution that you presented? A We wasted time arguing over whether to sack x or y, as group we needed to agree on decisions faster so we could have developed more ideas.

3 What really happened? This case is loosely based on a real company incident and the students may enjoy hearing what actually happened. The material here has been given more recent dates:

The original issue arose in a company in the late 1980’s with the commissioning of software. An IT company was tasked with its production and it was delivered. A senior manger (c55years old) looked at the product, realised it would not interface with their existing systems and sent the whole project back to the drawing board. In the meantime Windows technology had been invented and that gave the IT group the potential to create some new software to act as an interface between the two radically different systems. The ‘maintenance contract’ element of the original work was used to cover some of the costs. Re-organisation of the IT, management and ‘real life application’ group followed to improve communication. This was a costly exercise with long-term financial implications. The software came online some four years later than originally anticipated.

Student Reflections from the first case run. A copy of the Reflection sheet is on page 6. Students were asked to make notes under various headings.

1. How did you feel in the first section of the exercise – brainstorming ideas? Very apprehensive that this would turn out to be an awkward exercise since no one appeared willing to speak. I need to be prepared to think more laterally. I need to change my way of thinking. I had ton approach the question from a more creative angle instead of trying to think of a sensible answer. I was thinking of a few ideas but was reluctant to shout them out until I knew I was on the right lines. When no one else contributed I kept quiet. I need to get more sleep before participatory exercises such as these. I found it hard to think creatively under pressure, and as a result realise this is something to acknowledge and work on. It is more important to get things started and get your brain into lateral thinking.

2. How did you feel after the group brainstorming? It refreshed the mind, having to think quickly and under pressure for an intense few minutes. It proved an effective method of getting the group members to communicate. I enjoyed the group brainstorming session, it was good because of the ‘no idea is worthless ethic’. Which meant that trains of thought that seemed to be going nowhere could result in good ideas. The group discussion was a lot easier because someone always has an idea, which allows other members of the group to think of a related idea. Everybody’s minds work in different ways so there was rarely a moment when an idea was not mentioned. I need to stick to my own convictions, and I need to increase my self-confidence so as not to worry what other people think. It helped me to get into the session because I had just seen how creative each of the members of my group could be. It helped us to get straight into an exchange of ideas.

3. What is it that you learned about teamwork today that is different from before? I need everything to be clear in my head before I can attempt the problem. For the previous case study we did, we were given the information before the session, so I worked the problem out in my head, and made notes on paper, and so I contributed more to the discussion. Having done both I can see now that I need to get better at working on a problem straight off. Although everyone was free to throw in ideas we quickly learned that it was important to structure I felt more confident in the group and contributed more ideas. This was a less structured exercise. A strategy needed to be developed without relying upon the material for ideas. This meant we needed to listen carefully to each others ideas and be able to argue a case for our own. We wasted a lot of time debating the meaning of one word in the briefing materials. We were then short of time. The need for better time management was strongly evident.

4 We need to distribute workloads to maximise time and effort, and to use individuals’ strengths to plan, organise and carryout the presentations.

4. What did you learn about creative thinking? It is possible to formulate comprehensive solutions to the problem with relatively limited information through creative thinking and interpolation of the information provided. Creative thinking can provide many different solutions to the problem, without any being incorrect. It is easy just to think in one particular set way. Being able to think outside of such narrow confines would be a good skill to develop. I have learnt that creative thinking can be greatly enhanced using teamwork. I am also aware that I must strive to improve my ability to work with others, as opposed to on my own, as I am used to. That you need to think outside the box. Instead of looking for sensible answers you need to explore other ideas.

5. What general points would you make about the presentations and case study? With having done some presentations before this was enjoyable. Everyone contributed, so everyone had a chance to speak about their own ideas and to expand on the teams general consensus. We should have left a little more time to prepare OHTs and to make them more professional, but I think the extra time spent on discussion was worth it for our group. Our team was too rushed at the end, we should have set aside time to design and co-ordinate OHTs. Everyone in the group spoke, which appeared to work well in this situation, but in others it could lead to a very disjointed presentation. A highly useful exercise in terms of developing teamwork, communication and creative thinking skills. I have learned how many different ways there are to express to others the points that need to be made. Comparing our presentation with the others, it has made me aware of the many ways of expressing similar ideas. I previously was not fully aware of ideas such as corporate image, the use of icons, the image portrayed by myself and others. I have learnt that their can be poor communications between departments within the same company. It became clear today that a ‘rogue’ member of a group can be very demoralising in terms of creative energy as ideas can become needlessly debated and suggestions constantly questioned. Had the team ‘let the majority rule’ then outputs could have been more effective and efficiently produced.

5 Reflections on the Median Company Case Study

Please make notes in answer to the following questions. You will be asked to hand this in. While this sheet asks about how you felt, you may also like to make notes privately or to think around how other group members interacted with you, how you interacted with the group and how this behaviour benefited (or not) your group performance. What can you learn for next time?

1. How did you feel in the first section of the exercise – brainstorming ideas?

2. How did you feel after the brainstorming?

3. What is it that you learned about teamwork today that is different from before?

4. What did you learn about creative thinking?

5. What general points would you make about the presentations and case study?