What were the major mistakes made by Corning Corporation? Inappropriate handling of the Peters project and improper project selection process. They went for a new product development project that does not fit within Corrine’s conservative business perspective. Even though Corning Corporation had a product selection policy defined, they did not evaluate the request from Peters, In line with the policy. If Corning Corporation had followed Its policy guldens, the project might never been accepted. Another major mistake is Corning Corporation had agreed for a fixed price contract.
Peters project was able to provide only rough draft specifications, which are of high risk for change. Therefore, Peters project should not have fit into the fixed price criteria. 2) Should Corning have accepted this project? Why or why not? Coming Corporation should not have accepted Peters Project. Initially, Corning Corporation had rejected the Peters project but changed their decision because there are some financial incentives are Involved. As mentioned In the above question, Corning Corporation had not formally evaluated their decision-making before accepting the project. Should the shortness of the proposal preparation time have required more active top management involvement before the proposal was submitted to the Peters Company? Why or why not? After the acceptance of the contract, most managerial staff distanced themselves, which Jeopardized the project from the initial phase. 4) None of the executives expressed concern when DRP. Reedy said, “l would never have assigned him (West) as project leader. ” How do you account for the executives’ lack of concern? DRP. Reedy had expressed his concern because he had thought that
West is having ability In handling only internal projects rather than external projects. Nevertheless, he went ahead and said that he will support Mr.. West. Royce had expressed the same concern but DRP. Reedy hadn’t shown any concern about that. 5) Explain DRP. Redder attitude after project go-ahead. Mr.. West and Mr.. Reedy both were consensus in agreeing that the project was out of control. They need to take measures that would be required to correct the situation, with about more than $250,000 in corporate funding. DRP. Reedy called for a meeting with all R members to address the issue.
When Mr.. West had suggested to invite Mr.. Ray, DRP. Reedy was reluctant and arrogantly dismissed West’s suggestion. He finally spends money again and restarts the project. 6) How should West have handled the situation where Pat Rays opinion of the test data was contrary to that of Corrine’s Engineering personnel? Mr.. West should have compared both the test data to analyze and evaluate which one would be more appropriate and aligned with the requirements. Example where it might it not be a mistake to immediately procure all project materials.
The immediate procurement of all material was a mistake because Ray already reported that to their boss that the first five tests were failures and that they were changing the direction of the project. Mr.. West had stated that he had already purchased $30,000 worth of raw materials and the matrix uses other materials and which would require additional expenditures of $12,000. So, immediate procurement of all materials lead to additional expenditures of the project costing. 8) Financially, how should the extra tests have been handled? They should have included reserve budget for additional extra tests during planning and cost estimation.
No one can guarantee that not all tests could be successful and a contingency reserve should be set aside when required to do some further tests. 9) Deli’s letter, stating the five reasons for canceling the project, was refuted by Firmer, but with no success. Could Frill’s early involvement as a project sponsor have prevented this? How? Definitely, Firmer involvement form project proposal could have avoided the project cancellation. There was no involvement by Firmer during project proposal and he diverted all his responsibilities to Royce. ) Assume your company has a singular methodology for project management. You are offered a special project from a powerful customer that does not fit your methodology. Should a project be refused simply because it is not a good fit with your methodology? Explain your rational. It should not have been Just refused because of methodology. We have to consider detailed requirement from customer, understand the scope and whether it will fit into the budget, whether Corning Corporation can benefit from the project by gaining future prospective projects and long-term relationship with the customer Peters Company.
