CULTURAL ASPECTS OF case studies in project program and organizational project management
20 CASE STUDIES
CHAPTER SUMMARY
Name of Case Area Supported
by Case
Case Type Author of Case
Engineering Culture at Beck
Functional Culture Issue - based
Case Dragan Z. Milosevic, Peerasit
Patanakul, and Sabin Srivannaboon The Jamming
Culturally Compatible Strategy
Critical Incident Dragan Z. Milosevic, Peerasit
Patanakul, and Sabin Srivannaboon
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Engineering Culture at Beck
Dragan Z. Milosevic, Peerasit Patanakul, and Sabin Srivannaboon
IF JIM SAYS SO
Jim Traddell, director of a PM Offi ce, and the project initiator, led the meeting with the consultant. He made every effort to look decisive, as he dictated the con-
clusions of the meeting to the scribe. Raja James was Jim
’ s partner. He was helping Jim on this project, par- ticularly on the aspects of the culture. The team wanted to learn more about the
engineering culture at Beck. To obtain the information, the meeting with an engi- neer at Beck was arranged at a local restaurant around the corner. Raja was about
to leave the office to meet his informant.
BACKGROUND
Beck operates in an environment that abounds with rapid and discontinuous change in demand, competition, and technology. Even worse, that information is
often not available, obsolete, or inaccurate. The company is founded in 1946, and its primary income comes from projects. Annual income is approximately 800
million, with 4,000 employees. Disequilibrium, along with perpetual and discon- tinuous change makes all competitive advantages temporary. Organizational units
are loosely coupled with a lot of entrepreneurial behavior. Any advantage is tem- porary, contributing surprise and fl exibility to Beck strategy. In this industry, risk
is viewed as a factor upon which to capitalize, and the trick is that succession of fl eeting advantages lead to higher performance.
ENGINEERING PRIDE
Tippie Anne, the 34 - year veteran and engineer, showed up at 11 AM in front of Bombay restaurant for the lunch meeting. After pleasantries were exchanged,
Raja invited Tippie inside where the aroma of curry dominated the air. As they helped themselves to an abundance of Indian food, Raja took the fi rst step: “ We ’ ll
have to cut to the chase. Let ’ s start the interview now, as we both are very busy,
22 CASE STUDIES
and I would appreciate fi nishing by 12 noon. ” Raja announced his intent to focus on the professional part of the lunch. Tippie agreed with his idea, commencing
a conversation. “ Jim Traddell, one of my good friends, asked me to tell you my story of Beck ’ s culture. Personally, I don ’ t like to begin interviews with the word
‘ culture ’ because it tempts interviewees to become theoretical. But this interview is an exception. ” Raja replied, “ Thank you. Then, let me ask you, how do you do
things around Beck ’ s now and how did you used to do them? ” Raja hoped that using this simpler language would inspire Tippie to speak about culture in easier
terms. The conversation went as follows:
Tippie : Well, we have a habit of calling ourselves “ engineers, ” which we are. Perhaps this is in protest to having no such name 20+ years ago when Beck was
small and had no real fi nancial power. Today, for comparison, the new Beck is 4,000 employees strong and has 900 million cash at hand to purchase other
companies. Nowadays, everybody respects us as engineers. If you talk to senior managers, engineering managers, and workers, you ’ ll see for yourselves, how
much these folks esteem us. Not that other specialists are not held in high regard as well, but when in the past our company would negotiate products,
engineers would not be always seen as an important part of the negotiating team. Surprisingly, at old Beck our product sold without engineers around.
But not for long. The old Beck valued MBAs. If one desired to get ahead, he had to get an MBA degree. Engineers were engaged almost like mercenaries.
Yes, I am telling you the truth. Don ’ t laugh there, Raja. The newly minted MBAs, mostly second - rate engineers, would prepare business plans for new
products, the NPV Net Present Value and PI Profi tability Index, mostly what we call today derivative products — routine stuff. Of course, they embel-
lished the products, hired engineers like “ mercenaries ” and business thrived. As I said, though, not for long. Once the substance was sold out, the derivatives
didn ’ t sell and there were no new breakthroughs products new to the world and platforms products new to the companies, the business sank into the red,
resulting in years of suffering.
The new Beck was in the making for years and the senior managers spent a lot of time creating project culture. Those platforms and derivatives products
helped employees come about. Managers as well as workers understood that Beck would not survive if it didn ’ t have high - value products. Those high - value
products must be designed and developed by engineers and, they were. That ’ s why they are respected and held in high regard, which is why they are feeling
engineering pride.
