Vipul Rastogi was ultimately thrilled that the highly prestigious project team he led had completed the project

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Vipul Rastogi was ultimately thrilled that the highly prestigious project team he led had completed the project successfully before the agreed timeline. It was a challenging project for Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation. His company won this high-value prestigious project competing against global and Indian IT giants. However, after signing the project agreement, they realized that they had committed grave mistakes by offering an unrealistic time of completion of the project, which had financial penalty provisions for the delay and the project cost estimates. As a result, the company would be making a significant loss instead of making any profit.

The project details and financials were done by Vipul Rastogi, the company's vice-president of BFS (Banking and Financial Services). He had negotiated and signed the contract (MOU)with Mitsui Banking Corporation on behalf of the company. This company is one of the high-profile IT solution companies in India. It was a 16 months project and a risky project as any failure in terms of time lime of completion or desired IT solution outcomes would seriously affect their prospect of business with that Bank and other companies in Japan, besides the significant losses they would incur. Vipul was extremely upset about making a major mistake in estimating the resources, including the cost of talent with the right competencies required to hire locally and the time required for several critical stages of said IT solution project. He realized that his decision based on the evidence of successful completion of similar projects in some Asian counties ignoring the considerable cost differences between Japan and those counties was wrong.

Moreover, he became overconfident in committing to the timeline when the project's timeline became a critical negotiating point for winning the project in the face of stiff completion. He was cursing himself for such mistakes. The company could not even cancel the contract. Cancellation would hurt the company's reputation, consequently adversely impacting future business. He knew his job would in stake. He had a fast career growth track so far, which would possibly be going in another direction, Vipul thought. Vipul didn't know how to face Arvind Thakur, his boss, who is CEO and one of the founding leaders of the company. Being under unbearable mental tension, Vipul thought he should meet Arvind, admit his grievous mistake, and put his paper.

Vipul did so; he dialed Arvind's mobile number. Arvind asked him to meet immediately. Vipul met him. Vipul was surprised to know that Arvind was aware of the wrong estimate of the project's time, competency, and cost. What was more surprising for him was someone who informed Arvind about the mistakes and exaggerated the mistakes done by him. Being curious, Vipul appealed to Arvind, "Arvind, I know I made gross mistakes. Will you kindly let me know who has informed you and given all those details to you?" Arvind replied, "Well, Vipul, please don't ask me who gave all these details. By knowing that, you will neither become wiser nor will find an answer to how to solve the crisis." Vipul was disturbed; he thought, "is someone trying to influence Arvind unduly for his or her personal motive to undermine my past successes? Who could he or she be? Is it that someone is also aspiring for the position of Europe business head for which I am sounded earlier by Arvind? Any away, I'm no more in the game; I am quitting! But who it could be?" Vipul inquisitively asked, "Arvind, I'm still interested to know because whoever has briefed you, he or she over-exaggerated the mistakes in several areas. It also gives me the sense that the person spoken to you is quite conversant with such foreign projects."

Arvind smiled and said "Don't you think I could not guess that the person had tried exaggerating everything. Possibly, tried to play politics. Leave this matter to me to deal with. What is important now is to think how do we encash this project for positive consequences even we make some loss for the time being." Vipul reacted immediately, "Encahsing this project for positive consequences! Are you normal? The company will lose a significant amount of money and, more particularly, it will have negative consequences on our market reputation. And all this because of my grievous mistakes! Here is my paper, Arvin. Request you to accept it and release me at the earliest, and relieve me from the mental tension I am going through " Vipul put his resignation letter on Arvin's table

"Don't be crazy! Do you think I'm going to allow you to resign? Mistakes teach us to do the impossible! But, we can show to the world that we can do miracles, and I know you can do that, Vipul", Arvind replied and tore off his resignation letter.

Arvind continued, "Vipul, what I want you to do is as follows. Listen to me carefully. First, set your clear vision of winning the mind and heart of the top management of Mitsui Banking Corporation by showing that we can do the impossible. Second, set your stretched goal of completing the project on time. Third, select the best team members available inside or outside who are not only highly competent for the project but great team players and love to work on challenging assignments. You must be very choosy in selecting the team for the project. Fourth, don't even bother with the cost and expenses. That is my call. Lastly, I insist that you take three or four days leave along with the coming weekend and go on a short vacation for 4 or 5 days with Snigdha, your wife, and your sweet two kids, Pikul and Paulami; mind it is not your choice, but it is my dictate.' Arvind further added, "for your information, I know the bank's chairman, Takeshi Kunibe, quite well, but I'm not going to talk to him unless needed, that too only for time slippage, if any. So relax. If there be slight timeline slippage, I'll take care of it."

Vipul didn't know what to say, "I accept the challenge, Arvind. Thank you so much for deposing your confidence on me and giving me another chance to prove myself."

After returning from a short vacation in Goa, Vipul spent time with the company's HR Head to prepare a list of junior and mid-level executives with varieties of competencies required to competencies. He made a long list of 62 executives and went through their personal files and performance record during the last three years, and then shortlisted 35 executives based on the criterion of overachieving targets consistently. After that, he spoke with the respective divisional heads and their immediate supervisor to gather information about their team playing behavior and positive attitude, which made him bring down the list to 25. Lastly, he spent over an hour with each of them to assess the level of their keenness to be a part of a team that is attempting to achieve something appearing to be impossible. Thus, he ultimately chose nine members directly in the project team and another five to support the project work as and when required. He sent the names to Arvind. Within the next two days, all those nine team members were released to work on the project on a full-time basis, and the rest five members to work part-time basis on the project work priority basis along with regular work.

