Q1: How do you think Ram Tilak feel about his new job? His new boss?
Answers
Explanation:
As Carlos Guerrero walked to the whiteboard where the app development team had gathered for its daily stand-up, he noticed that Larry Berman was absent again. But this time he didn’t bother to ask anyone about it. He just carried on.
“Morning,” he said, staring at the dizzying assortment of sticky notes on the whiteboard. “Hit me with your updates.”
As the director of digital strategy for Meals Now, a rapidly growing subscription meal-delivery service, Carlos was cosponsoring a critical app redesign project, staffed by a team of seven plus a few external consultants. Larry, the head of technology, was his partner in this endeavor, but recently it hadn’t felt much like a partnership. In fact, Carlos had offered to run the stand-ups on an as-needed basis only—they really should’ve been Larry’s job.
Carlos tried to focus on what Irina, one of Larry’s developers, was telling him about the current agile sprint. With the redesign six months along and more than halfway done, these daily stand-ups were increasingly important if the team was to meet its aggressive deadlines.
“We’re just not sure whether Larry has signed the contract with the social login provider yet,” Irina said.
“OK, let’s check with him on that,” Carlos replied, realizing that he’d said the exact same thing the day before. “What time did he say he’d be in?” Irina exchanged a nervous glance with Mike, Larry’s number two, and they both shrugged. “I’ll give him a call,” Carlos said with a sigh.
He knew that Larry had had a rough year. His team’s application architect had left mere days before the redesign project began, and he’d struggled to find a replacement, in the meantime assuming many of that position’s responsibilities. On the personal front, rumor had it that he’d been separated from his wife for several months and was living in an apartment near the office. Though he was in the habit of working from home occasionally, his schedule had been very erratic in recent weeks. Some days he didn’t show up at work; others he arrived before everyone else, worked furiously at his desk without even getting up to eat, and stayed well into the evening if not through the night.
Case Study Teaching Notes
John A. Quelch teaches the note on which this story is based in his course Consumers, Corporations, and Public Health. ...
As the meeting was breaking up, Carlos caught Irina’s attention. “Do you have a minute?” he asked. She nodded, and they walked to a small conference room.
“What’s going on with Larry?” he said.
Irina looked nervous. “Don’t worry,” he reassured her. “I’m just trying to make sure we’re on track with this project