MediSys_Corp._The_IntensCare_Product_Development_Team_Case_Analysis

1. MediSys Corp.: The IntensCare Product Development Team Case Analysis
Mari Zaridze
School of Economics, Business and Administration of the University of Georgia
Instructor: Shalva Dundua
Tbilisi
2011

2. MediSys Corp. 2
Table of Contents
Introduction............................................................................................................................................3
Company Background and Product Development Procedures ..............................................................4
Problem Description.............................................................................................................................10
Alternative Solutions and Recommendations ......................................................................................16
Conclusion............................................................................................................................................27
References ............................................................................................................................................28

3. MediSys Corp. 3
Introduction
MediSys is a U.S.-based medical device manufacturer. It has been developing IntensCare
project, a new medical system for monitoring patients in intensive care units. This project
represents the most ambitious move in the company’s 10-year history. The company had
invested large finances in this project and the market eagerly awaits its launch. The product
development team consisting of people from several functional areas of the company, has been
working on the product for six months but is now facing significant problems with the product
design, clinical testing, meeting the production deadlines, and their own group dynamics. The
pressure had also increased because of competitors also planning to launch similar products
within the year. Several team members are concerned about meeting the team's goals. The
relationship between team members is quite tense and it doesn’t promise much progress.
This analysis will focus on team management and its dynamics, analyze the situation and
diagnose problems in IntensCare product development team. The analysis will provide viable
solutions and recommendations to the problem and offer various techniques and activities from
different disciplines that can help MediSys Corp. launch its product successfully.

4. MediSys Corp. 4
Company Background and Product Development Procedures
MediSys Corp is a privately held medical device manufacturer, founded in 2002 and
based in USA. The company has 1750 employees. MediSys develops, manufactures and sells
medical monitoring systems for hospitals. Its first two products, pulmonary and renal monitoring
systems, had high success in the hospital segment. Despite the fact that the company is relatively
small, it’s quite profitable with revenues reported to be $400 million in 2008.
MediSys established an entrepreneurial culture fostering innovative thinking among the
employees. As a result, the company had numerous promising initiatives at various stages of
development – from redesign to development of new systems. IntensCare is one of such new
systems.
MediSys had two major competitors, with considerable resources and strong image in the
industry, who were also planning to move into the company’s key markets with products
designed to compete with IntensCare. To counteract these threats, new president, Art Beaumont,
was hired in January, 2008. Beaumont introduced several changes in the company’s organization
structure:
 Beaumont created an Executive Committee consisting of 5 Vice Presidents from
different functional areas, particularly: sales and marketing, research &
development, design and engineering, production, and administration.
Beaumont’s intention was to create an executive team that would formulate and
implement an effective business strategy.
 He also created a cross-functional team, including people from all critical
functions. This, as he believed, would speed the product development.
The chart below shows MediSys’s organization structure:

5. MediSys Corp. 5
Exhibit 1: MediSys Organization Chart, 2009
Source: (Donnellon, Margoli, 2009, p. 8)
Note: Blue shading indicates Management committee members; Green shading indicates IntensCare “core team” members.
Art Beaumont
President
Len Broman
VP
Design&
Engineering
Dipesh Mukerjee
Software Design
Manager
Bret O’Brien
Senior
Engineering
Manager
Martha Hill
VP
Production
Jack Fogel
Senior Production
Managrer &
IntensCare Project
Leader
Peter Fisher
VP
Sales & Marketing
Valerie Merz
Marketing
Manager,
IntensCare
Business
Leader
Arnie Frederick
VP
Research&
Development
Aaron Gerson
Scientist
Zoe Thompson
VP
Administration
Karen Baio
Regulatory
Affairs

