Analysis of Business problems is one of the courses in the LBS EMBA program, it seeks to subject one’s thinking faculty to rigorous exercises to develop one’s analytical and problem-solving skills further.
Having gone through interesting case studies such as Eolica De Composites, ACE automotive, Micoderm, The Future of Biopasteur, and many others, I am beginning to develop my critical and analytical thinking skills for making good judgments in my work and personal life.
I can’t say for now that I have fully imbibed all the required skills that ABP seeks to inculcate in us however the little I have learned I am beginning to apply in my work.
A certain department in my organization signed an agreement with a vendor for the supply of software to the department. This product would be a shared service, cloud-based, and multitenant platform. The platform was meant to provide a shared service to reduce small organisations’ costs to serve the end customers. However, implementing it has taken over 18 months, and only 2 customers have been onboarded on the platform. The third pilot customer opted out midway through the implementation. In addition, some key components of the product are still not provided and both customers on the platform are unhappy because of the several delays and bugs in the system. Consequently, the market is moving or has already moved, and competition has started introducing similar products to the market segment. Furthermore, the department’s future budget will be heavily dependent on the success of this product.
Meanwhile, the department’s chief engineer rallied his team to commence a private search for other products. After several Proofs Of Concept (POCs) tests of a product supplied by a local OEM, they identified a product that will meet the requirements of the department. The chief engineer shared his team’s findings with the managers of the department. The finding looks promising, the product has been implemented in a similar environment, and it is appropriately adapted to the local environment and cost-effective. This vendor promised to implement the product in just 2 months. However, there is a challenge, the interface looks dated and needs some rework to meet the needs of the department.
Concurrently, the vendor that supplied the current product informed the manager that they intend to come down to see if they can remedy the situation and fast-track the closure of the pending tasks. Because they believed that the delays in the product implementation were largely due to the fact that work was done remotely because of COVID-19.
The manager of this department needs to take a quick decision, should he stop the OEM from coming to Lagos and cancel the contract with them and sign a new contract with the new vendor or continue to work with the current vendor to fix the pending issues?
The manager reached out to me to use the skills I have learned in ABP to help him reach a decision.
WOMEN’S HISTORY MONTH