MGT Case Analysis

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University of Dayton School of Business Administration Center for the Integration of Faith and Work

Walk the Talk Program in Collaboration with Dayton Rotary Case Analysis

The (Un)Ethical Aftermath of Bill From the Perspective of Bob Johnson, Bill’s Successor

Your predecessor in a marketing organization leaves behind information gathered by dubious means.

“What have I gotten myself into?” you ask yourself as you sign for the FedEx package. As a recent college graduate, today is your first day as Assistant Program Manager at Galileo Enterprises, a manufacturer of specialty sensors for the semiconductor industry. Your first day has been draining, beginning this morning when you ran into Nancy Olivaz, whom you were introduced to through a mutual friend at church, but have not seen in several years. She cautiously pulled you aside and advised you that Bill Martin, who’s position you have filled, was suddenly and unexpectedly asked to resign from the company. Bill’s name came up during the interview process. To your knowledge, he was a high performer who accepted a major promotion with a firm in a different industry. When you pushed your friend for details, she would say only that she had already said too much.

While at lunch with Sandra Day, your new boss, you casually weave Bill Martin’s name into the conversation. Your boss is evasive and comments only that she had been strongly encouraged by the V.P. of Marketing to advise your predecessor to pursue opportunities outside of Galileo. Despite her reluctance, she eventually consented. You find her final comment on the matter resonating in your thoughts: “He really knew how to get the job done, but some here did not agree with his methods.”

After an uneasy lunch you began the task of getting up to speed on project “Enterprise,” the company’s major new product initiative. Much of the company’s future performance is riding on Enterprise, as is the career of your boss Sandra, who is the Program Manager. Enterprise will be your main assignment for the coming year, and you know that much of your future also depends on its success.

The files on Enterprise are thick. After familiarizing yourself with the project’s target market, technical details, pro formas, and timelines, you notice a folder labeled “Competitors”. It contains many documents. Several in particular catch your attention. One is titled “Marketing Strategy for Product Liberty,” and is labeled “confidential and proprietary; Property of Magellan Corporation”. Magellan is your main competitor whose recent announcement about their own new product, “Liberty,” has received a great deal of attention in the press. Surprisingly, few specific details have been released about “Liberty” except that it will be unveiled to great anticipation at the yearly trade show in three months. On the document is a hand written note:

Bill - I found this at Starbucks this morning. I noticed a guy at the next table with a Magellan logo on his shirt. When he went for a second latte I did some

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‘market intelligence’. Enjoy. PS – thanks again for the season tickets. Paul Mercury.

Your check of the company’s phone directory revealed that Paul Mercury is not an employee of Galileo and you make a note to ask your boss. You put the report back into the file without reading it. You also found notes dated six months prior from an interview with Susan Fredericks, Galileo’s Assistant Controller who had just been hired from Magellan. The notes contain detailed information about the organization of Magellan’s engineering team, marketing plan and cost estimates, product specifications, as well as future production plans for Liberty.

You are concerned with the ethical aspects of much of the competitive intelligence gathering done to date on the Enterprise project. “What have I gotten myself into?” you ask yourself as you sign the Fed Ex package addressed to “Bill Martin – Assistant Program Manager”. The sender, Dan Murray, is a name that you’ve run across in the file. Judging by the record of payments, Dan’s firm was hired routinely by Bill for marketing research. You wonder if you should approach your boss about the copy of the Magellan report and the notes from the interview with Galileo’s new Assistant Controller. These thoughts stop abruptly when you realize that the sole content of the Fed Ex envelope is a prototype of Magellan’s project Liberty. You ask yourself again, “What have I gotten myself into?”

Put yourself in the place of Bob Johnson: 1. In one sentence, state the ethical dilemma described in the case. 2. What are the possible root causes? 3. What specific values are being challenged by the situation? 4. Who are the stakeholders in this situation and what is at stake for each of them? 5. What would constitute a fair and acceptable solution to majority of stakeholders?

 Are any of them capable of retaliating if not satisfied? 6. What are some possible solutions?

 Are any of them ethically questionable? 7. How will the solutions affect the different stakeholders?

 Any ways of addressing those concerns?

How will you address this dilemma and for what reasons?

Adapted from: Sapia-Bosch, A. & Tancer, R. S. (1998) Navigating through the Legal/Ethical Gray Zone: What Would You Do? CI Magazine, 1(1): 1-1

Steve Gove

26 July 2007

A note about the author: Steve is a friend of mine, and was a colleague at UD for many years. As of August, 2014 he is now on the faculty at the University of Vermont. He wrote this case to illustrate concerns with the strategy topic of competitor analysis.