6. MediSys Corp. 6
Product development procedures in MediSys followed several sequential steps:
1. First, R&D staff proposed new technologies or new systems that could yield new
business opportunities.
2. Second, the new idea was offered to senior leaders. Once they agreed on it, the
project was passed to Sales & Marketing to develop product descriptions according to
customers’ needs, which were forwarded to Product Engineering and Software
Design departments.
3. Engineering and Software Design developed them into product specifications, and
passed those on to the Regulatory group which conducted research and clinical trials,
if necessary, to test system prototypes.
4. Once the trial and testing were finalized, the project was passed on to the production
group, responsible for assembly and fabrication of the product.
IntensCare project was pioneered in much the same way as other MediSys's products by Aaron
Gerson from the R&D group in 2006. Gerson initiated the idea for a patient monitoring system
that would collect data on patients in intensive care units and post it to an electronic database.
This database could provide an “integrated profile of an individual patient’s health.” (Donnellon
& Margolis, 2009, p. 3) He offered this idea to Peter Fisher (now VP of Sales & Marketing), a
friend in Sales, who surveyed the clients and found great interest. Gerson and Fisher, then,
contacted the Software Design department and soon they developed an informal group. After
market research and product design, the group took the project to senior leadership to acquire
funding. In July 2007, the group was given $500,000 as a starting capital. There wasn’t much
progress in development and plus Fisher has been promoted to vice president position.

7. MediSys Corp. 7
This is why Beaumont introduced a parallel system for product development – the cross-
functional teams. As you can see from Exhibit 1, the “core team” includes people from various
functional areas of the organization, from R&D to Regulatory Affairs department. This team
works together to move the product from conceptual to final production stages. The team also
has a project leader, who coordinates the work among team members, overlooks the whole
project, allocates resources and serves as a liaison between the members and a senior
management. The essence of these teams is highly beneficial: "Parallel development doesn't
allow people to single-mindedly defend the position of their functional area," one employee
noted, "or what's easiest or best or cheapest for their own functional area. It forces people to look
at the bigger picture." (Donnellon & Margolis, 2009, p. 3)
To gain more understanding of the team and the characteristics of its members, a short
description of each member is provided below:
 Jack Fogel, Senior Production Manager. Led the renal monitoring system launch. Is
responsible for the final assembly of the IntensCare system. He characterizes himself as
the one who should overlook every activity in the team, have a “holistic view” on the
project and make sure that communication flows freely within the team. But according to
other team members, Fogel doesn’t really succeed in performing his role as a leader. For
example, Valerie Merz often questions his involvement in the modular design issue.
 Dipesh Mukerjee, Software Design. Initiator of outsourcing software design and
development functions to a firm in India. He seems quite confident in this approach, but
other team members are a lot more skeptical whether this offshoring effort will be a
success. Indeed, there are some delays with the software design, which, as Merz noted
can be a potential roadblock for the success of the product.

8. MediSys Corp. 8
 Karen Baio, Regulatory Affairs. She is seen as the one who deliberately delays and
prevents progress in the development of the product. She does not get on well with
Mukerjee and Merz and thinks that both care more about meeting deadlines than testing
the software thoroughly.
Sometimes their childishness really bugs me,” she reported. ”They act like this
whole effort is some kind of game we are trying to win, instead of an important
healthcare initiative that will save many lives and therefore must function
perfectly and operate within the law. (Donnellon & Margolis, 2009, p. 6)
 Aaron Gerson, R&D. Lead scientist on both monitoring products. Has four patents.
Created the IntensCare product concept and was the leader of the group that did early
development of the project. Gerson is quite confident in IntensCare success and doesn’t
worry much about aggressive deadlines or competitor products, as other do. However, he
sees Mukerjee’s offshore development initiative quite concerning and questions whether
this approach can be both successful and cost-effective.
 Valerie Merz, Marketing Manager. She is truly devoted to the project, but doesn’t have
much confidence that the team members have competence to deliver the product that
Beaumont and the market are expecting. Most of the team members avoid her and have
negative feelings about her. Valerie characterizes herself this way:
I feel my position is mini-general manager. I have ultimate responsibility for
profit and loss on IntensCare. The engineers and production staff don't report to
me, but I’m responsible for refining the product road-map. If I don’t keep on
them, they’ll stray to other projects. I provide the technical support to customers:
the training, the hotline, the technical support for field reps. I’m in charge of
pricing, advertising, and sales promotion activities. I have all the responsibility
but no authority to get others to live up to their commitments. I have no idea what
Jack is doing, but it looks like he is just another “good guy” who doesn’t want to
ruffle any feathers. Bret and Aaron always seem to have each other’s back. And
who knows what Dipesh is doing; I worry that this offshore development is going
way off track and no one even knows. (Donnellon & Margolis, 2009, p. 5)

