Reference no: EM133305626

Assignment: Jack Monroe is the Director of Marketing for Minor Motors, a small, boutique automobile maker that specializes in the design and limited production of hybrid and electric vehicles. Each June, Minor Motors holds its annual Client Council Conference, at which an independent management consultant listens to candid suggestions from the company's clients. Typically, more than an hour of the morning meeting involves all Minor Motors employees leaving the room while consultants talk with their clients. The thought is that employees' presence could "interfere" with an open and honest exchange of ideas among the company's clients and the hired management consultant.

For the past two years, much of the discussion at this closed meeting has been aimed at the company's slow pace of technological development, specifically at how Minor Motors has lost ground to larger automakers and newer companies such as Tesla Inc. and Faraday Future. Clients have complained that even Alphabet, Google's parent company, continues to gain ground in their technological innovations with their Waymo automotive technology.

Last year, clients worried (behind closed doors) that Minor Motors was dangerously behind the major automakers in its research and development into self-driving cars that rely on robotic navigation and could, literally, put humans out of the driver's seat. "If we don't speed up our research and development into this important driverless technology, we will get left in the dust-or have to take our business elsewhere," one major client lamented. This year's conference featured the same complaints, but voiced even more loudly Clients also expressed concerns about the lack of development into solar-powered cars and drone technology.

After the meeting, Jack said to his assistant Don and fiscal manager Dori, "I can't figure out why Hugh and Dean are dragging their feet on getting into the self-driving technology. They've got to know that these customers are right: all of our major competitors are invested in developing this new technology, and we'll get trounced if we don't act fast."

"As senior partners in this company, Hugh and Dean, have the most to lose if they don't get going," said Dori. "What do you think the real problem is on this issue?"

"I don't know what is going on with them," answered Jack. "For some reason, they don't want anything to do with this driverless technology, and they have not been very interested in talking about solar-powered, hydrogen, or all-electric cars, either. And they have told me they have no interest in drones."

Question: "Well, then," replied Dori, "it's our job to get them moving forward. The company's future depends on it. What should we do?"

 

• What is likely the main issue here with the senior partners and their reluctance toward the new technology? What other factors play into their reluctance?
• Assume for a moment that fear is at least one issue here. What can Jack, Don, and Dori say, as marketing and fiscal specialists, to attack the fear that seems to be dangerously delaying progress on their company's research and development into important new technologies?
• Briefly evaluate the Client Council Conference as a tool for obtaining suggestions from major clients. How well does such a strategy work to drive change in an organization such as Minor Motors, in your view? Would such an approach work in other types of organizations? Why, or why not?