Better Wrong than Right Situation Analysis (Essay Sample)

Better Wrong than Right Situation Analysis
Name of Student
Institutional Affiliation
Introduction
From the case study, it is apparent that Larry is under intense pressure to override his long standing ethical and integrity values in order to avoid a confrontation with his senior. Larry had joined the company over six year ago and his competence and expertise had seen the company develop and market tens of thousands of Personal Digital Assistance produces, from around 3,000 units per month to over 75,000 units per month (Gentile, 2010) and still growing. The managers had thus established a ‘cash cow’ product for the company, which became the main source of revenue. This analysis presents the course of action that Larry should have taken to ensure the company continues to operate profitably.
What could Larry's team say to make their point to him? What arguments could they make? What support could they offer Larry that could enable him to change his direction? 
. While raising the PDA product inform grass to grace, Larry worked with a team of able and competent individuals that brought creative and innovative ideas onboard. Now, Larry was at a cross road, at the precipice of running his values and the ethical codes of their company in order to avoid the dreaded confrontation from his senior. As his advisors and workmates, the team working on marketing research had the responsibility to not only save their supervisor, Larry, from being confronted by Morrison, but also to uphold the ethical and integrity values that had long been established in their company.
The first action that the team would take to ensure that they have expressed their solid stand on the issue was to oppose the move that he had proposed to alter the data that they had found from market research in favor of the perceptions of the Senior Marketing President (Gentile, 2010). The team should have told Larry that faking the results to impress their senior was an erroneous act of cowardice that would jeopardize the efforts that had made over the past six years to make the company achieve the status it was enjoying. They would thus make Larry understand that an alteration of the market data they had collected and analyzed, although minimal and apparently insignificant, would have adverse repercussions in the medium and long-term. Customers are the main reason why the company was seeking to adjust the features of their competitive product in the first place. As such, going against the needs and preferences of the market would result into the decline in the demand for the product as well as the sales. Although Larry knew this only too well, he was under intense pressure and could thus not think straight. It was the support from his team that could make him understand the effects of the mistake he was about to commit.
After convincing Larry that the step he was about to take was in the wrong direction, and that it would rebound with grave implications to the market share of the PDA product line, they had to develop an alternative solution to his problem. The difference in the market result was considerably minimal. However, the market was expanding and thus the sample statistics taken from the market would represent a bigger number of customers if the company continued to provide the preferred features on the PDAs. Therefore, the team could develop the second alternative, which would take a longer period of time, but determine the positive attributes that the company would gain from the sale of this product. This was the preferred alternative, but was bound to be rejected by the Senior Vice President. However, the SVP would be swayed by the returns the project would result into if it had significantly higher returns on investment than the first alternative. The team could then project the sales revenue resulting from the second alternative upon complete redevelopment, and compare them with the preferred first alternative. This would have swayed the senior Vice President’s perception and make him reason along these lines. As such, the team would have not only saved Larry’s ethical reputation, but they would have ensured that the company continues to provide products and services as per the needs of the market, and thus sustainable competitive advantage.
If you were in the same situation as Larry, what would you do and why? Describe both facts and assumptions you considered when deciding what to. What are the consequences of your choice?
If I were in the same situation Larry is in now, I would consider the alternative courses of action very carefully before placing my integrity and ethical values on the line because of the fear I have for my senior. From my meetings with the team that I had assigned the task of conducting a market research, I would have realized the broad disagreement on the faces of two of the three-member team (Gentile, 2010). This would have caused a course for alarm and thus seek for their opinions on the situation our division was already in. My first assumption in re-approaching my team is that they were in disagreement with the course of action I had settled on. The second assumption is that their view on what was the best alternative action to be taken would be reflective of the situation both within the company and outside with the customers. This is because the team was more aware of the reactions of customers when they were asked on which of the two alternative improvements would be most appropriate. This is also the only team that would stand by me during such circumstances, and thus ignoring their contribution to the decision-making process of this magnitude would result into their de-motivation and loss of drive to improve the products and service of the company.
In addition to what my team would advice me to do, I would choose to stick to my integrity principles and the overall code of ethics required by the company. One of the least, things I would consider doing is manipulating the results obtained from actual field marketing research by the members I assigned the task. Manipulating the results gotten from the research would definitely demoralize the members of the team I assigned the very task of conducting the research. The team would have felt shortchanged and misused since values would have been manufactured and fabricated to please the Senior Vice President without having to spend company resources and valuable time conducting the research. More importantly, my reputation and integrity as an honest and ethical person would be put on line if I fabricated research results to gain the eye of the Senior Vice President. Providing the senior management with the actual results gotten from a market research would give the management a framework against which more other decisions will be made. Therefore, presenting false information would be pleasant to the VP of marketing in the short-run, but in the long-run, the company will suffer grave consequences from the decisions made using my misrepresented information. For instance, the company would proceed and manufacture the PDAs with short battery life for the market (Gentile, 2010). Since the company is basing the production units on the current market share and projected sales figures made from the false marketing figures, large quantities of products will be produced for the market that has low demand for products with low battery life.
Therefore, the resultant consequences of misrepresentation would be market flooded with less competitive products, which would force the company to lower the prices for the units produced and thus depleting the profit margins. When these things happen, people will begin pointing fingers and apportioning blame for the people responsible for the plummeting of the demand for the ‘once competitive products’. The consequence of this is that my team will not stand by me because they had earlier expressed their dissatisfaction with misrepresentation of research information. I would lose my credibil...