Problem Solution: Usa World Bank

Running head: PROBLEM SOLUTION: USA WORLD BANK

Problem Solution: USA World Bank

Bryan

University of Phoenix

MBA/510: Managerial Decision Making

March 5, 2007

Problem Solution: USA World Bank

USA World Bank is a successful international bank with a large consumer and small business base clientele. In order to continue to expand its market share, USA World Bank rolls-out a new product annually. Over the past few years the new products have not been very successful causing a number of its customers to examine the possibility of changing banking institutions.

At face value it appears that the primary issue facing USA World Bank is which product to launch this year. A deeper inspection will demonstrate that the product development division has not been attaining representative statistical data, does not know how too fully interpret the data collected, and has poor internal communication problems which lead to overlapping data collection.

Situation Analysis

Issue and Opportunity Identification

The primary issue facing USA World Bank is the company launches a new product yearly and over the past few years the new products have not been successful. If successful, the new products being explored Instant Rewards and Small Business Card will help guide lost-customers and attract new-customer to USA World Bank. Due to the cost of launching a new product only one of the two will launched so a decision must be made about which product should be implemented.

The Vice President of New Product Development Mary Monroe and the Vice President of Marketing Development Jim Wilson are both vying to have their product brought to market as this year's new-product. As a tool to justify which product should be brought to market, both Mary and Jim have conducted statistical analysis of their prospective markets. A review of the statistical analysis performed by one of the board of directors, Bea Hansen, determined that the data collected by Mary and Jim may not have been representative of the costumer-bases.

With the doubt created by Bea, Mary and Jim will be rushed to collect new data but this time they will collaborate on the collection methods to ensure that the customer-bases are properly represented. Through collaboration, Mary and Jim have an opportunity to develop a product which satisfies the needs of their prospective costumer-bases.

Stakeholder Perspectives/Ethical Dilemmas

Ethical dilemmas are unavoidable when more than one division of a corporation is competing for the opportunity to its new product brought to market. The key stakeholders in this situation include the board of directors, company's senior management, stockholders, Best Market Research, Mary Monroe, Vice President of New Product Development and Jim Wilson, Vice President of Marketing Development for USA World Bank, and the customer base.

Given the failure rates of the past few new product launches, the hard questions need to be asked by the board of directors, such as: is the way the supporting data representative of the population? Did the individuals being surveyed feel pressured for the right answer? Did individuals answering the question skew his or her answers based on ownership of the company they manage?

The senior management at USA World Bank needs to make sure that individuals are not working corporate politics to his or her advantage when it could possibly cause a loss of revenue through the loss of customers.

Mary Monroe, Vice President of New Product Development and any other individual using Best Market Research, needs to understand its sampling methods employed and to ensure that the data being provided is representative of the population, for example, paying each member of a focus group $250 may cause the data to be skewed.

Mary Monroe and Jim Wilson, Vice President of Marketing Development need to ensure that products being developed are representative of the need of their customers and not the wants of senior management or the board of directors. USA World Bank needs to have a process for capturing product ideas and be able to efficiently develop and market the new ideas.

When developing the statistical support for new products, Mary and Jim need to make sure that the data being collect is representative of the population, the information is timely and covers the entire market opportunity and is not skewed by the ownership/management of small business.

Small business owners and consumers should choose a banking institution that is willing to meet their needs and wants. If the banking institution is not willing to make changes or concessions, the customer should move his or her account to a different bank.

Problem Statement

USA World Bank several problems that need to be identified, the first problem is the hands-off leadership style employed by Brian Allen, President of New Product Development. Brian's hands-off approach to leadership has a potential for creativity but it lacks the necessity to have control over his department. Bill J. Bonnstetter, CEO, Target Training International stated at the SHRM Global HR Forum in 1999

As a rule, a "hands-off" leadership style tends to work best with people who are well matched to their positions. Micro-management or command and control techniques may drive these people to the competition. Although this kind of "hand-in-glove" fit between people and positions may be difficult to maintain in the face of continuous organizational change. (Bonnstetter, 1999, p. 7)

Brian's lack of control over his staff may been the root cause of the failures of the past few product introductions. If Brian had more control over his office, he may have been able to prevent costly internal communications problems.

If Mary and Jim would have communicated or shared product design information with one another, effort duplication on research could have been greatly reduced plus a product could have been developed to cover the consumer and the small business owner. Through collaboration, Mary and Jim may have found fault with the way that they had been collecting data would have made necessary changes allowing more for accurate results.

End-State Vision

End-State goals are the measurable