A day before the team started working on the project, Arvind addressed the entire team of fourteen members and Vipul. He explained in detail what the project was about, how critical the project outcome was for the company, and what a tremendous positive impact the team could make on the company's future business prospects if the team could complete the project on time without any defect. He emphasized the unsurmountable challenges associated with the project. He cited a few examples of how some of the great people immortalized themselves at the national and professional levels by making the impossible happen. He emphasized his personal stake in the project's success and failures and the opportunity of lifetime learning each of them likely to have, even failed to achieve the vision and goals of the project. He also appraised their opportunity of working under a great leader, mentor, and coach like Vipul. He encouraged them always to challenge the status quo and challenged their ideas; the need for innovative solutions to achieve vision and goals. He assured them all support and his desire to share his ideas wherever they would need. He also assured them not to be afraid of failing, but they should not give up. In the end, he hugged each of them and appreciated their courage to accept the impossible challenge. He would be keeping an eye on their professional growth and well-being individually.

As the project began, Vipul took them to Pelling in Sikkim for four days for a team-building exercise that included rock climbing with the professional support from "Kolkata Trekkers Youth" associated with the Indian Mountaineering Foundation. That made them know and understand each others' values, beliefs, and interests closely. Finally, last day before leaving Pelling, on their own without being guided by Vipul or the professional instructor, joined together and pledged to complete the project as a mission on time, signed it off, and handed over the pledge to Vipul.

Vipul gave them free hand to work independently as a team, let them choose each of their role assignments, to prepare the project work gnat chart, success milestones, quality targets, and work norms. The team started frequently meeting to review the progress. Observing great enthusiasm, confidence, and competence, Vipul empowered them to make decisions and encouraged them to take ownership of completion goals. Vipul focused on coordinating with the concerned employees of Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation associated with the project and with internal department functions ensuring all resources and collaboration. He met all team members individually and together as and when required for all kinds of resources, including externally sourcing skilled manpower and financial resources. He primarily took the role of mentor and coach. Also coordinated with admin function for all logistics and travel-related supports as and when required to visit the Bank's headquarter and other branches of Bank in Japan or other counties. Though initially there were a few troubles and miss of time target, the team could catch up with time and work quality by learning from those initial mistakes and going on full speed mode after that. As they crossed each milestone or attained the internal and stage-wise quality parameters, Vipul either threw a party where Arvind and the divisional heads also participated in encouraging the team or took them together for a trip to a nearby location to celebrate. Vipul used to get some time worried about observing that some of them work a stretch for 24 to 30 hours without sleep. He thought such long hours of work without sleep for at least seven hours a day would affect their health and might even affect the quality of the project. He tried to counsel them several times not to work at a stretch not more than 12 hours and must have a proper sleep but could not make much change in their work behavior. Vipul also learned that the whole team often goes on a short trip with their motorbikes without his knowledge during the weekend. While Vipul was worried that riding motorbikes on high ways could be quite risky, felt happy that the team was cohesive and enjoying each other's associations. During one of his interactions with the team, he asked them what's making them so energetic and passionate to drive project progress. All of the equivocally conveyed that the fuel to their energy was the amount of learning they were having every moment aiming to achieve something which looked initially almost impossible to achieve.

Arvind met the entire team with Vipul on four occasions when the team successfully crossed their internal success milestones. The first thing he enquired about every time he met them was their learnings and personal well-being. Each time he met them, he made them challenge their ideas and think of a solution differently. All the members also praised Vipul to Arvind for the invaluable coaching and mentoring support, the kind of empowerment they continued to enjoy.

A week before the scheduled timeline of the internal project milestone and three weeks before the agreed timeline, the project was ready for the pilot run as per the contact with the banks. When Vipul gave this information to Arvind, he jumped out of his seat like a child and hugged Vipul. Arvind immediately dialed K Saito, the senior vice president of Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, in charge of the project. Saito replied, "I know the pilot run is ready; trust me, I could not believe myself. I knew your company had signed an unrealistic deadline, and I was sure you would pay the penalty for the delay as per the MOU. But your guys proved me wrong.". Arvind replied, "Yes, I was also very apprehensive about it." Saito added, "I checked the quality and did some small local run; it had worked well. I Hope, the pilot runs for the next three months goes perfectly. If there are some teething troubles here and there, nothing to worry about. To appreciate the great talent and wonderful team spirit of the whole team, including the team at our end, we decided to pick up the cost of the corrections, if any. So you don't have to bear it. Convey my best wishes and heartfelt congratulations to Vipul san and his team."

Arvind invited the whole team and all the divisional heads and other tops 30 executives next Saturday to his residence for a cocktail and dinner to celebrate the occasion

The pilot run went off well with some minor corrections.

Questions:

What kind of hidden traps of decision-making Vipul suffered from in deciding the cost and project timeline (Justify your answer)

2. In terms of context, team design, and team process, according to you, what are the factors that contributed to the team's success

3. a) What is organizational politics? b) Do you think someone played politics as Arvind was thinking? (Justify your answer)

4. What was the motivational factor that made the team members work tirelessly even on some occasions going without sleep? (Please answer the question by applying any theories of motivation)