Henderson & Platt

I. Introduction

Henderson & Platt is a financial systems company that sells financial application suites. In the past two years, the company faced an intense competition domestically and has lost domestic market share. In order to continue the company’s past track record and to maintain industry dominance, senior management defined a new strategy-- focus on strengthening the company’s position in global markets.

II. Statement of the Problem ( or Objective)

Joan Ladd, a recently promoted head of Translations thought of simultaneously translating products into 10 languages and release it at the same time as the domestic products to support the global direction that the company is taking. Stan Washington – Director of Product Development, is more focused on remaining competitive in the domestic market thus his team is adamant on granting requests from Joan’s team and supporting her strategies.

III. Areas of Consideration

• Joan is a strong advocate of timely translation and localization of products.

• Stan has worked for the company for ten years and has earned a reputation for understanding the needs of the company’s domestic customers. He was viewed as the “Savior” who rescued the company during economic downturn by developing a highly successful new line of products.

• Maria – VP Financial Applications, recognizes that it’s time to consider new directions thus she supported Joan’s plan on simultaneous translations to strengthen the company’s position in the global market.

• Mark, Joan’s colleague thought that simultaneous translation of products into 10 languages and releasing it to the market at the same time as domestic products is somewhat ambitious.

• On the onset, Joan already acknowledged that her challenge is going to be Stan because he likes to do things his way but she thinks she can win him over just like what she did when she was in the same situation as before and she’s bent on doing whatever it takes to make the numbers she promised to Maria.

• Friday morning: Joan said she need early design decisions so the translators can get going on their work. Stan doesn’t like this idea because his team needs to test prototypes first before picking the design they will use. It will require time and money if they have to make any changes later to meet customer demands. Still, Stan said he will consult his project managers to get their take in what Joan is proposing.

• Two weeks later: One of the project managers raised concerns regarding the demands of the translations group. She feels like the translation team is telling them how – and when – to design products. She said they can’t make premature design decisions just because the translation groups said so and this could also cause delays that would put their domestic sales at risk.

• Stan advised Pat, the project manager, to help Joan if she can but she doesn’t need to drive herself crazy. He thinks Joan is overly focused on advancing her new unit and she’s trying to call the shots the same way she used to do in sales. He also stressed out that holding onto their best customers is their highest priority.

• Two months later: Joan is following up the final designs from Stan. Stan said his people are strapped and that they don’t have enough resources to get the domestic version of the new line out on time, what more if they need to do the designs needed by translations group? He said his team doesn’t