GPS GO and Garmin case study: project life cycle model

GPS-GO Takes Garmin

Analyze the personality and temperament of Joseph Thomas.

Joseph Thomas is fundamentally an optimist and he likes a good challenge. Juxtaposing these two attributes of personality reveals a tendency to let the end goal drive a situation while simultaneously glossing over any details that appear to undermine the desired goal. This is not to say that Thomas ignored important details; rather, it is to say that Thomas allowed the facts and the vision to run on two parallel tracks. While Thomas tracked the cost and design details of the projects, he tried to be responsive to Michael Scott's vision of the production and, importantly, to the targeted completion date that would enable introduction of the project at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES).

Thomas had a strong understanding of the issues related to production, but he did not push hard enough on his case. Certainly, Thomas was in a difficult place as he was challenged to balance his deep knowledge of Global GPS and the intense drive of his new boss. Thomas was sensitive to the issues of attempting to meet Scott's timeframe, and certainly was fundamentally aware of how that was going off track. The cost trajectory for the three products was substantially off-track, and Thomas knew it. He did not push back hard enough with Scott to ensure that the realities of the situation were sinking in. And most problematically, he did not push back early enough -- when there might have been time to make reasonable adjustments.

If, in fact, Thomas' responsibility was to drive the Global Positioning System (GPS) products toward their targeted cost, he had not been given authentic authority (since Scott basically ignored Thomas's expressed concerns and objections), nor did he sufficiently bring the issue to a full court press within the company. Thomas's attempt to mitigate the cost overruns seemed to fall on deaf ears.

1. Separate the four (4) steps in the project life cycle and comment about how Joseph Thomas moved through them.

Introduction. As the production manager, Thomas was negligent not to keep in closer contact with Joan Dolce of marketing. It appears that the marketing numbers were run early on and debates raged for a time about the feasibility and profitability of Scott's plan. Apparently, neither Dolce nor Thomas were able to prevail, despite the reasonableness of the figures they presented. Once Thomas became aware of how strongly Scott was pushing his agenda down the road, Thomas should have requested regular meetings with Dolce -- and insisted that updates of the market share projections, based on solid fiscal forecasts, be reported directly to Scott as project updates. Instead what happened was that the progress of the project was reported in terms of production benchmarks isolated, apparently, from manufacturing cost reports.

Growth. The case does not detail this step of the product lifecycle since the narrative does not cover the release of the product. That said, the implications are that Thomas would be faced with the reality that some substantial changes were needed in the company's approach to development and manufacture of their products. Importantly, the focus would need to shift solidly to ensuring realistic profit margins and improved market share.

Maturity. The case does not detail this aspect of the product lifecycle since the narrative is focused on research, development, and production. However, there are hints about could occur in the maturity stage. For example, Thomas' conversation with the engineer Mark Smith underscored the possibility of carrying out redesign in parallel to the release of the current line of GPS products. This could be a viable response in the maturity step of the product life cycle, particularly if the market continued not to support the current positioning.

Decline. As with the maturity step above, the case does not detail this step of the product lifestyle. Nevertheless, it is plausible that there are substantive undeveloped design ideas that can be utilized in subsequent GPS products, as this disruptive technology is unlikely to experience reduced demand -- other than, perhaps, through increased integration in other digital devices which would plausibly make a stand-alone GPS product less appealing.

1. Assume that Joseph will lead teams for the three Garmin product launches. Determine the most appropriate personality traits that Thomas should adopt to successfully lead each team or all teams altogether.

The culture at GPS Global seems to call for a directive leadership style. In fact, that is the leadership style that Scott appears to have successfully adapted. Certainly, as a leader works across a company, different leaderships styles my better suit particular circumstances or teams. For example, a consultative style may function best when dealing with highly skilled technical workers, such as engineers. In these instances, a leader wants to be facilitative of great design while maintaining some governor on the tendency of technological innovation design to exceed resource boundaries. A participative leadership style would be effective in a "work group" approach to dealing with the process, procedures, and sign-off maze, for instance. Work group around the globe have demonstrated efficacy in efforts to streamline and rationalize production and manufacturing systems. Coleman (2000) assets that leadership style must be multifaceted, fitting itself to the circumstances and the goals of particular situations. Regardless of the importance of an agile and prescriptive leadership style, the complexity of the GPS Global research, development, and manufacturing processes seem to call for a firmer hand -- on the whole -- than either a consultative or participatory leadership style can provide.

1. Put yourself in the shoes of Joseph Thomas and discuss what you would do differently.

Employees at GPS Global were excited about the new non-governmental line of GPS products on which they were working. The employee's orientation to work was a hold-over from governmental contract work that was characterized by more generous time frames and narrower specifications. Given the relative freedom of a privately-funded production initiative, the employees enthusiasm was no longer bounded by the firm hand of the government with regard to research and design. The production of the GPS product line evolved into a continuous enhancement effort, rather than a production process with an end, time certain. For all his knowledge, Thomas did little to stem this high-spirited approach to making the best GPS products possible, rather than the most sellable, competitive, and profitable GPS products.