It 203 Mini Case Facing the Termination

1. Who do you think is to blame for the current state of affairs?

I, the vice president of the marketing department, should be blamed for the current state of affairs. Although there were other mistakes made by people related, I was the one who made the proposal. And as the new vice president of the marketing department I was looking on it to implant an innovation within the department.  

1. What do you think is the most critical mistake you made over the last two months? What were the principal mistakes made by others involved?

a. My mistakes:

1). I thought VelcroSFA to the company was just like any other software such as Microsoft. I should have realized how important role it plays in the whole management procedures of the company. Generally I didn't take it seriously.

2). I took part in the conference, listened salesman speaking boastfully (of course all sales brag about their products) of all kinds of advantages VelcroSFA had, read some material and called several friends who used the system. And that’s it. I made the decision. I thought it was the right application. I didn't even try to ask a demo or trail of VelcroSFA. And companies were different from each other. Other companies were doing well on the system didn’t mean the same thing to our company.

3). I let the installation disk lying on the desk for a month without doing anything. I could have taken advantage of that gap period to work out a better plan to implant the system.

4). I picked wrong time to implant the system. People in marketing department were busy during the quarter.

b. Joe’s mistake: had personally attitude towards me and refused to try any new technology.

c. Jenny’s mistake: lack of experience as a functional manager for the whole company. Jenny as the director of the apartment should take responsibility of managing the design, development, selection and implementation of the system. She should be aware there could be software conflict and try to avoid.

1. How could these mistakes have been avoided, if at all?

I should work with Jenny and maybe another experienced IT manager as a team.

According to our company's own situation such as compatibility of the existing information systems, I should also consult and deliberate the vendor for customization of the system.

As end users, People from marketing department should take training program before getting access to the system.

1. Should you take this opportunity to say goodbye to everyone and resign now? If not, what should you say in response to the CEO’s question?

No. I should admit my mistake and apologize for it At the same time offering a solution—recover the database firstly and then if CEO agree to give me another chance, I should start from starch as mentioned above.