Case 4.1: SRI International Case Summary Akshay Menon, head of SRI’s Dallas operations is in fix in deciding to purchase scanners for the company. He asked to know the perception of several high employees regarding the purchase decision. In the case, we have noticed several options were available to purchase the scanner. The Production manager, chief financial officer, human resources manager were trying to influence to purchase the scanner as the best option. As several managers suggested him different brands of scanners and he was in dilemma to purchase the scanner in deciding the best option.
Question 1: List the roles that each person plays in the buying center. Can you identify where
Menon is in making a decision, and what he should do next? Other than Menon, who is the most important and why? Answer: According to this case, several people are involved in purchasing scanner. The roles of each person in the buying center are given below
Akshay Menon (Head of SRI’s Dallas)- Initiator, Decision maker George Whitaker (CFO)- Controller Margie Cabellero ( PM)- Influencer Gloria Sigel (HR)- Influencer George Whitaker (CFO)- Influencer Margie Cabellero ( PM)- User
The decision maker Akshay Menon can emphasize mostly on the perception of Margie Cabellero, user because she is directly involved with production process and know better which one is the most suitable for the operation process. After evaluating this case, we have noticed the production manager Margie Cabellero is the most important because she is mainly the user of scanners in the production process of this organizations. Question 2: Identify sources of risk for each member of the buying center. What are they
risking? How important does that risk seem to be? How would you reduce that risk if you were a scanner salesperson? Answer: Risk is usually thought of in terms of the probability of an outcome and the importance or cost associated with the outcome. On the basis of the case it can determine the risks from the angle of each members of the buying centre in the flowing ways-
Akshay Menon (CEO) as a decision maker faced all sorts of risks mentioned above like financial, performance and social risk.
Margie Cabellero (PM), on the other hand, faced performance risk only. George Whitaker (CFO) faced both the financial and performance risk. Gloria Sigel (HR) faced both performance and social risk. All of the risks were important from their own angle. But the financial and performance risk seem to be important to make the decision. Question 3: Assume you market scanners, and this situation is pretty typical of what you find.
How would this information influence your marketing activities? Be as specific as possible. Answer There are a lot of conflicts regarding in purchasing situation of buying center. These sorts of destructive outcomes may hamper the marketing activities. From the marketing perspectives, these sorts of conflicts are given below Targeting difficulties- Without appropriate segmenting of the markets, targeting of the appropriate party is actually pretty difficult. Positioning difficulties- All parties of the buying center working as the conflicting brain. As a result, they can’t get the appropriate message in simultaneously and arise in conflicts in positioning strategy. Overall dissatisfaction- A buying center is the overall conflicting area in the working place. If a one party is ignored, this party always tries to find out the fault of this purchasing decision. As a result, the overall dissatisfaction arise among the employees as well as the buying center. In the conclusion stage, marketers should consider these threats in the buying process and need to take tactical steps to overcome such conflicts in the buying process.
Case 4.2: Environmental Services Case Summary Environmental Services (ES) is an independent company offering high quality technical services in the discipline of environmental consulting services. Their engineers use oversized screens to handle the size of the engineering drawings and they want to upgrade their networks and workstations. Sylvia Kelly was the most junior partner of the purchasing committee and she wanted to make sure the organization’s needs were met. On the other hand, Frank Bruns the senior partner on the committee and he was the responsible for the first time purchasing of the network. He is proud of his bringing the firm out of the dark ages. Question 1: Explain Sylvia’s and Frank’s motivations in terms of the buyer behavior choice
model. You may need to make assumptions about their jobs, so be sure to state those. Answer Behavior choice theory refers the buyers go through a choice process to arrive at decisions of how they will buy as opposed to the choice process of what will be bought as a part of buy-grid. Based on this case, Sylvia’s attitude reflected as company orientation because having enough power on the committee, she wanted to make sure that the organization’s needs were met. Frank Brus, has gone through the choice process is to evaluate the personal relevance. He was proud of purchasing the first network and a self-proclaimed gadgeteer and he was planning to explore the possibility of outsourcing through his best decision making skill. Sylvia and Frank both are the partners of purchasing committee. They have different outlook in purchasing decision. One is company oriented and other one is more engaged on personal relevance. But both wanted to make sure the firm’s benefits along with their personal and organizational viewpoint. Question 2: What are the risks that Sylvia and Frank face?
Answer According to our case, when Sylvia was purchased in the last time the system went down. As we know, when a product is not perform as intended the performance risk will occur. Both performance and financial risk would be realized at that situation because the performance risk of the product is crucial to the financial performance of the firm. On the other hand, Frank has scheduled a trip for the executive committee to Hyderabad, India, to visit Tata’s headquarters to avoid the social risk. Question 3: Explain their motivation in terms of reward/measurement. Again, state any
assumptions you have to make about their jobs. Answer The motivation is relevant in terms of reward/ measurement. Based on this case information, we have noticed Sylvia is company oriented committee partner in purchasing decision process. Extrinsic rewards are comparatively relevant for Sylvia’s situation of
purchasing. Along with Frank was more concerned on his self-proclaimed gadgeteer and encouraged committee members to meet Tata Technologies for better offshore computer engineering firm that shows the motivation of Frank. Sylvia and Frank both are the purchasing committee partner and they have different view regarding the purchasing situation. Sylvia was concerned for the organization to make sure about the organizational met through reducing performance and financial risks. On the other hand, Frank was self-proclaimed gadgeteer to encourage the committee members to make a trip at the Tata’s technologies to avoid the social risk and explore the possibility of outsourcing some of the firm’s easier work. Question 4: What would you do if you were a salesperson proposing a computer system to the
company? Which model would be more helpful to you, and why? Answer According to reward-measurement theory, intrinsic rewards, extrinsic rewards are considered. As though, valence, perceived probability, motivation are considered to make a purchase decision. In this theory, self-efficacy is an important issue to improve this through demonstrations and free trial or increase the perceptions through the buyer’s experience and knowledge. Behavior choice theory refers many factors as self-oriented, company oriented, evaluation of personal relevance and others. For company oriented employees, they seek the maximization of the company’s benefits, use offensive strategies and others. After evaluating these two models as a salesperson I would prefer to propose behavior choice model to achieve personal benefits through maximizing organizational goals. Because in this model, both formal reward, informal reward systems and intrinsic rewards are included and easily feasible to figure out rather than reward-choice theory.
