Case Study: The Strategy That Wouldn't Travel (HBR Case Study and Commentary)

By: Ravi Venkatesan and Martha Maznevski and Lloyd Baird and Gary Banks and Michael C. Beers

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Synopsis: In early 1995, Karen Jimenez began implementing a project to boost morale and productivity at Acme Minerals Extraction Co.'s plant in Wichita, Kansas. The team-based productivity project, as it is known, was designed to induce similar results at all of Acme's plants. But now, in the fall of 1996, Jimenez seems to have run into a brick wall at the second site targeted for improvement--the plant in Lubbock, Texas. The tactics that worked so well in Wichita are failing. And, as a meeting with Acme's senior managers looms in this fictional case study, Jimenez must rethink the issues and explain how the project can be put back on track. What can be done? The company has earmarked big bucks for the project, and the CEO's ego and reputation are wrapped up in it. In 96602 and 96602Z, commentators Ravi Venkatesan, Lloyd Baird, Martha Maznevski, and Gary Banks offer advice on this fictional case study.