1.

How should Acorn organize now, considering both their commercial

business and their growing government business? Following pure project
organization is more appropriate for the organization at his moment. This
will allow the new projects to function independently and hence their
success or failure would not affect the existing lucrative commercial
business. As the new defence projects require more of R&D and
collaboration with production planning, a pure project organizational
approach would allow for the synergy and would provide holistic view of
the project. It will put client as focus of activity and Project manager will
have full control over the project which is of at most importance for long
term projects. But this approach needs more staffing and resources should
be spent to hire more technically superior employees.

2. How can Acorn quickly increase it project management maturity? Case

study states about the lack of sufficient data regarding project
management. Therefore, Acorn should first invest in technologies such as
warehouse which will help in gathering the data and analysing on it. Then
utilizing the research done in the field of project management, a team of
project managers at Acorn should decide on a model which will access the
maturity of project management. Kerzner model is one of such industry
best models. This would then give the company an idea on the areas to
improve. Initial major focus has to be laid on bringing about consistency
and control over the projects which could then give space for trying out
new methods to improve performance.

3. What should Acorn do about the KMIP incentive program?

organizational structure, KMIP would have to expand its incentive
program to more than the higher management. KIMP would be awarded
to teams based on measurable performance, such as, quantitative or
qualitative desire goals that would be completed in a specified period of
time, such as annually or quarterly. The incentive programs would
contain formulas for pay outs, with clear and understandable formulas.
For example, if the goal was for savings, the savings would be split
between the teams and the employees or if the goal was for
performance improvement, Acorn would distribute funds according to
what was budgeted for the performance improvement. Also, KIMP would
contain employee participation that would involve employees in the
organizational changes, giving them a clear understanding of what
Acorns objectives are and what the employee specific role is when it
comes to meeting the objectives [

5. As Acorn continues to grow, should it consider adopting a matrix

structure? As Acorn expands its portfolio of government contracts while
maintaining its successful commercial product line, it will be reasonable
to adopt a matrix organizational structure. The personnel and technical
capacity of the functional departments can be assigned to the various
government contracts and the commercial work as needed, allowing for
efficient use of each department’s resources. Such an arrangement
could, however, create more chances for conflict amongst project
managers and between project managers and functional managers over
resource allocation. Thus, a matrix structure would require a robust
program management office to set general guidelines on how to
distribute resources, ensure that the activities of project and functional
managers are aligned with company priorities, and mediate particularly
serious disputes. Furthermore, the realignment of the incentive program
will help the transition to a matrix structure.

6. How should Ken Hawks proceed now? What should he do first, and
then what should follow? We can see that Acorn is lacking strong
leadership and the talent for project management and need for
organizational structure change. However, the top priority of the
company now is to centralize efforts to come up with new contract
proposals to increase investment in R&D regarding the predicted order
shortages for government contracts. Then, more efforts should be
towards leveraging and including the program manager into the
decisions to compete competitively with other corporations. Having a
skilful program manager will help with resource management, project
implementation and synchronization. Furthermore, there should be a
solution for the shortage of young talent in the project management team
that can potentially hinder the organizational growth. For example, the
general manager can give more power to the project manager to recruit
talents to avoid the bias evaluations and the struggles in competing for
talents with functional managers. Lastly, an organizational structure
 change is needed to allow teams to work cross-functionally and allows
the flexibility of information as well as resources. Establishing a more
linear organizational structure above is a reasonable change that
promotes communication between functional managers, project
managers and employees, thus allows more efficient information flows
and resources allocation.

Solution

Project Management

Page 180-184 Case Study

1.       The growth and development of the company can be achieved by acquiring different
other companies. The company has a good reputation for processing a better
technical product. It has a strong marketing department. Acquiring another company
will help the company to diversify in other fields in government contracts.
2.       The company can quickly increase the maturity of project management by
increasing the expertise of individuals. Experienced individuals should be assigned
to the most important tasks.
3.       Future planning within each division under the KMIP should not be standing.
Changes should be made so that incentives are not given just based on the
achievement of goals at the end of the year because, in this way, most managers did
not worry themselves about organizational growth rather, they were just focused on
the annual objective.
4.       Managers of projects and functional managers have been responsible for evaluating
the performance of individuals who have been assigned different projects.  This
approach should be continued in the Acorn due to the shortage of abundant talent.
5.       As the industry grows, it should consider matrix structure because one project
manager handling all the divisions focuses on profitability and does not interact with
the individuals.
6.       Acorn industry should first do what it can do in the best way. It should look for
similar product lines. It should look for products that do not need research and
development. It should invest more in proper project planning.