Case Study

MediSys Corp.: The IntensCare Product Group 7

Development Team
 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

Organizational Chart
Art Beaumont,
President

Arnie Frederick,
Len Brown, VP Martha Hill, VP Peter Fisher, VP VP Zoe Thompson, VP
Design & Production Sales & Marketing Research & Administration
Engineering Development

Jack Fogel
Valerie Merz
Senior Production
Marketing Manager, Aaron Gerson Karen Baio
Manager &
IntensCare Business Scientist Regulatory Affairs
IntensCare Project
Leader
Leader

Dipesh Mukerjee Bret O’ Brien

Software Design Senior Engineering
Manager Manager
Changing working style & culture

Sequential product development approach -

Leadership Engineering Marketing & R&D

R&D Production
Accord & Software Sales Member

Parallel product development approach - Production

Marketing &
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 Management functions:
cross-functional teams be formed. tracker to track all the activities could Coordination &
solve 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 (Contd.)
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 Management functions:
modularity the 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 Controlling
to all as we discussed above immediately,
 Situation Analysis

• Two major competitors were planning to move into the firms market and products designed to
compete with IntensCare
• Beaumont made changes to organizational structure to counteract these threats :
 Beaumont created an Executive Committee consisting of 5 Vice Presidents from different functional areas
 Parallel development process was introduced by creating cross-functional teams
 Delays in hardware engineering
 Delays in software development
 Modular design
 Behind in clinical testing schedules
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