Reference no: EM132219417
Garth Peters was alarmed. He managed the production line for Inland Widgets, a manufacturing company specializing in making small electronic parts used in flat panel televisions. Because of one very small typing error, he now had one very large problem. Instead of the 10,000 widgets that should have been produced for one of his customers this month, his crew had produced 100,000!! Now he had to come up with an immediate plan to market the remaining 90,000 widgets. His job was on the line, and he knew it.
As Garth sat thinking in his office late one night, he turned the situation over and over in his mind. “We could try to sell them to our customer’s competitors, even though we agree not to do that. We could hold them in storage and hope another order comes through. We could lay off all 51 employees in the plant until this thing blows over…or we could…I don’t know!!!”
Just then, Garth’s assistant manager, Lynn Sen, walked in. “Lynn,” Garth said hopefully, “I need some new ideas. This company needs as many new ideas as possible for getting these extra widgets off the plant floor if we’re going to survive. I sure hope you’re feeling creative.”
“That’s ironic.” Countered Sen, “I just came in here to see if you were ready to join me and a few others for a brainstorming session in the conference room.”
Imagine you are Garth or Lynn, and come up with 5 new possible uses for these widgets.
How should Garth and Lynn use the talents of their 51 employees in solving this problem?
Explain how Garth and Lynn could use first nominal group method, and then brainstorming, to come up with ideas for marketing the widgets. Which would work better in the case and why?