Question

>> Hi, everyone. Thank you each for coming to the meeting today. As you know from the agenda I e-mailed to you earlier, we're experiencing declining sales with our Critter Comb, which is very worrying.

>> I saw the report, Amy. I can't believe how quickly sales have fallen.

>> Yeah. The competitor's combo kit really took off after they launched it last month.

>> Yes. They are really eating our lunch on this one.

>> Well, wasn't our Critter Comb one of the most popular items last year?

>> It sure was.

>> I wish we'd recognized the threat sooner. We knew they were coming out with a competing product.

>> Yeah. But we never believed that their combo kit would be more popular than our item.

>> It would take at least nine months for us to get a similar combo set out there.

>> I agree. They absolutely trumped us on this one. If only we'd seen the combo set coming, we could have done something to counter it. Or at least have been better prepared. We lost out on a lot of money here.

>> So what can we do to prevent something similar from happening again in the future? It's a real concern that we didn't see this coming. Okay team, what can we do to best keep up with the competition?

>> I think a better way to keep up with what our competitors are up to is through a little corporate espionage.

>> Really?

>> Interesting.

>> You mean planting spies?

>> Sure. You know, maybe we can interview some of their employees. And ask them details about their products and what they're working on.

>> Well, I can see how that would give us better information.

>> Yeah, sure. And companies do it all the time. It's the best way to collect industry intel.

>> We do need a better way of learning what our, you know, what our competition is up to.

>> I think we should also try to get some Happy Time people hired by our competitors too. That way we wouldn't have to wait for the right job applicant to get information. We'd get it a lot faster.

>> That's a good point.

>> We could do both.

>> Okay, I'll run it by the leadership team and see what they say. Sorry for the short notice, everyone. I wanted to let you know to expect a call from our ethics officer.

>> Why?

>> When I ran our ideas for improving competitor intelligence past the leadership team, they were shocked. I heard an earful about how unethical we were being. Once they said it, it was pretty obvious that we were out of line. So they're calling us to make sure that we know our company's code of ethics. And that we follow it more closely in the future. This behavior is not consistent with our company's culture or ethics code.

>> I guess that wasn't a very good idea after all.

>> We deserve the reprimand. We won't make that mistake again.

>> Okay team. Should we be worried?

>> I don't think we should worry. It's probably just a fluke that we didn't see the competitor's product coming.

>> We do try to stay informed about potential threats in the industry's up and coming products. We just underestimated this one.

>> I think Alex is right. You know, maybe we shouldn't worry about it.

>> All right. I just wanted to get your thoughts on it. Back to work. Have a great day, everyone. Okay, the only item on the agenda today is the sales of the Cavity Crusher. Since our competitor released the Dual Defense a year ago, we've been quickly losing market share.

>> Kids definitely seem to prefer theirs.

>> I'm more concerned that we underestimated the popularity of the Dual Dental Defense. We were caught totally off guard by this.

>> Just like the Critter Comb, remember?

>> And it's so obvious now. But we really should have paid attention to what happened during the Critter Comb slide. We really should have learned from that situation.

>> That's what I'm thinking. We need to figure out how to prevent this problem in the future. I hate repeating mistakes. And the company can't afford to have this happen. I think it's totally preventable.

>> Absolutely.

>> Yeah.

>> I agree.

>> Yeah.

>> So.

>> It shouldn't, it should never be --

>> Okay team. What can we do to improve our product launching?

>> We should consider after action reviews every time we launch a product and a year afterwards. You know, a competitor analysis would also help us understand our relative position in each market too.

>> Yeah. We did those at my last company. They were really great at helping us understand why some things succeeded or failed. And they helped us anticipate and handle similar situations more effectively.

>> All right. And it doesn't have to take very long. It's a very simple process. First, we identify what should have happened. And then what actually happened. And then we see what differences occurred and what we learned.

>> What do we think actually happened here?

>> Well, we wanted to maintain or enhance the Critter Comb sales in the face of the new competition. But we really underestimated the popularity of the combo kit.

>> That's an understatement. We knew about it, but we didn't recognize its popularity. We were over confident about the Critter because it was selling so well. We didn't really evaluate whether the combo kit would be better or more popular.

>> Right.

>> You know, maybe we should have collected some of our own market information. And also we should have been more open to threat. And less arrogant about our product's ability to compete.

>> We might be able to require product teams to include outside members when reviewing possible competitive threats. Their distance from the product might enhance their objectivity. And they might have some good insights.

>> I agree. You know, and hopefully what we learn will keep it from happening again.

>> Great. I'll get this moving. Thanks, everyone.

>> Hey, guys. What's the news?

>> Our Cavity Crusher is really dominating the market. Did you see our latest sales numbers?

>> Oh, wow. They look great.

>> With the success of the Cavity Crusher, I think we should make after action reviews a part of our culture here. We should do them for every product.

>> I agree. They don't take much time. But, when we're all so busy and ready to move onto the next project, it can be easy to move on without reflecting on what could have been done better.

>> Well, that's also a great way of making mistakes stop. And these after action reviews are perfect for preventing that. And my team has been very engaged in doing them so.

>> Thanks, folks.

>> Thanks.

>> Let's keep this up.

>> Yeah.

>> All right.

>> You got it.

1. In what ways might culture influence how responsive Happy Time Toys is to competitor threats?

2. How are ethics illustrated in these videos? What is the best way to ensure decisions are made ethically?

3. Based on the chapter, what other suggestions would you make to change the culture to enhance responsiveness to the environment and why would you suggest them?

Answer 1

Happy time toys culture as can be seen from the above conversation is a very ethical one and decisions are made within the ethical boundaries. The Ethical culture also influences the competitive behavior of the firm in which the firm competes without any underhand tactics.It can also be seen that few people are influenced to do unethical things to beat the competition, however, the management has checks and balances in place to avoid that.We can see that the management is very aware of the decisions which breach their ethics and they have also put a mechanism in place so that ethical violations do not take place. The management also has an awareness and sensitivity program for employees so that they are aware of the ethical code and its implications. Also, the employees themselves have realized that what they were proposing is unethical and hence must be discarded. The best way to ensure that decisions are made ethically is to create an ethical work culture where anything unethical is frowned upon and discarded immediately. It is important for management to make it clear that unethical decisions will not be supported in any way.

To change the culture to enhance responsiveness to the environment, it is important to have a process in place to analyze and evaluate the actions of competitors and their impact on the company's product and sales. Putting in process and documenting it ensures that employees have to follow it and therefore cannot avoid competitor's analysis based on their own judgement.The process must also have a action plan if the company finds a competitors product to be threat and the action plan must be put in place after due approvals. This will ensure that the company is sensitive to competitors threats.