410 Chapter 11 Managing Project Teams

Case 11.1

Kerzner Office Equipment

Amber Briggs looked nervously at her watch as she sat at the front of a large table in
the cafeteria at Kerzner Office Equipment. It was now 10 minutes after 3:00 and only
10 of the 14 members had arrived for the first meeting of the Kerzner anniversary task
force. Just then two more members hurriedly sat down and mumbled apologies for
being late. Briggs cleared her throat and started the meeting.

KERZNER OFFICE EQUIPMENT

Kerzner Office Equipment is located in Charleston, South Carolina. It specializes in
the manufacture and sales of high-end office furniture and equipment. Kerzner enjoyed
steady growth during its first five years of existence with a high-water employment
mark of more than 1,400 workers. Then a national recession struck, forcing Kerzner to
lay off 25 percent of its employees. This was a traumatic period for the company.
Justin Tubbs was brought in as the new CEO, and things began to slowly turn around.
Tubbs was committed to employee participation and redesigned operations around the
concept of self-managing teams. The company soon introduced an innovative line of
ergonomic furniture designed to reduce back strain and carpal tunnel. This line of
equipment proved to be a resounding success, and Kerzner became known as a leader
in the industry. The company currently employs 1,100 workers and has just been
selected for the second straight time by the Charleston Post and Courier as one of the
10 best local firms to work for in South Carolina.

AMBER BRIGGS
Amber Briggs is a 42-year-old human resource specialist who has worked for Kerzner
for the past five years. During this time she has performed a variety of activities
involving recruitment, training, compensation, and team building. David Brown, vice
president of human resources, assigned Briggs the responsibility for organizing
Kerzner’s 10th anniversary celebration. She was excited about the project because she
would report directly to top management.
CEO Tubbs briefed her as to the purpose and objectives of the celebration. Tubbs
stressed that this should be a memorable event and that it was important to celebrate
Kerzner’s success since the dark days of the layoffs. Moreover, he confided that he had
just read a book on corporate cultures and believed that such events were important for
conveying the values at Kerzner. He went on to say that he wanted this to be an employee
celebration—not a celebration conjured up by top management. As such, she would be
assigned a task force of 14 employees from each of the major departments to organize
and plan the event. Her team was to present a preliminary plan and budget for the event
to top management within three months. When discussing budgets, Tubbs revealed that
he felt the total cost should be somewhere in the $150,000 range. He concluded the
meeting by offering to help Briggs in any way he could to make the event a success.
Soon thereafter Briggs received the list of the names of the task force members,
and she contacted them either by phone or e-mail to arrange today’s meeting. She
had to scramble to find a meeting place. Her cubicle in human resources was too
small to accommodate such a group, and all the meeting rooms at Kerzner were
booked or being refurbished. She settled on the cafeteria because it was usually
 Chapter 11 Managing Project Teams 411

