Instruction
You work as the project manager for a company. While reviewing this quarter’s profits your company realizes that your product is not selling as much as your rival competition. Compared to your rival company, your product is just nowhere near as popular as theirs.
Due to this, your boss asks you to put together a marketing team, however, you only have enough money to make a small team with 2 other company employees. Your boss hopes that with just 3 people, your team can come up with a marketing campaign to outsell your rival and turn a profit! By the end of the quarter, which is just a short two months away, your boss wants the company to be selling the most popular product on the market.
You are quite concerned with this undertaking; you are the only one in your company with any marketing experience. The budget assigned to your marketing campaign is also fairly small. That’s because your company is not as big as your rivals’ company. Your rival has a bigger headquarter, more employees, and they have been in business 10 years longer. Another challenge is that your product’s audience is much younger than the employees working for your company, so it might be harder to appeal to their preferences.
However, your boss is confident that this plan can work. He wants the other two team members that join you to be employees willing to work overtime for this project (over their 40 hours a week shift). To incentivize them, he says to tell them that they will be getting paid extra for their longer hours and receive a bonus for producing lots of marketing ideas. The more ideas, the more money they will earn! Your boss is sure that this will result in a successful new marketing campaign.
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TASK: Unlike your boss, you have a degree in psychology, so you know a little something about successful problem-solving and creativity. Use your knowledge from Chapter 11 to accomplish the following things:
The first thing you decide to do is understand your problem better. Identify the problem you are trying to solve. (5 pts)
In doing so, make sure to describe the initial and goal state.
Be sure to also describe at least 3 obstacles inherent to your problem
(Hint: remember problem understanding means excluding irrelevant information).
Consider the incentive plan your boss want to implement. What would you tell your boss about the approach being taken to form your creative team? (3 pts)
Do you believe your boss’ approach will work? If so, why? If not, how would you recommend finding employees to join your team?
In your response, identify the type of approach your boss is using to get creative solutions from your employees.
What is the definition of a creative solution? (2 pts)
What type creativity does your boss’ plan resemble?
What are pros and cons of your boss’ creativity approach for your team?
Note: Remember to use Chapter 11 conceptual terminology that is relevant to this scenario and your response!