DESIGNERS TO COST Raja : I heard the terms “ design to cost ” and his cousin, “ cost to design, ” men-
tioned many times at Beck. Would you please explain them to me?
Cultural Aspects of Project Management 23
Tippie : These proud engineers from the new Beck are very different in one respect from the engineering guard of the old Beck. Namely, current engi-
neers are much more cost conscious, so their skill is much higher and the cost attitudes are essentially more developed. For example, the new ones always
design products with the cost in mind. So, the fi nished product price must be one - fi fth of a set of corresponding prices of spare parts. These proud guys have
a different beginning policy. Theirs is “ design to cost ” as opposed to the old Beck ’ s “ cost to design. ” These two differ as two philosophies of life but their
names are similar.
The former means that fi rst the target product prices must be established; then the product is designed backwards. The desire is to fi rst obtain the real
product, component, and feature prices, then determine spare part prices. So, we have developed a tool called Kano ’ s maps, which tells the price of each
feature, thus we know which combinations of features really make money, and which don ’ t.
The latter cost - to - design approach implies that engineers fi rst design the prod- uct, then, they fi gure out the price, which the customer may consider overly
high. Once product price is a known component, feature and spare prices can be calculated. While the former approach is proactive and customers love it,
the latter is reactive and customers consider it obsolete.
Sometimes, customers view the cost - to - design approach as a way to rip them off. Skills requiring the design - to - cost approach are markedly higher than
those demanded by the cost -
to -
design approach. Plus, customers like the former approach because it immediately tells the price, and gets their business
from others. Sometimes, customers consider the cost - to - design approach not suitable for knowing the target product price suffi ciently early. This skill, that
engineers at new Beck have and those at old Beck did not, offers our organi- zation strategic market opportunities. In particular, we see new markets and
customers become available, and we think this is another good reason to feel like proud engineers.
Not so long ago, we got a call from a wholesaler who could turn around 1,000 pieces of one of our products with certain features. We consulted our Kano ’ s
map, and we learned that the asking price was right.
CUSTOMER - CENTRIC Raja: I would like to learn how customers impact your engineering culture.
Tippie: Our engineers try very hard to be customer - centric. I know it sounds like a buzzword, but it is very precise in what it wants to denote. As in the
old Beck, and in many other companies, we didn ’ t ask the customer what
24 CASE STUDIES
they wanted in new products. We assumed by doing that, we would become customer - oriented. Rather, we developed whole arrays of processes and tools
that pointed toward seeking out what the customer exactly wanted. The bottom line of being customer - centric is being able to help translate what customers
precisely want of the product design. For that, we fi rst used tools of survey design, customer segment, and custom visit documents to understand what
customers wanted before the work began. Note that sometimes customers do not know what they want. So, our engineers designed all of the tools and processes
to help them fi gure out what customers asked for. Then, in the design stage, we may use Quality Function Deployment QFD or rapid prototyping, to give
design features customers long for.
They have a long experience of working with customers ’ people. For insta- nce, they sit on joint development teams with customers, or use lead users ’
concepts to reveal what future products would look like. Our engineers are trained to stand in front of customers. You know, psychologists get trained
how to talk to patients and elicit meritorious information; they are only college grads who get this education. No engineers get this kind of training. We at
Beck spend thousands of dollars to prepare engineers to be comfortable talking to customers and becoming customer - centric.
RUN TO THE END Raja : What else distinguishes Beck culturally from others?
Tippie : One thing I should mention as unique to us is our motto of “ run to the end. ” Namely, in old Beck, our fi rst priority was to secure new business, and
a concern for producing a product at times fell through the cracks. So, as a consequence, acquisition of the business really mattered, and implementation
of business suffered. Obviously, more attention was paid to the front end of the order process, rather than to the back end. At times, we did not know where
this product was in the production cycle. As a further consequence, all kinds of promises were made to customers to bring the business in, usually forgotten
easily in the production stage, and that was considered “ normal ” and ethical. Customers, anyhow, felt cheated.
The new Beck does not tolerate this. We worked very hard to show our engi- neers that all products are made equal. So, the customer has every right to
know how long down the manufacturing line their product is. And, hence “ run to the end. ” We put a lot of effort into eradicating this ugly habit — not only to
know the product production status but where it will be the next day, in the next two days, until its completion. We, in other words, care about any product in
production and show it.
Raja: Give me an example.
