BACKGROUNDTHE EXECUTIVE DECISIONClark Faucet CompanyBy 1999, Clark Faucet Company had grown into the thirelargest supplier of faucets for both commercial and homeuse. Competition was fierce. Consumers would evaluatefaucets on artistic design and quality. Each faucet had tobe avail- able in at least twenty-five different colors.Commercial buyers seemed more in- terested in the costthan the average consumer, who viewed the faucet as anob- ject of art, irrespective of price.The executive council mandated that another attempt toimplement good project management practices must occurquickly. Project management would be needed not onlyfor new product development but also for specialtyproducts and enhancements. The vice presidents formarketing and engineering reluctantly agreed to try andpatch up their differences, but did not appear confidentthat any changes would take place.Clark Faucet Company did not spend a great deal ofmoney advertising on the radio or on television. Somemoney was allocated for ads in professional jour- nals.Most of Clark's advertising and marketing funds wereallocated to the two semiannual home and garden tradeshows and the annual builders trade show. One largebuilder could purchase more than 5,000 components forthe furnishing of one newly constructed hotel or oneapartment complex. Missing an opportu- nity to displaythe new products at these trade shows could easily resultin a six- to twelve-month window of lost revenue.Strange as it may seem, nobody could identify the initialcause of the conflicts or how the trouble actually began.Senior management hired an external consultant toidentify the problems, provide recommendations andalternatives, and act as a mediator. The consultant’sprocess would have to begin with interviews.ENGINEERING INTERVIEWSThe following comments were made during engineeringinterviews:* "We are loaded down with work. If marketing wouldstay out of engineering, we could get our job done."*“Marketing doesn't understand that there's more workfor us to do other than just new product development."CULTUREClark Faucet had a noncooperative culture. Marketing anengineering would never talk to one another. Engineeringwanted the freedom to design new products, whereasmarketing wanted final approval to make sure that whatwas designed could be sold."Marketing personnel should spend their time at thecountry club and in bar rooms. This will allow us inengineering to finish our work uninterrupted!"*“Marketing expects everyone in engineering to stopwhat they are doing in order to put out marketing fires. Ibelieve that most of the time the problem is thatmarketing doesn't know what they want up front. Thisleads to change after change. Why can’t we get a gooddefinition at the beginning of each project?"The conflict between marketing and engineering becameso fierce that early attempts to implement projectmanagement failed. Nobody wanted to be the projectmanager. Functional team members refused to attend teaimeetings and spent most of their time working on theirown “pet" projects rather than the re- quired work. Theirline managers also showed little interest in supportingproject management.Project management became so disliked that theprocurement manager re- fused to assign any of hisemployees to project teams. Instead, he mandated that allproject work come through him. He eventually built up alarge brick wall around his employees. He claimed thatthis would protect them from the contin- uous conflictsbetween engineering and marketing.* "Our livelihood rests on income generated from tradeshows. Since new product development is four to sixmonths in duration, we have to beat up on engineering tomake sure that our marketing schedules are met. Whycan't engineering understand the importance of thesetrade shows?"* "Because of the time required to develop new products[4 -6 months], we sometimes have to rush into projectswithout having a good definition of what is required.When a customer at a trade show gives us an idea for aImonins in duration, we nave to beat up on engineering tomake sure that our marketing schedules are met. Whycan't engineering understand the importance of thesetrade shows?"* "Because of the time required to develop new products[4 –6 months], we sometimes have to rush into projectswithout having a good definition of what is required.When a customer at a trade show gives us an idea for anew product, we rush to get the project underway forintroduction at the next trade show. We then go back tothe customer and ask for more clarification and/orspecifications. Sometimes we must work with thecustomer for months to get the information we need. Iknow that this is a problem for engineering, but it cannotbe helped."*The consultant wrestled with the comments but was stillsomewhat perplexed. “Why doesn’t engineeringunderstand marketing's problems?" pondered theconsultant. In a follow-up interview with an engineeringmanager, the following comment was made:"We are currently working on 375 different projects inengineering, and that includes those which marketingrequested. Why can't marketing understand ourproblems?"QUESTIONS1. What is the critical issue? What can be done about it?2. Can excellence in project management still beachieved and, if so, how? What steps would yourecommend?3. What obstacles exist in getting marketing andengineering to agree to a singular methodology forproject management?4. What might happen if benchmarking studies indicatethat either marketing or engineering are at fault?5. Should a singular methodology for projectmanagement have a process for the prioritization ofprojects or should some committee external to themethodology accomplish this?

