Blue Sky Software Consulting Case Study

A dedicated, self-motivated business professional with diverse experience in customer relations and consulting. Excellent communication and technological skills. Equally comfortable working independently or as a member of a team. Proven skills as a team leader, strategic thinker, and excellent listener. Seeking a challenging consulting analyst position within Huron Consulting Group Inc. in order to utilize my expertise in communication and business analytics to build strong business relationships and enhance development within a company. Technically proficient in CSS, HTML5, Learning Management Systems, Mac OSX, MS Office Suite, PeopleSoft, Photoshop, QuickBooks, SharePoint, SQL, Student Information Systems, and Windows

1. Why would a large and complex company like Boeing employ off-the-shelf application-specific software for accounting, human resources, supply chain management and other core business processes? And why do they choose to own, host and operate all of their own software rather than to for example outsource payroll to ADP Corporation or sales force management to Salesforce.com? [list]

As consultant for Blue Sky, it is my obligation to develop recommendations based on issues addressed in the case, to ensure Willis can develop an effective management team in accordance with company’s requirements.

1. Terra Nova is currently at a turning point in the company’s timeline.  Until recently, the company has been successful and growing and a leader in its industry. The financial downturns the company is currently experiencing are due to the complacency that started in top management and, in order to fix this situation, there must be multiple changes made. There is a large social disconnect between the younger and more senior members of the firm. Although Terra Nova has a hierarchical structure based on skill and demonstrated results, in recent years the senior partners received more support from the company leaders and benefits while the junior professionals feel undervalued and unappreciated. Because of

Brian Walter Jr. had a great vision of not turning into “bureaucratic, quantitatively, grey-suited manager ...”, yet the

At the beginning he was told to report to Jenkins, however, once he got to the site he was assigned to Jeff Hardy.  After the company reorganization, he found himself wondering whether he should report to Knight or Hardy. However, despite the confusion, he never brought up this question to Hardy, Jenkins or Knight. He perhaps then fell into the trap of a “boss­subordinate relationship” and went with the structure he felt was assigned without truly understanding its reasoning. ii. He didn’t take enough time to understand HQ’s perspective on various issues a. Replacing the chief engineer, rejecting frequency reuse patterns, or failing to get sign off on agreements for GMCT cell sites indicate failures in managing upward management relationships. Problem #2: Employee Dynamics Strengths 1. Peterson was committed to building an empowering environment for employees. i. Peterson called weekly construction meetings, which invited all to report on the company’s weekly progress and issues. Shortcomings 2. He failed to consider alterations in team dynamics when making hiring and salary decisions. i. He hired Trevor at a higher salary rate to the resentment of other employees, causing significant damage to the trust and respect between employee and manager.

In the market today, business is showing growing interest to partner with IT to make sure they get the value for investing huge in technology. But, still there is a gap between the two departments and the IT folks think that they do not have enough support from the business to ensure the value is realized for the organization. A good example of deep integration of IT and business is the recent firing of the Apple maps chief. The ill-fated Apple maps was the failure of both the IT folks who couldn’t develop an efficient app for maps and also the business who couldn’t gather all the requirements and couldn’t manage the project to achieve the desired output. As a result, the Apple exec Richard Williamson was blamed and fired for the disastrous project and humiliation for the organization.

As one of the largest global information technology (IT) company in the United States, Hewlett-Packard (HP) produces numerous of hardware and develops many software. Not only concentrated in hardware and software manufacturing and developments, external IT consulting is one of the highlighted services which is provided HP’s Services division. In order to increase competitive advantages, Ron Kempf, the direct of project management competency and certification at HP, brings together the firm’s various stakeholders to conduct a needs assessment to determine what type of training would be needed. 2,500 client-focused project managers and support staff around the world are the candidates in the needs assessment. Based on cost-benefits analysis, ESI International is chosen to conduct the needs assessment with the designation of “project management professional” (Lepak & Gowan, 2010).

White: The problem with Bob White is that even after retirement, he still had huge influence on White Cap’s management and employees, since they were used to his friendly and employee-oriented management style. Changes in management style could incur negative response within the company. To deal with White’s legacy, Browning should make current employees known he’s achievement and capabilities to accept and trust him. Also, he should persuade the employees the changes are necessary due to new competitors and new technologies in market.

If you had to compare this philosophy to Kotter’s book, The Heart of Change, this company was in huge trouble. There was definitely no leadership—just really greedy chairman, in my opinion. There was definitely no sense of urgency and such a lack of vision. The unfortunate this was it still remained the same even when reorganization occurred in 1976, by Sir Frank McFadzean. According to the study, divisional loyalties prevented the carrier from attaining a common focus (Changing the Culture of British Airways, 1990, pp. 3-4).

Peter Browning’s dilemmas are the urgency/necessity to change White Cap’s organization’s operations to become more competitive with actual markets and customer’s necessities but there are some organizational culture factors that would need to change in order to make White Cap a more proactive corporation. Some factors in particular are the seniority of some key manager positions (under his supervision) that represent the true identity of White Cap and the importance of their role in earlier years with the company, however their performance in those particular areas had led White Cap to their actual situation, also the company image at corporate levels was particularly ask to be

Q1. What is the primary objective of IBM’s advertising? How have the objectives of its advertising changed over the years?

In this paper, the author will introduce a failure case of K-Mart 's IT modernization system project. In 2001, K-mart took $1.4 billion dollars into this project with the purpose of competing with its rival Walmart. The dream is beautiful, but the real work is cruel. After 18 months, the project was failed because of lacking of cash. What happened in the detailed for this project? $1.4 billion dollar is huge numbers, why it was still not enough to pay and distribute for this project? How did its project manager do in this project? What are the project problems? How can we learn from the failure of this case? The paper includes the case background introduction, the project development process, the problems in the project, analysis and

Detailed examination of the impact Jack Welch has had as CEO over the past twenty years reveals a leadership style that is the driving force behind a

Q1. What is the primary objective of IBM’s advertising? How have the objectives of its advertising changed over the years?