Case Study : Proposing a Data Gathering Strategy at AeroTech, Inc.

“I want to thank you for meeting with me,” said Patrick Delacroix. “We have an important
issue that I’m hoping you can address. It’s costing the company a lot of time and money, and
I think that the project that we’re going to plan out will really help solve a major problem in
our group.”
Patrick Delacroix, executive vice president of engineering for AeroTech, an aerospace
technology research and products firm, was sitting behind a large walnut desk at AeroTech
headquarters. Cassandra Wilson, an organization development consultant in the AeroTech
human resources department, had been assigned to consult with the engineering organization
and was anxious to hear more about the problem that Patrick had called her to discuss.

AeroTech headquarters is located in the suburbs of a large metropolitan area. It is housed in

an older concrete building that was built in the 1970s without many windows or the showy
glass and steel architecture characteristic of many of the other companies in the area. In fact,
these days it would be easy to drive by the headquarters and not know that this major,
multimillion-dollar company was even located there. AeroTech has a long and distinguished
history, having been a major supplier to the top government contractors contributing to U.S.
space and defense programs in the 1980s. In the past 20 years, however, it has fallen out of
favor among government contractors as quality problems plagued the company’s products.
The company briefly considered bankruptcy but averted a Chapter 11 filing when its new
CEO was named 4 years ago. The CEO helped the company to partially recover by revising
its strategy, and as a result, AeroTech has now begun to diversify into other areas in which
there is higher demand. Some of these new business segments have become very successful
enterprises, but it is clear that the pressure is high to succeed in the new lines of business. An
article in the local newspaper predicted the demise of AeroTech if annual losses continue at
the present rate, and it suggested that based on financial analysts’ projections, layoffs this
year are almost certain to repeat last year’s 16%reduction of AeroTech staff. “With financial
performance mirroring last year’s,” the article concluded, “we may be witnessing the slow
death of one of the metro area’s original companies. Unless it merges or is acquired, we
would be surprised if we are still reporting on AeroTech news a few years from now.” Patrick
began at AeroTech nearly 25 years ago as an associate engineer, a few years after he finished
his doctorate in engineering from a local university. He has witnessed the extensive changes
in research and development of engineering products in his various roles as engineering
manager for metals fabrication, director of the new component division, and now as vice
president of the entire engineering operation. He lived through the decline in personnel and
morale after quality problems forced the closure of the fabrication operation, but he also
oversaw the rise in revenues following the successful component products released in the past
6 years. Most recently he presided over the largest loss of engineering talent that the company
had seen through voluntary and involuntary termination programs. Much of the new strategic
direction is riding on his shoulders.
“I’ll get right to the point. As you can imagine, I’m under a great deal of pressure to get the
new laser systems released to the market,” he began.
“I can understand,” Cassandra said. “I’ve heard that everything is on track with
product development at least, is that right?”
“I wish it were that simple,” Patrick said. “Developing advanced laser systems is a
complex operation. We’re relying on our best and brightest engineers to create some of
the most innovative applications of advanced laser technology on the market today. If
we pull it off as planned, it will be an incredible success for the company. Unfortunately,
we can’t always predict how long it will take to develop a product. How long it takes to
be creative is a volatile challenge that’s always present in our division. We also have to
balance cycle time with our financial investments in research and development. We put
a lot of pressure on our engineers, and we count on them to deliver.”
Cassandra nodded. “I do hear that many of them are working nights and weekends.
So what brings you to requesting our meeting today?”

“First let me give you a bit of background. As you know, we have five engineering
teams in this division: laser systems, component systems (which are separated into two
teams, new components and enhancements to existing components), satellite technology,
and custom design. The laser and satellite teams are relatively new, having only
been organized in that way since last year, and you’ll recognize that they’re the two
critical areas in the new direction of the company. The other teams have the same charter
that they’ve had for the past few years.”