Question

BACKGROUNDTHE EXECUTIVE DECISIONClark Faucet CompanyBy 1999, Clark Faucet Company had grown into the thirelargest supplier of faucets for both commercial and homeuse. Competition was fierce. Consumers would evaluatefaucets on artistic design and quality. Each faucet had tobe avail- able in at least twenty-five different colors.Commercial buyers seemed more in- terested in the costthan the average consumer, who viewed the faucet as anob- ject of art, irrespective of price.The executive council mandated that another attempt toimplement good project management practices must occurquickly. Project management would be needed not onlyfor new product development but also for specialtyproducts and enhancements. The vice presidents formarketing and engineering reluctantly agreed to try andpatch up their differences, but did not appear confidentthat any changes would take place.Clark Faucet Company did not spend a great deal ofmoney advertising on the radio or on television. Somemoney was allocated for ads in professional jour- nals.Most of Clark's advertising and marketing funds wereallocated to the two semiannual home and garden tradeshows and the annual builders trade show. One largebuilder could purchase more than 5,000 components forthe furnishing of one newly constructed hotel or oneapartment complex. Missing an opportu- nity to displaythe new products at these trade shows could easily resultin a six- to twelve-month window of lost revenue.Strange as it may seem, nobody could identify the initialcause of the conflicts or how the trouble actually began.Senior management hired an external consultant toidentify the problems, provide recommendations andalternatives, and act as a mediator. The consultant’sprocess would have to begin with interviews.ENGINEERING INTERVIEWSThe following comments were made during engineeringinterviews:* &#34;We are loaded down with work. If marketing wouldstay out of engineering, we could get our job done.&#34;*“Marketing doesn't understand that there's more workfor us to do other than just new product development.&#34;CULTUREClark Faucet had a noncooperative culture. Marketing anengineering would never talk to one another. Engineeringwanted the freedom to design new products, whereasmarketing wanted final approval to make sure that whatwas designed could be sold.&#34;Marketing personnel should spend their time at thecountry club and in bar rooms. This will allow us inengineering to finish our work uninterrupted!&#34;*“Marketing expects everyone in engineering to stopwhat they are doing in order to put out marketing fires. Ibelieve that most of the time the problem is thatmarketing doesn't know what they want up front. Thisleads to change after change. Why can’t we get a gooddefinition at the beginning of each project?&#34;The conflict between marketing and engineering becameso fierce that early attempts to implement projectmanagement failed. Nobody wanted to be the projectmanager. Functional team members refused to attend teaimeetings and spent most of their time working on theirown “pet&#34; projects rather than the re- quired work. Theirline managers also showed little interest in supportingproject management.Project management became so disliked that theprocurement manager re- fused to assign any of hisemployees to project teams. Instead, he mandated that allproject work come through him. He eventually built up alarge brick wall around his employees. He claimed thatthis would protect them from the contin- uous conflictsbetween engineering and marketing.* &#34;Our livelihood rests on income generated from tradeshows. Since new product development is four to sixmonths in duration, we have to beat up on engineering tomake sure that our marketing schedules are met. Whycan't engineering understand the importance of thesetrade shows?&#34;* &#34;Because of the time required to develop new products[4 -6 months], we sometimes have to rush into projectswithout having a good definition of what is required.When a customer at a trade show gives us an idea for aImonins in duration, we nave to beat up on engineering tomake sure that our marketing schedules are met. Whycan't engineering understand the importance of thesetrade shows?&#34;* &#34;Because of the time required to develop new products[4 –6 months], we sometimes have to rush into projectswithout having a good definition of what is required.When a customer at a trade show gives us an idea for anew product, we rush to get the project underway forintroduction at the next trade show. We then go back tothe customer and ask for more clarification and/orspecifications. Sometimes we must work with thecustomer for months to get the information we need. Iknow that this is a problem for engineering, but it cannotbe helped.&#34;*The consultant wrestled with the comments but was stillsomewhat perplexed. “Why doesn’t engineeringunderstand marketing's problems?&#34; pondered theconsultant. In a follow-up interview with an engineeringmanager, the following comment was made:&#34;We are currently working on 375 different projects inengineering, and that includes those which marketingrequested. Why can't marketing understand ourproblems?&#34;QUESTIONS1. What is the critical issue? What can be done about it?2. Can excellence in project management still beachieved and, if so, how? What steps would yourecommend?3. What obstacles exist in getting marketing andengineering to agree to a singular methodology forproject management?4. What might happen if benchmarking studies indicatethat either marketing or engineering are at fault?5. Should a singular methodology for projectmanagement have a process for the prioritization ofprojects or should some committee external to themethodology accomplish this?

Accepted Answer

1A. 
After the carefully reading the article, it is clearly visible that it is a vibrant case of…