Case 6 What Happens to the Reengineering Team
Setting: A Large Multinational Corporation; Your Position: Vice President of Planning
A year ago the CEO, to whom you report, gave you the most important assignment of your career: Assemble a team of the brightest and most talented people from the various businesses and divisions of the company, assuring that all functions are represented. You will provide this team with all relevant information (including information hitherto available only to the board of directors) concerning the momentous changes that have taken place in the many markets in which we operate. The team's task will be to develop a blueprint of the structure and operations of the company a decade hence. Team members will be relieved of all of their operational duties until the task is completed. The team will be given an ample budget for them to collect the necessary information to complete the assignment.
The team has been spectacularly successful. The eight people whom you selected all accepted the assignment with enthusiasm, and their report has received accolades from the managing committee and from the board of directors. It has been a great source of pride to you to see how effectively the group has worked together and the care and diligence with which they have approached this assignment.
Now that the primary task has been completed, the CEO has asked you to select two of the team members to work on the implementation of the plan. The remaining six would be returned to the businesses and the jobs from which they had come. When they heard this news, the group was furious. They claimed that they had been led to believe that their assignment included carrying out the plans that they had so skillfully developed. One of them even referred to the CEO's decision as a "betrayal."
You know that each would strongly prefer to stay with the project rather than return to their previous jobs. You raised these issues with the CEO, but it was made clear to you that the CEO viewed the implementation phase as a task better done by a much smaller group. You certainly know the individuals well enough to make a sensible choice, but you were hoping that a way could be found to make the team happy.