Patrick Delacroix

Component Systems Component Systems

Laser Systems Satellite Custom Design
(new) (enhancements)

Patrick continued. “Productivity is my main issue. We have very limited budgets and
very short delivery windows in which we’re expected to produce results for the business.
If we don’t produce, a competitor will get to the market faster and we’ll essentially have
lost the battle. Right now we’re not doing a very good job of that.”
“Tell me more about what you mean by productivity,” Cassandra said.
“I mean that in general we’re not meeting our commitments to getting our products
out. As a result, we’re losing market share each time we’re late to reaching the point
at which our products are generally available. That impacts our sales force, marketing
efforts, and the credibility of the engineering team.”
“What do you think is causing low productivity?” she asked.
“Well, I think that there are many factors, but the most basic seems to be time management.
Obviously how our engineers spend their time is critical. We need them to be
skilled at prioritizing their time to spend it on the most value-adding activities so that
the development activities can be completed on time.” Patrick paused. “We need them
to be self-managing and productive. That’s why I called. I’d like to ask for your help in
designing a time management and prioritization seminar to address some of the issues
that I see among the engineers. You might throw in a little project management as well.”
“We can certainly consider that,” Cassandra said. “Let me ask you a couple of questions
to better understand what’s happening with your group. What’s led you to the
conclusion that they can’t manage their time well?”
“Well, I’m obviously nervous about the laser systems team,” Patrick said, “so I walk
downstairs pretty frequently to get an update and to see how things are going. Almost
every time I’m down there I see people working, but the results just don’t seem to be there.”
“What have you done so far?” she asked.
“I prefer to let my managers do the managing. I don’t like to bypass them. And they
know that the entire company is waiting for the product to be ready. But I have to be
fair here. It’s not everyone, it’s mostly Todd’s group.”
“Who is Todd?” Cassandra asked.
“Todd Lyman is the manager of the laser systems engineering group. He joined the
company last year at this time, right after we reorganized the engineering group after
the layoffs,” Patrick said. “We brought him in from the outside to lead the development
of the new laser systems. We were lucky to recruit him, since he has extensive background
in laser engineering management at one of our competitors. He’s incredibly
intelligent, well liked, and came with great credentials.”
“I think I may have heard his name. So the problem with productivity is really in
Todd’s group?” Cassandra asked.
“Yes. Since he arrived his team has led three new product releases. Two were product
upgrades and one was a new product. Two of the three were delayed beyond their
original expected release date,” Patrick said.
“How did the laser products group perform before the reorganization and before
Todd joined?”
“Just fine,” Patrick said. “That’s what’s so frustrating about these product delays.
There’s no apparent reason for them. Before, the group was like a machine. They would
get a product design request, and they would do it. Many times they operated under
budget. Now they’re over budget and missing deadlines. It’s really getting embarrassing
to me personally, actually. Since Todd’s arrival the group’s performance has
declined considerably. That leads me to my second request. I’d like to ask for you to
engage Todd in some management coaching to build his management skills.”
“Before we talk about Todd, let me ask you a few more questions about the group
and its history. Who led the group before?” Cassandra asked. “How was that person
perceived by the engineers in the group?”
“Ed Herman was a very popular manager. We were sorry to lose him. He was really
a good company guy who knew how things were done around here, but he is now on a
golf course in Florida having a great time in retirement. I envy the guy.” Patrick smiled.
“So when Ed left, what happened to the group? How would you describe the team’s
reaction?” Cassandra inquired.
“Ed left right before the reorganization. In fact, it was Ed’s departure that led me to
rethink how we would organize things differently. In order to get some cross-pollination
of Ed’s excellent and productive team, I moved a few of them into satellite technology,
and a few of them into custom design. I figured that would enhance the skills of both
of those teams, since satellite is a new team, and custom design is a high-margin business.
Ed’s team was really close-knit. After that move was announced, a couple of the
remaining engineers that were left behind asked to be moved with their colleagues into
the other two groups. I guess they missed their old colleagues, but I couldn’t afford to
have the entire team disbanded like that, so they stayed behind.”
“After you hired Todd, how did the team respond?” Cassandra asked.
“The team was small at the time, but they participated in the interview process,
interviewing each of the candidates and providing feedback to me, and I agreed with
their recommendation to hire Todd. I think that was a good process to get their buy-in
for their new manager. Once Todd arrived, he had the responsibility of hiring about six
new engineers to replace some of the staff that were reassigned during the organizational
structure change,” Patrick offered.
“The team is a mix of new and tenured engineers, then,” Cassandra said. “What else
can you tell me about the composition of Todd’s team?”
“Let’s see. There are probably a dozen engineers, ranging in age from late twenties