9. MediSys Corp. 9
Valerie seems like to have taken too much responsibility on herself, and acts like a
second project leader, but without any authority, either formal or informal.
 Bret O’Brien, Product Engineering. Part of ad hoc team for early development of
IntensCare. He and his engineering team are split between multiple projects, which
makes the quick development of IntensCare hard. From the beginning, O’Brien
considered that tight deadline would be a real challenge for his staff and thinks that the
completion of the product “almost mission impossible.” (Donnellon & Margolis, 2009, p.
5) Now his solitary focus is on designing a high-quality product as quickly as he can. He
doesn’t have good relationship with Merz, and constantly avoids meeting her. Bret
described his role within the team as follows:
We all have very different drivers, which really complicate our ability to make
good decisions together . . . I operate pretty much on my own. My objectives in
engineering are to deliver at cost, on time, and with specified features. Dates are
my driver and quality too. (Donnellon & Margolis, 2009, p. 5)
After assembling a “core team”, Beaumont committed an additional $20 million to the
rapid development of IntensCare and communicated the new IntensCare goal: “Launch an
innovative, world-class MediSys product by August 2009.” (Donnellon & Margolis, 2009, p. 4)

10. MediSys Corp. 10
Problem Description
MediSys has several problems to deal with concerning IntensCare product development
team. And these problems have to be addressed shortly, due to the tight deadline given by
Beaumont.
First of all, Art Beaumont wanted to develop an executive team that would jointly create
and implement a strategy for growing the business swiftly. Beaumont, by himself acknowledges
the fact that management style of all the MediSys executives would also have to change in a
parallel development environment:
I know I am asking these folks to give up control, which will be hard for them in the
context of this major investment. But as the company has grown, a management style has
evolved here that doesn’t reflect the entrepreneurial spirit that everyone loves to brag
about. It has become much more of a command-and-control culture with an emphasis on
technical excellence. Not that we don’t need that, but the competition has become intense
and our reputation is on the line, so we need all the brain power and discretionary effort
we can get. I think that cross-functional teams are the only way to get that. But it will be
challenging for my direct reports and me to change our styles to be more patient, open,
and trusting, and not to intervene. (Donnellon & Margolis, 2009, p. 4)
Secondly, forming the “core team” created a narrower span of control within the
company. By establishing an executive committee to report directly to the president, and in
addition, a core team with a project leader for reporting purposes, the president of the company
made it even more difficult for communication to flow freely within the organization. In other
words, innovations brought by Beaumont created more layers between upper management and
the employees, which don’t compliment the already established entrepreneurial culture within
MediSys. (Span of Control, Wikipedia, 2011)
This narrow span of control was intended to speed up decision-making within the
company; however, it encouraged overly tight supervision and discouraged employee autonomy.
Within such a “tall” organizational structure, which has “many layers of management between

11. MediSys Corp. 11
the lowest and highest positions”, organization “can suffer communication breakdowns and
delays as messages are passed up and down through multiple layers” (Bovée & Thill, 2008, p. 9).
Thirdly, parallel development did not change the reporting and evaluating procedures. All
employees in the team continued to report to their managers who supervised and evaluated them.
Thus employee evaluations are based on their performance in their functional areas and without
taking account their performance in the product development team. Consequently, they have no
motivation to do work outside of their functional area and contribute as much as they can to the
IntensCare project. This is the issue, Valerie Merz is concerned about: instead of doing the right
thing for the company and working towards single goal, it seemed that the group members were
concentrating on their own departments and roles.
Another issue is the tight deadline – August, 2009 – given by Beaumont for the launch of
IntensCare, which team considered to be very aggressive in terms of the difficulties they were
facing. These difficulties included the modular design, delays in hardware engineering and
delays in software development. These difficulties are also sources of conflict between the team
members.
The Modular Design. This was one of the most fiercely debated topics among the
IntensCare team members. By creating a modular design within the system, the customer would
be able to modify it and adjust it to various situations (e.g. neonatal intensive care), and thus
have greater flexibility.
“The hospital equipment distributors we have interviewed are insistent that a modular
design will allow them to sell our system into a much wider set of segments from hospitals to
military organizations to a variety of clinical arrangements.“ says Merz “Furthermore, the two