FIGURE C11.1 deserted in the late afternoon. Prior to the meeting she posted the agenda on a flip-
Celebration Task chart (see Figure C11.1) adjacent to the table. Given everyone’s busy schedules, the
Force meeting was limited to just one hour.
Agenda
THE FIRST MEETING
3:00 Introductions
Briggs began the meeting by saying, “Greetings. For those who don’t know me, I’m
3:15 Project overview Amber Briggs from human resources and I’ve been assigned to manage the 10th anni-
3:30 Ground rules versary celebration at Kerzner. Top management wants this to be a special event—at
the same time they want it to be our event. This is why you are here. Each of you rep-
3:45 Meeting times
resents one of the major departments, and together our job is to plan and organize the
4:00 Adjourn celebration.” She then reviewed the agenda and asked each member to introduce him/
herself. The tall, red-haired woman to the right of Briggs broke the momentary silence
by saying, “Hi, I’m Cara Miller from Plastics. I guess my boss picked me for this task
force because I have a reputation for throwing great parties.”
In turn each member followed suit. Below is a sampling of their introductions:
“Hi, I’m Mike Wales from maintenance. I’m not sure why I’m here. Things have
been a little slow in our department, so my boss told me to come to this meeting.”
“I’m Megan Plinski from domestic sales. I actually volunteered for this assignment.
I think it will be a lot of fun to plan a big party.”
“Yo, my name is Nick Psias from accounting. My boss said one of us had to join
this task force, and I guess it was my turn.”
“Hi, I’m Rick Fennah. I’m the only one from purchasing who has been here since
the beginning. We’ve been through some rough times, and I think it is important to
take time and celebrate what we’ve accomplished.”
“Hi, I’m Ingrid Hedstrom from international sales. I think this is a great idea, but I
should warn you that I will be out of the country for most of the next month.”
“I’m Abby Bell from engineering. Sorry for being late, but things are a bit crazy in
my department.”
Briggs circled the names of the two people who were absent and circulated a roster so
that everyone could check to see if their phone numbers and e-mail addresses were cor-
rect. She then summarized her meeting with Tubbs and told the group that he expected
them to make a formal presentation to top management within 10 weeks. She acknowl-
edged that they were all busy people and that it was her job to manage the project as
efficiently as possible. At the same time, she reiterated the importance of the project and
that this would be a very public event: “If we screw up, everyone will know about it.”
Briggs went over the ground rules and emphasized that from now on meetings
would start on time and that she expected to be notified in advance if someone was
going to be absent. She summarized the first part of the project as centering on five
key questions: when, where, what, who, and how much? She created a stir in the group
when she responded to a question about cost by informing them that top management
was willing to pay up to $150,000 for the event. Megan quipped, “This is going to be
one hell of a party.”
Briggs then turned the group’s attention to identifying a common meeting time.
After jousting for 15 minutes, she terminated the discussion by requesting that each
member submit a schedule of free time over the next month by Friday. She would use
this information and a new planning software to identify optimal times. She ended the
meeting by thanking the members for coming and asking them to begin soliciting
ideas from co-workers about how this event should be celebrated. She announced that
412 Chapter 11 Managing Project Teams

she would meet individually with each of them to discuss their role on the project. The
meeting was adjourned at 4:00 p.m.
1. Critique Briggs’s management of the first meeting. What, if anything, should she
have done differently?
2. What barriers is she likely to encounter in completing this project?
3. What can she do to overcome these barriers?
4. What should she do between now and the next meeting?

Case 11.2

Ajax Project
Tran was taking his dog Callie on her evening walk as the sun began to set over the coastal
range. He looked forward to this time of the day. It was an opportunity to enjoy some peace
and quiet. It was also a time to review events on the Ajax project and plot his next moves.
Ajax is the code name given by CEBEX for a high-tech security system project
funded by the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD). Tran is the project manager and his
core team consisted of 30 full-time hardware and software engineers.
Tran and his family fled Cambodia when he was four years old. He joined the U.S.
Air Force when he was 18 and used the education stipend to attend Washington State
University. He joined CEBEX upon graduating with a dual degree in mechanical and
electrical engineering. After working on a variety of projects for 10 years Tran decided
he wanted to enter management. He went to night school at the University of Washington
to earn an MBA.
Tran became a project manager for the money. He also thought he was good at it. He
enjoyed working with people and making the right things happen. This was his fifth project
and up to now he was batting .500, with half of his projects coming ahead of schedule. Tran
was proud that he could now afford to send his oldest child to Stanford University.
Ajax was one of many defense projects the CEBEX Corporation had under contract
with DOD. CEBEX is a huge defense company with annual sales in excess of $30 bil-
lion and more than 120,000 employees worldwide. CEBEX’s five major business areas
are Aeronautics, Electronic Systems, Information & Technology Services, Integrated
Systems & Solutions, and Space Systems. Ajax was one of several new projects spon-
sored by the Integrated Systems & Solutions division aimed at the homeland security
business. CEBEX was confident that it could leverage its technical expertise and polit-
ical connections to become a major player in this growing market. Ajax was one of
several projects directed at designing, developing, and installing a security system at
an important government installation.
Tran had two major concerns when he started the Ajax project. The first was the
technical risks inherent in the project. In theory the design principles made sense and
the project used proven technology. Still the technology had never been applied in the
field in this matter. From past experience, Tran knew there was a big difference
between the laboratory and the real world. He also knew that integrating the audio,
optical, tactile, and laser subsystems would test the patience and ingenuity of his team.
The second concern involved his team. The team was pretty much split down the
middle between hardware and electrical engineers. Not only did these engineers have
different skill sets and tend to look at problems differently, but generational differences
between the two groups were evident as well. The hardware engineers were almost all