Reference no: EM132243727

Mary O’Leary is an extremely successful management consultant. Mary worked for several large corporations in various roles before starting her consulting business. Mary’s forte is using long established management concepts and applying them in innovative ways. Consequently, Mary is a much sought after consultant. As the years have passed, Mary has hired other very talented people and trained them in her approach.

As Mary reviews her company’s current status and looks toward its future she wonders if it is time to open a second location. Although technology helps, Mary is a big believer in hands on consulting. Ms. O’Leary’s experience tells her that meeting people face to face, when trying to find a solution to their issues, is crucial. That is getting more and more difficult to do, particularly in states closer to the west coast.

Ms. O’Leary decides that opening a second office is a must. Mary schedules a meeting with her staff for next Thursday and plans to explain why they are opening another office and share her thoughts about the selection criteria. Also, she plans to get their feedback on what would be the best selection criteria since some of them will have to move there.

Answers the following questions:

1. The textbook lists 11 major community factors to use as selection criteria for choosing a location. Mary realizes that all factors are important; however, 11 are too many because it waters down the effect of each factor’s weight. Therefore, Mary wants no more than five major factors.  

Based on the information in the case, which factors should Mary and her staff choose?  

Explain why the specific factors you picked are pertinent to Mary’s company.

2. Building on question one, weight the five factors you choose for O’Leary Management Solutions. Mary has expressed that she does not want any two factors with the same weight.  

Explain why you rated them as you did, i.e. why one criterion is more or less important than another.