12. MediSys Corp. 12
competitors who have announced their plans to enter the field have described what is essentially
a modular design.” (Donnellon & Margolis, 2009, p. 6)
Despite this urgent necessity, Merz believed that modularity could be introduced in the
second version of the product. But she had not expressed this opinion to other members of the
team because she feared that such a suggestion would be used by engineering as an excuse to
continue ignoring the demand for modularizing anything.
On the other hand, Bret O’Brien knew that the Design & Engineering department had no
intention of redesigning for modules at least for the first version of IntensCare. The department
had more serious problems concerning the internal space, which was essential to meeting the
deadline. “Besides,” noted O’Brien, “modules were addressed only in the most general terms in
the original 2007 IntensCare business plan, so we never designed for them, nor did we specify
such requirements for the software people.” (Donnellon & Margolis, 2009, p. 7)
Delays in hardware engineering. Delays in engineering were most probably the results of
companywide cutbacks that also affected the Engineering department. O’Brien, who represented
the engineering function in the product development team, had two other engineers reporting to
him who worked full time on the IntensCare. However, due to the layoffs, these engineers had to
work on other projects too.
Delays in software development. These problems occurred due to new outsourcing
approach introduced by Dipesh Mukerjee. Outsourcing can be a huge advantage in terms of
costs, but it can also drive the quality, and thus profitability down. It doesn’t seem like Mukerjee
is worried about disadvantages of outsourcing and is sure that this approach will be successful.
He also dismissed Baio’s concerns about the time required for adequate testing of externally

13. MediSys Corp. 13
produced software before integration into the IntensCare system. Despite his confidence, other
team members seem to withhold judgments that the offshore development would go off track.
Another problem is that Mukerjee seems to be working on his own, not communicating
important information to other members of the team. In fact, almost all of them say that no one
knows what is going in India. What is more important, software and hardware engineering had to
be coordinated to integrate the first with the latter, but according to O’Brien with Mukerjee
spending so much time in India with software contractor, the integration issue hasn’t been
discussed yet. This brings us to overall communication problems within the team.
Communication problem is one of the most important problems in IntensCare product
development team. For example, Merz’s avoidance to bring the modular design issue into
discussion or Mukerjee working on his own. As “effective communication is essential to every
aspect of team performance”, this issue needs to be addressed as soon as possible. (Bovée &
Thill, 2008, p. 36)
Also, as it was mentioned before, there is no clear team leader for the project itself. Jack
Fogel, the authorized leader of the team, is far too focused on the details of the product side and
far too little concerned about the business issues and the approaching launch. On the other hand,
Valerie Merz is acting as a team leader and had taken responsibility for most of the functions
concerning the launch of IntensCare, but she doesn’t have any formal or informal authority to
lead the team. MediSys has to address this problem shortly, as clear leadership is what almost
every team needs to be effective.
And last but not the least, there is atmosphere of mutual distrust within the team. Team
members have negative feelings about each other; have no confidence in each other’s ability and
competency to work. As Patrick Lencioni notes in his article “Conquer Team Dysfunctions”

14. MediSys Corp. 14
(2007) trust is the foundation of every effective team. In fact, the number one dysfunction of the
team appears to be “The Absence of Trust”. According to Lencioni, this occurs when team
members are reluctant to be vulnerable with one another and are unwilling to admit their
mistakes, weaknesses or needs for help. Other team dysfunction: Fear of Conflict, Lack of
Commitment, Avoidance of Accountability, Inattention to Results. All of these build up on the
first dysfunction and thus we get a pyramid-like model, which can be represented as follows:
Exhibit 2: The Five Dysfunctions of a Team
Source: (De Meuse, 2009, p. 11)
According to the summary of Lencioni’s book found on Executive Agenda web-site
(http://www.executiveagenda.com), on the trust dimension members of a dysfunctional team:
 Conceal their weaknesses and mistakes from one another
Inattention to
Results
Avoidance of
Accountability
Lack of Commitment
Fear of Conflict
The Absence of Trust

