The Excley Company
I. Problems
A. Macro
1. Lack of coordination within the company’s operations
2. Decrease in sales and profits because of operational conflicts within the departments
B. Micro
1. Communication between marketing and the new product development department was not good.
2. Product development had problems with marketing, the product manager quarrels with the marketing department. The product manager also failed in the success of coordinating the activities.
3. Also, the company was having difficulties in producing a team concept within the departments.
II. Causes
1. Having a separate division to handle product development has caused friction between prior existing divisions. New product development division has taken on a life of its own, opting to market its new developments instead of passing the new products to the other divisions to handle their usual responsibilities.
2. In spite of its independence of other teams with regard to product development and marketing, the new division still needs those other divisions for reports they generate. Customer service is being handled in a different manner than the established customers are accustomed to. This inconsistency (having two sales people from the same company visiting the same customers) may be partially responsible for the reduction in sales percentages of the chemical and plastics markets.
3. Inconsistency in calculating sales estimates is causing misinformation to be produced since the norm within Exley is to use total market as opposed to their share of the market.
III. Systems Affected
1. Structural: The unity of the groups is affected. The interdependence leads to consistent conflicts. Find the cause of the problems need to figured out. Everyone needs to work together to get the job done.
2. Psychosocial: The presence of the product manager with the customer causes a psychosocial issue with marketing. Also, the presence of marketing research by product manager causes a lot of strain. There is competition among the divisions for capital, labor, management, and so forth.
3. Managerial: A clear chain of command has not defined. Marketing should decide on the sales forecasts but the product department does that.