Difficult Task Force Essay

Jos has been appointed chair of a steering toil force to founding the primary return 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 making love 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, manager of marketing from its technology multitude 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 companys 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 traffic pattern for that companys 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 conglomerate 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 1000 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 aroun d the world. He therefore opened the meeting for comments and suggestions.Mariana Preus wheel spoke first In my opinion, the current designs that we havein production in our Argentina plant are just fine. They are topnotch designs, using the in style(p) technology for processing. They use the best woods available and they should sell great. I dont see why we have to design a integral 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 displace 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 lets get started. Jos knew that the presidents had considered using existing designs but had rejected the idea becau se the designs were too old and not easily manufacturable at cost 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 mind 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 forces 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 get immediately to design the plant and the manufacturing system. The meeting adjourned and the members headed to the golf course at 1045 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 go along it.Case QuestionsWhich characteristics of group behavior discussed in the chapter can youidentify in this case?How did the diverse nature of the group affect the committees actions?If you were in Joses position, what would you have done differently? What would you do now?