15. MediSys Corp. 15
 Hesitate to ask for help or provide constructive feedback
 Hesitate to offer help outside their own areas of responsibility
 Jump to conclusions about the intentions and aptitudes of others without attempting to
clarify them.
 Fail to recognize and tap into one another’s skills and experiences.
 Waste time and energy managing their behaviors for effect
 Hold grudges
 Dread meetings and find reasons to avoid spending time together
IntensCare team is clearly suffering from the lack of trust, as almost each member can
qualify for the above mentioned behaviors. A mere example of this is that almost all team
members view Karen Baio as an obstructionist, deliberately slowing down the progress. Another
example can be Baio’s resentment towards Valerie Merz. As long as there is no substitute for
trust, IntensCare team members needs to open themselves up to one another and develop an
environment of mutual trust and commitment.

16. MediSys Corp. 16
Alternative Solutions and Recommendations
To address the problems identified in the previous section MediSys can use some of the
tools, techniques, methods and concepts from various fields. This section will provide alternative
solutions and recommendations for MediSys.
First of all, MediSys executives should give up control and respect the entrepreneurial
spirit within the company. Senior leadership needs to get involved in the product development
and express their ideas without imposing them on the team members. MediSys could set up a
web interface where employees could mention important information about themselves, such as
cultural values, management expectations and what motivates them. This would allow the senior
leadership to get to know their employees and get a better idea of team dynamics. MediSys could
use a wiki system, such as a blog on WordPress to facilitate communication between upper
management and lower- and mid-level employees. A wiki is a website that allows anyone with
access to add or edit material. One of key benefits of wiki is simple operation meaning that
writers don’t need to know any of the techniques normally required to create web content.
Another advantage is the freedom to post new material or edit existing one without prior
approval and tight control. (Bovée & Thill, 2008, p. 39)
To overcome problems with tall organization structure, MediSys can consider adopting a
flatter approach. Flat structures reduce the number of layers between upper-level and lower-level
management. (Bovée & Thill, 2008, p. 9) Despite the fact that tall organization structure has its
benefits including close supervision of employees, clear and distinct layers with obvious lines of
responsibility and control and a clear promotion structure, it does slow down communication. On
the other hand flat organizations offer more opportunities for employees to excel while
promoting the larger business vision. With fewer layers, communication generally flows faster

17. MediSys Corp. 17
and with fewer disruptions and distortions. Flatter structures are flexible and better able to adapt
to changes. For flat structures to work, leaders must share research and information instead of
holding on it as well as being open and tolerant. (Griffin, 2011)
Flat structures also have its disadvantages. One of these is the role ambiguity – the
uncertainty that occurs when employees are not sure what is expected of them and how they
should perform their jobs. (Griffin, 2011) Another thing is that “individual employees are
expected to assume more responsibility for communication”. (Bovée & Thill, 2008, p. 9) For
supervisors, too many people reporting to them may create information overload and make it
more difficult for them to perform their roles effectively. Despite these, MediSys should adopt
flatter organization structure, which will provide free flow of communication and thus speed up
decision-making and progress in product development.
As for the evaluating procedures, employees are currently evaluated based on
performance in their functional areas. There is little motivation for them to go outside their
functional areas. To counteract this, MediSys can align individual performance with
organizational objectives to improve business results. When workforce performance is aligned
with corporate objectives individuals in an organization develop a stake in that organization's
performance. Employees understand how their roles contribute to achieving the overall goals of
the business and as a result organizational objectives are met. In addition, MediSys could define
performance metrics for individuals and teams. (Holman, 2011)
Both of these can be accomplished through a Balanced Scorecard, a strategy tool
proposed by Robert Kaplan and David Norton. Balanced Scorecard uses financial measures to
tell the results of past actions and it complements them with operational measures on customer
satisfaction, internal processes, and the organization’s innovation and improvement activities.

