You are the parent of 10 children and have just used your inheritance to acquire a medium-sized pharmaceutical company. Last year's sales were down 18 percent from the previous year. In fact, the past three years have been real losers. You want to clean house of current managers over the next 10 years and bring your children into the business. Being a loving parent, you agree to send your children to college to educate each of them in one functional specialty. The 10 children are actually five sets of twins exactly one year apart. The first set begins college this fall, followed by the remaining sets during the next four years. The big decision is which specialty each child should study. You want to have the most important functions taken over by your children as soon as possible, so you will ask the older children to study the most important areas. Your task right now is to rank the functions to which your children will be assigned in order of priority and develop reasons for your ranking. Write this list on a separate sheet of paper. These are the functions:
_____________ Distribution
_____________ Manufacturing
_____________ Market research
_____________ New product development
_____________ Human resources
_____________ Product promotion
_____________ Quality assurance
_____________ Sales
_____________ Legal and governmental affairs
_____________ Controller
Analyze your reasons for how functional priority relates to the company's environmental/strategic needs. Now rank the functions as part of a small group. Discuss the problem until group members agree on a single ranking. How does the group's reasoning and ranking differ from your original thinking?