Cultural Aspects of Project Management 25
Tippie: We had a big wholesale customer in China. Thanks to this approach, we followed the product and its life cycle. So, this customer called us, and
told us that market shifted away and two planned features didn ’ t sell. We were at the third quarter of the project ’ s life cycle but we managed to drop the two
features.
Raja: What other ways of doing things around Beck are unique? Tippie : We are a typical high - velocity company around the area. So, we have
many ways that we share — the rewards, matrix organization, decision making, etc. — but those I described make us who we are.
Raja still had several questions he wanted to ask, but an hour had passed. He had no choice but to thank Tippie, and leave the restaurant. He had another appoint-
ment at 12:30, the second lunch meeting he needed to have for today.
Discussion items
1. List major definitions of the culture mentioned in the case. Analyze them and tell what is unique in each.
2. What do you like and dislike about Beck ’ s culture?
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The Jamming
Dragan Z. Milosevic, Peerasit Patanakul, and Sabin Srivannaboon
SCENARIO 1: JAM WITH THE COUNTERPART
An executive fi ve - member team was formed to manage a small but global com- pany. Because they were allowed to choose where they wanted to live, the team
spread across Finland, Denmark, Sweden, and England. Although each member was multilingual, they spoke in English during their weekly teleconference. Every
month the team met at one of the company ’ s divisional headquarters and spent the next day with the managers from that division. Members were encouraged to be
part of every discussion, although their individual roles were very clear, so that interaction on a day - to - day basis was unnecessary. Even though the team never
went through a formal team - building process, its emphasis on an agreed team mission, shared business values, and high performance goals for all members
made it a true model of a well - jammed multicultural team.
SCENARIO 2: THE NPD GAME
When the team members fi rst went to work on a product development project in a small high - tech company in the United States, it appeared that they would forever
be at odds over every aspect of managing a project. A few projects and many fi ghts later, however, a German, an American, a Mexican, and a Macedonian looked as
cohesive as any other team. As they marched through their projects, they acquired an in - depth knowledge of each other ’ s cultures and project management scripts.
Not only did they know each other ’ s religious holidays and eating habits, but they also reached a point of accepting American concern for cost tracking, German
obsession with precise schedule management, Macedonian dedication to team spirit, and Mexican zeal for interpersonal relationships. The road to their masterly
jamming was not paved by deliberate actions. Rather, it evolved from patient learning, many dead ends in their interactions, and the need to be successful in
their work.
Cultural Aspects of Project Management 27
JAMMING
The situations described here can be called “ jamming, ” — a strategy that sug- gests the project manager and the counterpart improvise, without an explicit
mutual agreement, and transform their ideas into an agreeable scenario for their work. In this sense, they are like members of a jazz band following the loose
rules of a jam session. “ Jazzers ” jam when they begin with a conventional theme, improvise on it, and pass it around until a new sound is created.
This strategy implies what is apparent in the executive team scenario 1 — all team members are highly competent. Such competency enabled them to
fathom the counterparts ’ assumptions and habits, predict their responses, and take courses of actions that appealed to them. Another condition was met for jamming
to work with the executive team, in particular, understanding the individuality of each counterpart. A counterpart ’ s fluency in several scripts clearly meant that he
or she might propose any of the scripts ’ practices. Knowing the individuality then meant anticipating the practices. That the counterpart was analyzed as a person
with distinct traits, and not only as a representative of a culture, was the key to successful jamming.
However, there are intrinsic risks in the use of the jamming strategy. As it occurred in the initial phase of the high - tech team scenario 2, some counter-
parts did not read the jamming as recognition of cultural points, but rather as an attempt to seek favor by flattery and fawning. Although the team never faced it,
it is also possible that jamming may lead to an “ overpersonalization ” of the rela- tionship between the project manager and the counterpart, characterized by high
emotional involvement, loss of touch with and ignorance of other team members, and reluctance to delegate.
Jamming ’ s basic design may not be in tune with all cultures and may not even be appropriate for the execution by teams composed of members with vary-
ing levels of competency in other people ’ s project management scripts. While in its early stage of development the high - tech team members ’ varying levels of
competency were a significant roadblock, their further learning and growth got them over the obstacle. Still, the number and intensity of cultural run - ins that the
team experienced before maturing supported the view that this strategy tends to be shorter on specific instructions for implementation and higher in uncertainty
than any other unilateral strategy. However, its plasticity may be such a great asset to multicultural project managers that many of them view it as ideal in the
development of a culturally responsive project management strategy.
Discussion items
1. In what situation would the jamming approach work well? 2. What are the pros and cons of the jamming approach?
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