18. MediSys Corp. 18
These operational measures are the drivers of future financial performance. Balanced scorecards
allow managers to view performance in several areas simultaneously. (Kaplan & Norton, 1992,
p. 71-72)
One of the five principles of the strategy-focused organization, as described by Kaplan
and Norton, is “make strategy everyone’s everyday job”. This means that employees must be
aligned to the strategy in order to create value. Strategy-focused organizations use the balanced
scorecard in three distinct processes to align their employees to the strategy: creating strategic
awareness, defining personal and team objectives, and linking incentives and compensation to
the balanced scorecard. (Kaplan & Norton, 2001a, p 5-6)
To create awareness of the strategy, senior executives at MediSys must communicate
their strategy to the lower-level employees, so that they understand it before getting involved
into the implementation process. (Kaplan & Norton, 2001a, p 5)
The most important part for MediSys is to define personal and team objectives, which
can be accomplished using personal balanced scorecards developed at the individual level. As
balanced scorecards group goals, objectives, and metrics into the areas of financial, customer,
internal business process, and learning and growth at the organization level, person scorecards do
the same but at the individual level. Employees at MediSys should develop their own vision and
mission and then link them to their personal goals and objectives in an organizational context.
Goals and objectives are specified with respect to the areas of financial, others, individual
strengths, and learning and growth. Financial captures employee’s needs about money, as well
as the financial obligations. Others reflect goals that employees have in relation to other
individuals or society at large. Individual strengths represent the internal perspective, reflecting
goals related to employee’s well-being. Finally, learning and growth refer to employee’s skills,

19. MediSys Corp. 19
abilities, and aims with regard to personal and professional learning and growth. In this way,
senior executives will gain a clear understanding of how to motivate their employees, improve
their performance outside their functional areas and how to help them achieve their objectives
while at the same time fulfilling organizational needs. (Carpenter, Bauer, Erdogan, 2010, p. 157-
158)
And, finally to further extrinsically motivate employees, MediSys should link incentives
and compensation to the balanced scorecard. This linkage plays two important roles: It focuses
employee’s attention on the measures that are most critical for the strategy. Second, it provides
extrinsic motivation by rewarding employees when they and the organization succeed in
reaching their targets. But details of linking incentive pay to compensation differ for each
company, and thus MediSys has to develop a sufficient approach to how to accommodate this
process. For example, for financial metrics MediSys could use such measures as net income,
operating margin, and revenues. For the customer measures, such measures as customer
satisfaction, customer retention, and new customers can be employed. Internal business process
metrics can be safety, efficiency and new product development. And as for learning and growth
metrics, MediSys could base its pay on employee satisfaction, individual development and
diversity. Another issue is that the company has to assign weights to each metric. For example, it
could emphasize financial performance, by assigning 40% rate to it, and dividing the rest 60%
between customer, internal and learning and growth measures. (Kaplan & Norton, 2001b, p 253-
255)
Personal scorecards and balanced paychecks can be used for individual employees, as
well as teams. Thus the same process can be applied to IntensCare product development team as
a whole to emphasize the team performance.

20. MediSys Corp. 20
An example of balanced scorecard is shown in Exhibit 3. Note that this is just an example
to illustrate how balanced scorecard is organized and designed.
Exhibit 3: Mobil NAM&R’s Balanced Scorecard
Strategic Themes Strategic Objectives Strategic Measures
Financial FinancialGrowth Return on CapitalEmployed
Existing Asset Utilization
Profitability
IndustryCost Leader
Profitable Growth
- ROCE
- Cash Flow
- Net Margin Rank (vs.Competition)
- Full Cost perGallon Delivered (vs.
Competition)
- Volume Growth Rate
- Premium Ratio
- Nongasoline Revenue andMargin
Customer Delight the Consumer Continually Delight the
Targeted Customer
- Share of segment in selectedkey
markets
- Mysteryshopperrating
Win-Win Dealer
Relations
Build Win-Win Relations
with Dealer
- Dealer Gross Profit Growth
- Dealer Survey
Internal Build the Franchise InnovativeProducts and
Services
Best-in-Class Franchise
Teams
- New Product ROI
- New Product Acceptance Rate
- Dealer Quality Score
Safe and Reliable Refinery Performance - Yield Gap
- Unplanned Downtime
Competitive Supplier InventoryManagement
IndustryCost Leader
- InventoryLevels
- Run-out Rate
- Activity Cost vs.Competition
Quality On Spec,on Time - Perfect Orders
Good Neighbor Improve EHS - Number ofEnvironmental
Incidents
- Days Away fromWorkRate
Learning &
Growth
Motivatedand Prepared
Workforce
Climate for Action
Core Competences and
Skills
Access to Strategic
information
Employee Survey
PersonalBalanced Scorecard (%)
Strategic CompetencyAvailability
Strategic Information Availability
Source: (Kaplan, Norton, 2001b, p. 41)

