Case Study

MediSys Corp.: The IntensCare Group 8

Product Development Team
 Introduction

IntensCare Project
Contents
Issues and Possible Solutions

Recommendation
 Introduction

MediSys Corp is a privately held U.S based medical device manufacturer, founded in 2002

Company developing, manufacturing and selling medical monitoring systems for hospital segment

IntensCare was also one among the many initiatives which were gaining importance at a
supersonic rate
Entrepreneurial culture fostered innovative thinking across the organization

Known for its successful launches Specialty pulmonary and Renal monitoring system

Annual revenue of $400 million in 2008 and employed 1,750 people

Changing working style & culture

Sequential product development approach -

Leadership Engineering Marketing & R&D

R&D Production
Accord & Software Sales Member

Parallel product development approach - Marketing &

Production
Sales

Beaumont introduced a parallel working system,

Project Leader

A core team consisted of members from critical functions,

Product
Regulatory
engineering
Worked together continuously to move the product from conceptual to final
production,
Software
design
The way forward - Command and control culture & cross functional working
 IntensCare Project Timeline

September October December January August August

June 2007 July 2007
2006 2006 2006 2008 2008 2009

R&D person Sales Conversion Ad hoc Senior Beaumont Beaumont Projected

gets Person Vets include team Leadership hired as Formalizes IntensCare
inspiration the Software presents of Medisys President NPD and Launch
for the concept in desginer product allocate charters a date
product the Market concept to $500,000 core team
senior to to develop
leaders developme IntenCare
nt of
IntensCare
IntensCare was a patient monitoring system, started in September 2006 by Aaron Gerson.

The company had invested nearly $20.5MM prior to 2008 and additional $20MM was invested towards rapid
development.
Issues and Possible Solutions
Issues Possible Solution Related OBE Concept
Resource Allocation Dedicated resource should be allocated for engineering, Management functions:
design and production. Resource Allocation

Improper Coordination and lack of interaction among A structured reporting system into Valerie should be Management functions:
cross-functional teams formed. tracker to track all the activities could solve Coordination &
this Communication
Using a centralized issue.
Passive Acceptance of Leader A higher authority could have involved, and all the Knowing Self:
members should have expressed their concerns to Blind Spot.
maintain transparency
Outsourced Design Either Art Beaumont or Valerie should connect to the Reinforcement Theory
outsourcing company CEO and express the urgency of Negative Reinforcement
delivery and should emphasise on imposing penalties
for losses due to delay.

Change in evaluation and reporting Since management working style was changing from Organizational Resistance to
free and entrepreneurial style to cross-functional, there change Organisational design
was a need to revise employee evaluation and reporting
criteria's.
 Issues and Possible Solutions (Cont..)
Inappropriate Power Allocation Formal power should have been allocated to Valerie by Art so that she could keep Power, Politics & Conflict:
each member of the team accountable for their actions. Process power

Clarity on inclusion of Valerie should clearly state the need to include modularity in the first version of the Management functions:
modularity launch to Jack Fogel and team. Goal setting

Executives need to look at the Everyone in the team needs to be aligned towards the bigger goal achievement Planning: Goal setting
bigger picture instead of focusing only on their functional roles.

Changing management working The introduction of the change by Art was an excellent effort. Dedicating the team Change Management: Managing
style to IntensCare Project would help them interact cross-functionally, thus help resolve the Planned Change Process
this problem.
Stopping Valerie from leaving Art should sit with Valerie and discuss the issues of lack of authority, transparency, Management concepts:
the organisation resources and visibility on project development and Art needs to ensure solutions to Controlling
all as we discussed above immediately,
Recommendation

A proper hierarchy needs to be formed under Valerie such that people report into her which would help her manage
and track the project happenings in a better manner.

Daily meetings among design & development and engineering team should take place. Alternate day meeting by
Jack Fogel with the entire team should happen. Twice a week meeting between Jack and Valerie on project
progress.

Now on, working 6 days a week would provide the team desired time to deliver the product as per desired
specifications.

Dedicated resources needs to be put in for IntensCare such that nobody is under stress/pressure of delivering the
project. Also, modularity design is also imbibed in first version of the project appropriately.
Thank you
 Appendix Organization Structure

Art
Beamount
President

Len Peter Arnie Zoe

Martha Hill
Broman Fisher Frederick Thompson
VP Design & Enginerring VP Production VP Sales & Marketing Research & Development VP Administration

Dipesh Bret O Valerie Aaron

Jack Fogel Karen Baio
Mukerjee Bren Merz Gerson
Software Design Manager
Software Engineering
Manager
Senior Production Manager &
Intense Care Project Leader
Marketing Manager, Intense
Care Business Leader Scientist Regulatory Affairs