to mid-sixties. Most are in their late forties to early fifties. The new ones joined only
within the past year, obviously, and among those that were already a part of the team,
the average tenure is probably 15 years or so. They have extensive educational backgrounds
and are among the most highly skilled engineers I’ve met.”
“What’s been the morale among those engineers that were transferred and those
that stayed behind in the laser group?” Cassandra asked.
Patrick shrugged. “Fine, I assume. I haven’t heard any specific complaints.”
“Other than Todd’s group, how are the other engineering teams doing, in your
assessment?” Cassandra asked.
“Very successful,” Patrick said. “I haven’t been more pleased with the performance
of the satellite and custom design teams. They’ve really come through during a difficult
time, especially with budget cutbacks that have affected each of our teams a great
deal. That’s what makes it so strange that Todd’s team, with the existing tenured
employees that he has on his staff, just can’t seem to contribute in the same way that
the other teams have.”
“It sounds like Todd came with an excellent background with a wealth of experience
as a manager and engineer, and that the team was fully behind his hiring,” Cassandra
146 ORGANIZATION DEVELOPMENT
summarized. “With those qualifications, under the circumstances what leads you to
think that he needs management coaching?”
“Well, there’s management experience and there’s management at AeroTech. We
have our own unique ways of doing things here. I think that Todd just needs to understand
the Aero way specifically,” Patrick said.
“Tell me more about what you mean by the ‘Aero way.’ You’ve said that Todd’s group
is missing deadlines and is over budget?”
“Right,” he said. “We ask each of our engineering managers to develop a quarterly
plan that we use as commitments across the business. I take the product development
timeline that they send to me, and I share it with marketing and sales so they know
when to begin the major sales push. I send it to operations so they know what components
and parts to order in advance of volume manufacturing. I use the financial
commitments to share with our chief financial officer so that she can make revenue
projections and calculate financial projections. My credibility rides on those commitments.
Todd’s projections are consistently inaccurate, which has caused problems, obviously,
for the marketing, sales, and finance teams.”
“What do you think is causing the inaccurate forecast for budgets and delivery
times?” Cassandra asked.
“There could be many things, but I have to say that when I was a manager of an
engineering group, I could always come up with a realistic forecast,” Patrick reminisced.
“Maybe I didn’t always get it right, but even when I got a commitment from an engineer
that it would take him 2 months to deliver, I always added 10 to 20% to the budget
and cycle time, just to be safe. My group may not have been the fastest, but we were
always within projections.” Patrick smiled.
“Is that a standard practice in most engineering environments?” she asked.
“Yes, it’s pretty typical in my experience,” Patrick said.
Cassandra looked through her notes. “OK. So let me summarize. There is a new manager
with a team composed of new employees and tenured employees. That’s the
newest team in the division and also the team with lowest productivity compared to
other similar teams in the division. Specifically, Todd’s team is not producing products
within his own projections of cycle time and budget. You’re asking me to conduct two
interventions. One would be a training program for the engineers on Todd’s team that
would teach time management, prioritization, and project management. A second
intervention would be management coaching for Todd to help him better work through
the management issues with his team, including cycle time and budget projections. Do
I have that right?”
“That’s it exactly.” The phone rang on Patrick’s desk. “I’m afraid I have another meeting
scheduled now. Is there any other information I can provide to help you get
started?”
“Perhaps. At this point, however, I’m not sure that the training and management
coaching programs that you wanted me to work on are the right solutions to your problem.
I’m not exactly certain what the true problem is, but I have some ideas. I think I’d
like to gather some additional data before I make a recommendation. How does that
sound?” Cassandra asked.
“What kind of additional data do you want to gather? How long will that take?” he
asked.
“I’ll tell you what. Why don’t I write up a short proposal that specifies the additional
data I would like to gather, and I can explain what I think the data would tell us. I’ll
include some of my thoughts about our roles in this project, including what I would
need from you and what you can expect from me. I can send that to you within the
next week.”
“That sounds fine, but keep in mind the time pressure we’re under here. I’ll look
forward to hearing back from you,” Patrick concluded.

Read the AeroTech case and consider the following questions:

1. What is the client requesting?
2. What are the presenting problems? What do you think may be any underlying problems?
Which of these underlying problems is most likely, in your view?
3. What data would illustrate whether these underlying problems are occurring? Which
method of data gathering would you use and why? (Consider using the method of analysis
shown in Table 7.2.)
4. What are the advantages and disadvantages of that method? Include a proposed timeline
for your approach and any details about the data gathering method itself, including possible
interview or survey questions, documents to gather, or observations you would conduct.