21. MediSys Corp. 21
Another issue MediSys needs to address shortly is the difficulties they face in terms of
tight deadline. Firstly, as due to the aggressive deadline, it would be almost impossible to launch
the modularity option with the first version of IntensCare, MediSys should definitely include it in
the second version of the product as Merz intended. In this way, the company will increase
customer interest, have more time to create a better designed, innovative product and conduct
thorough testing and analysis of modular system. But Merz needs to bring up this issue to her
colleagues as soon as possible. The fact that two competitors are introducing the same product
with modularity is, of course, a disadvantage to IntensCare team, but what they need now is to
focus on the product itself and to produce a truly competitive, world-class system.
Secondly, to overcome problems with delays in hardware engineering caused by not
enough workforce devoted to the project, MediSys should prioritize which projects are of the
most importance to the company – redesigning other products or devoting more time and effort
to the IntensCare. It should come as no surprise that IntensCare project is the first priority for
MediSys, given the tight deadline and competitive environment. Thus, what the engineering
team needs, is to devote more time and effort to IntensCare. O’Brien should express his concerns
to Fogel and request more employees to work full time on the project.
Thirdly, Dipesh Mukerjee needs to reassure his team members about the success of
outsourcing software development to India by bringing up strong arguments for this approach.
As other team members express, Mukerjee relied solely on this outsourcing from the beginning
of the project without considering other options of developing the software internally or
contracting a supplier in the home country. Of course, these other options will drive costs up, but
it will also make it easy for Regulatory Affairs to test the product thoroughly and also make the

22. MediSys Corp. 22
communication between the team and Mukerjee easier. Thus, MediSys can consider moving
from offshoring to internal development as a viable option.
One of the team-building activities MediSys can use to aid in problem solving is the
activity called “Seven Hands”, described by Brian Cole Miller in his book “Quick Team-
Building Activities for Busy Managers” (2004, pp. 118-120). This activity, as others proposed in
the book, runs maximum fifteen minutes and is easy to conduct. The purpose of the activity is
that participants learn how to work together toward a solution. It can be applied when:
 The group has difficulty dealing with conflict over processes or methods.
 Individuals are impatient with delays that keep them from moving forward quickly.
 Individuals need help seeing patterns emerge in problems.
All of these problems can be applied to the IntensCare product development team.
A short description is provided below:
“Seven Hands” is the activity in which participants solve an ancient stacking puzzle.
Materials needed are: Washable ink marker or pens; and three sheets of paper for each team.
Here are the steps:
1. Divide the group into teams of four to seven. As there are only six members in the “core
team”, there can be only one team.
2. Next, all participants mark the backs of their hands with a number from 1 to 7 (in this
particular case, one of the team members has to mark both hands).
3. Lay three pieces of paper in front of the team.
4. Participants stack their hands on one paper in order from “7” to “1” on the top. This is the
“start” position.

23. MediSys Corp. 23
5. The team is to restack their hands in the exact same order – with “7” on the bottom –
using only these moves:
 Move only one hand at a time.
 Move a hand onto another hand (or stack of hands) or onto an empty paper.
 Move only the top hand on a stack.
 Never move a hand on top of a lower numbered hand. (e.g. “3” can never be
placed on top of “1” and “2”).
After the team has solved the puzzle team leader asks the following questions:
 What strategy did you use to be successful?
 How were differences of opinion about how to move handled in the team?
 Did you have a leader? How whas he or she selected?
 When someone on your team thought he or she knew the solution or at least the
next move, how did he or she behave? How did you respond to that?
 Did you ever feel like you were backtracking? How did that make you feel? (e.g.
frustrated, wasting time etc.)
 When do we backtrack to move forward in our organization?
 What implications does this have for us back on the job?
By conducting this activity, the team can relax for a while, forget about tense relationship
between each other, and try to work together and collaborate to find a solution.
To overcome communication and coordination problems, MediSys can also use wiki to
facilitate communication between team members. Blogs, such as WordPress, Tumblr and others
provide users with effective tools of written communication. On WordPress, for example, users

