Response to authors on the subject (adding to concepts discussed not remarks on their writing)

What should Mark have done if Jack still was not able to resolve the problem?

If Jack was not able to resolve the problem Mark should have considered assigning it to another member of his team, or potentially even conduct a brainstorming session with his team to figure how to best solve the problem. Sometimes an outsider's perspective can enable experts to think more creatively and approach the problem from a different viewpoint. Another thing that Mark could do would be to hire an external consulting firm to help with the problem. A cost-benefit analysis could be conducted for hiring external consultants considering the competitive advantage and long-term strategic and financial benefits of coming up with the design mechanism. (Conti, 2019)

 

Would it make sense for Mark to assign this problem to someone else now, after Jack could not solve the problem the second time around?

I think certain factors need to be considered before making this decision. First is the timeline of the project. Jack had already spent 2 months working on the problem initially and then spent another few weeks trying to solve it the second time. If the company could afford to spend a few more months doing more research on the problem then Mark should definitely assign this problem to someone else. It might make more sense to form a working group instead of assigning it to just one person since a group of experts might be able to provide a different set of perspectives that could help solve the problem. Jack should be part of that group as well. Considering the significance of the outcome of this project and the competitive advantage it would provide the company it would make sense for them to invest more time and resources in trying to solve this problem. They could even consider niche design firms that they could partner with to solve the problem because they lack expertise internally. This technique is called open innovation. (Kerzner, 2013)