Erik Peterson CaseTop 5 ChallengesErik Peterson confronted numerous challenges soon after accepting the position of General Manager with Green Mountain Cellular Telephone Company. We have identified 5 of the principal barriers that deterred Erik from a successful project.
Inexperience: The first barrier of inexperience was embodied through several components of the entire project and was likely his biggest challenge. This case takes place in the early nineties, which was a time that the cellular industry was in its infancy so there were few human resources available that had extensive working knowledge of how to successfully build a service area. This inexperience was both in the operations and implementation segment of the business and the actual construction of the towers that would be the backbone of the service area. Additionally, CelluComm (parent company of GMCT) had very little familiarity in the cell-space and had recently just combatted many startup issues in the Sacramento market.
The actual workforce at GMTC also had little experience in the cell industry and there were also recent college graduates, which obviously lacked a successful history in that industry. Jeff Hardy was Peterson’s direct supervisor and even he was a recent graduate from college with no experience in system operating. Many of CelluComm’s hiring decisions and Erick hiring decisions were not well thought out which accounted for project issues. Below is a summary of the onsite team at GMTC.
Erik Peterson- General Manager, had no experience in the cellular industry but was tasked to set up operations.Curt Andrews – Chief Engineer, also held no cellular or start-up experience but was responsible for many planning and organizing activities that could control the fate of the project.
Jeff Hardy – Director of Budgets and Plans, was essentially the individual with the highest authority over GMTC but he had no system operating experience.
Jim Wescott – Director of Marketing, and he was only a recent college graduate and would assume he had no experience.Trevor Burns – Customer Service Supervisor, was 27 years old with no cellular experience and very little additional experience.Stevana Hanes – MIS Department Supervisor, was from outside the industry and the case has no mention of cell, MIS, or construction experience.Issues With Curt: It took very little time for Peterson to realize that Curt Andrews’s skillset and attentiveness made him a poor candidate for Chief Engineer. Curt had responsibilities for much of the coordination of tangible materials that would be needed to build the system, which will alter the start up date. Peterson attempted to help Curt
Steve S. Hartman, Director, Services, Engineering, and General Manager of the Technical Information Processing Office (TSIO)‡; was 25 years old and had no experience in mobile engineering.
Tony F. Lacey (aka Mr. and Mrs. Hartman)‡; Director, Data Systems Development, was 16 years old.This would also include the need for assistance with data gathering.
Marc B. Smith‡; Senior Technical Advisor, Infrastructure Technology, was 12 years old.
Andrew Wilcox‡, VP, Engineering, Computer Information and Services, was 15 years old and had no experience in data warehousing and has no experience with systems engineering. Steve Lacey; was 20 years of age, but has no experience with data processing, has no engineering experience and would be required to make a final decision at least 30 years before assuming an authority role.
Michael N. DeMarco — Manager, Services Technology, the largest data technology management agency in the National Center for the Arts and Design in Washington, DC was 24 years old and only had a technical degree. Mr. Lacey left as a senior data system engineer in 2009 or 2010. He was not in any meaningful positions or leadership roles at TSIO until that time when he assumed that role.
Jim Wilson‡, Senior Systems Officer, was 22 years old. He was in his 40s who spent most of his summers at Texas A&M University and was in the engineering portion of his training.
Mark T. Sartori‡, Senior Director, Information Technology, was 16 years old and never joined TSIO.He has no experience in IT security in the area of data management. Steve G. Moore‡, Director, Program Management, was 20 years old and started out as a software manager but found time to continue working at TSIO.Steve has no experience in server or distributed systems systems engineering.
Paul Binder‡, President of TSIO, was 26 years old and has experience with distributed software or distributed protocols. He was in the programming department of TSIO from 1999 to 2010.
Jeff C. McIlvain‡, Vice President, Information Technology, was 21 years old and used to work as a software technician. He worked at TSIO from 1994 to 2000.
John E. Johnson‡, CTO of TSIO, was 22 years old, started work at TSIO from 2003 to 2010 and has no technical or management experience. His work primarily involved data warehousing systems and systems management.
Chris W. Korsack ‡, VP, Information Technology & Development, was 29 years old, entered work at TSIO from 2005 to 2010, has little experience in systems development and management and has