Scott Kelly, XYZs marketing vice president, was shouting on the telephone to Tom Evers, director of new

Fantastic news! We've Found the answer you've been seeking!

Question:

Scott Kelly, XYZ’s marketing vice president, was shouting on the telephone to Tom Evers, director of new product development in XYZ’s R&D laboratories: “We’re going to kick off a major ad campaign aimed to make people want your new model appliance, just before we start delivering them to dealers, and I want to be sure your production date is firm and not one of those best estimates you’ve stuck us with in the past.” Taking a quick breath, he continued: “You people in R&D don’t have much credibility with marketing! You don’t tell us what you’re up to until it’s too late for us to advise you or interact in any way. I still remember the money you spent on that water purifier we didn’t want. And it didn’t help your credibility when you tried to keep the project alive after we told you to kill it!”

Tom assured Scott that the schedule for starting production was absolutely firm. “We’ve run extensive tests, including life tests, and everything definitely indicates ‘go’! We’re going to do a small pilot production run and test those pilot units in employee homes. That’s a purely routine confirmation, so I can assure you that the production date is locked in. Go ahead with your ad campaign—we’re giving you a sure winner this time.”

But Tom was wrong. A glitch appeared near the end of the pilot test and was very close to the production date. In a hastily called engineering meeting, to which marketing was not invited, a quick-fix design change was approved. Another short pilot production run would be made, and the revised units would again be tested in employee homes. A delay of one to two months, perhaps longer, for the start of production was indicated. With this schedule set, Tom arranged a meeting to appraise marketing of the problem and the new production schedule.

Scott exploded as soon as Tom began his account of the production delay. “You gave me a firm production date! We’ve got a major ad campaign underway, and its timing is critical. We’ll have customers asking for these new models, and the dealers won’t have them. We’ll look silly to our customers, and our dealers will be upset.”

“Now wait,” Tom interrupted, “I didn’t give you the production date as absolutely firm. I remember cautioning you that a problem could develop in the pilot run and suggested you allow for it in kicking off the ad campaign. I told you we’d do our best to make the date but that there’s always an element of chance with a new machine. We’re better off having customers asking dealers where the new models are than being out there with a big quality problem.”

Required: Has Scott’s behavior damaged future relations between marketing and R&D? In what way? How could this situation have been avoided?

Source: Adapted from W. Gale Cutler, “When R&D Talks, Marketing Listens—on Tape,” Research-Technology Management 37, no. 4 (July–August 1994), p. 56.