Molly Stevens, account manager for Fletcher, was pondering her next move with Tymco, her largest account. Fletcher manufactures a line of pumps, electric motors, and controls that are sold to companies that use Fletcher’s parts in manufacturing all kinds of equipment. Tymco, a maker of street sweepers and other specialized industrial products, had purchased Fletcher controls for the past five years, but also purchased controls from several small distributors for specific applications when Fletcher’s products couldn’t meet the specifications. Molly originally sold the controls by proving to the engineering department that Fletchers’ quality could meet its specifications and by demonstrating the control’s accuracy and long life. Then she convinced the purchasing agent that the pricing would be more stable with one major vendor than with multiple distributors. Since then, Molly has heard no complaints about Fletcher’s products. Tymco even allowed a trade magazine to write an article about Tymco’s experience with Fletcher controls. Early last year, Molly was able to persuade the purchasing agent for Tymco to switch to Fletcher electric motors for several applications. Although engineering was not involved in this decision, Molly had to prove to the purchasing agent that the products were as good as the ones they were currently purchasing. Molly estimated that Fletcher had about 30 percent of the Tymco motor business, 30 percent went to Visa SA from Mexico, and the remainder of the business belonged to Smart & Co., which actually distributed several lines of electric motors imported from the Pacific Rim. Last month, Molly received a call from the director of engineering asking for a meeting to discuss some issues with Fletcher motors. She was delighted, because one of the Fletcher engineers had suggested combining Fletcher motors and controls and shipping the units as one assembly. Molly felt that such a meeting would be a perfect opportunity to present the new idea. Molly created and presented a proposal to the engineering department that, if accepted, would mean doubling Fletcher’s share of the electric motor business. The proposal would require some redesign by Tymco, but the savings over two years would be more than the redesign costs. After that, Tymco could increase profits by about 3 percent on those products. But several engineers pointed out that Fletcher was unwilling to manufacture controls for all of Tymco’s needs and they were reluctant to make such a change with a company that was not willing to work closer with them. In addition, one engineer seemed very unhappy that the purchasing department had switched to Fletcher motors. She felt that the reject rate of 2 percent was too high; all of Tymco’s other vendors were achieving lower than 1 percent rejects. At the conclusion of the meeting, the director of engineering said, “Molly, we’ve enjoyed a long and good relationship with Fletcher. And your idea is a good one. Right now, though, I don’t think Fletcher is the company we should do that with. But we’ll consider it and let you know.”

1. In what stage of partnering is the relationship between Fletcher and Tymco?

2. Is there anything Molly could have done to set the stage for better acceptance of her proposal?

3. What should she do right now? If her visionary objective is to develop a strategic partnership with Tymco, is it still realistic? What should she do to achive that visionary objective?

Answer rating: 100% (QA)

1 Based on the information provided it seems that Fletcher and Tymco are in a longterm partnership M... View the full answer