Merit Corporation Aar

Merit Corporation – AAR

From Mr. Donaldson’s perspective

1. What was he trying to do?

• Increase the productivity of the NPD

• Have NPD become part of mainstream Merit

• Be effective as new CEO of Merit

• Close gap between Strategy and effectiveness

2. What happened?

• NPD dissolved over time – members left

• Increase in productivity never materialized

• All measures of effectiveness dropped

• Still a gap between strategy and effectiveness

3. Why did it happen?

• Change in design factors created different culture -misalignment

• New culture under Donaldson (now dysfunctional) produced/related to ineffectiveness on all 3 dimensions of outcomes (effectiveness)

• Change in formal organization impacted task design which impacted group composition (people factors)

• Acted without having adequate data for decision – is reduced productivity of NPD normal variation (a trough in the distribution?)

• Exerted leadership style that worked in past to a different situation.

4. What should be sustained?

• Providing more resources and technology to nurture NPD

• Taking action to solve problem of failure to bring winning new design to market

• Good to zoom out to see big picture, but use different lenses

5. What should be changed?

• Collect data from all relevant parties before taking action that disrupts system (from Kirchner and NPD members)

• Talk to team about changes and their likely possible unexpected outcomes

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