24. MediSys Corp. 24
can create various categories of posts, such as “IntensCare team values” or “News about
software development in India” in case of MediSys. (http://wordpress.com/)
In addition, IntensCare team can organize videoconferencing with Mukerjee who spends
a lot of time in India. The team can make use of such a simple tool as Skype calls, which are
free, provide the option of multiple people participating in the conversation, easy to use and have
a live video support. (www.skype.com).Via videoconferencing, Mukerjee can even participate in
team meetings, held every Friday, in case he is in India. Such communication tool will also aid
the engineering team in USA to coordinate its actions with software development and
successfully integrate hardware with software.
Leadership issues have also to be addressed as soon as possible. Instead of only one team
leader – Jack Fogel – responsible for coordinating and supervising all activities in the team,
IntesCare team can have two leaders, the second one being Valerie Merz. The fact is that Fogel
is too focused on the details of product side. On the other hand, Merz is highly qualified to
supervise the activities concerned with business issues of the project. Merz and Fogel could act
together as two authorized leaders of the IntensCare team, complementing and coordinating each
other’s actions. In this way, MediSys would have someone who knows the team members well in
the face of Jack Fogel (he has been with MediSys for long time) and a newcomer, Valerie Merz,
who has a fresh eye on members’ performance, is a real go-getter according to Beaumont and
can be a real driver of team’s performance in terms of business side of the project.
But before even starting to implement this multiple leadership approach, IntensCare team
members needs to develop mutual trust between each other. As it was noted before, Patrick
Lencioni proposed that number one dysfunction of team is the absence of trust, among other five
dysfunctions. In his article “Executive Excellence - Choose Teamwork” (2005), Lencioni also

25. MediSys Corp. 25
proposed ways to overcome this dysfunction: First of all the leader has to model vulnerable
behavior. If a leader is uncomfortable being honest about his or her issues, there is little chance
that team members will do so. And secondly, the leader needs to use simple but effective
exercises to help team members get comfortable being vulnerable. The article also provides two
exercises, which IntensCare team can successfully employ:
Personal history exercise. This exercise involves having team members reveal
something about their past: where they grew up, how many siblings they have, a difficult
challenge of their childhood. Executives come out of this 15-minute exercise amazed at what
they didn't know about the people they work with. They suddenly feel more comfortable talking
about who they are.
Behavioral profiling. Profiling tools provide team members with an objective, reliable
means for understanding and describing one another. MediSys could use Myers-Briggs Type
Indicator (MBTI), which is the most widely used instrument for understanding normal
personality differences. One of the providers of MBTI testing is KnowYourType.
(http://www.knowyourtype.com). Because it explains basic patterns in human functioning, the
MBTI is used for a wide variety of purposes including team building, management and
leadership training, problem solving, relationship counseling etc.
If IntensCare product development team members can build trust, they will have all the
opportunities to work effectively with each other and share each other’s values. As the summary
of “The Five Dysfunctions of a Team” on Executive Agenda (http://www.executiveagenda.com)
notes, members of trusting teams:
 Admit weaknesses and mistakes
 Ask for help

26. MediSys Corp. 26
 Accept questions and input about their areas of responsibility
 Give one another the benefit of the doubt before arriving at a negative conclusion.
 Take risks in offering feedback and assistance
 Appreciate and tap into one another’s skills and experiences
 Focus time and energy on important issues, not politics
 Offer and accept apologies without hesitation
 Look forward to meetings and other opportunities to work as a group
In addition, MediSys can also look for help from professional team consulting services, such
as The Table Group. The company provides fast-paced, practical and compelling consulting
sessions to leaders and teams. Additional information is available at The Table Group web-site
(http://www.tablegroup.com/).

27. MediSys Corp. 27
Conclusion
In conclusion, by following the solutions and recommendations provided above, MediSys
Corp. can effectively manage its IntensCare product development team. MediSys can motivate
the team members to achieve organizational objectives and at the same time strive to meet their
own goals. In this way, the organization as a whole and all the functions and employees within it
will be in a win-win position. MediSys Corp. will be able to develop an innovative, a state-of-art
product and gain competitive advantage over others in the industry.

28. MediSys Corp. 28
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