>> Hi, everyone. Thank you each for coming to the meetingtoday. As you know from the agenda I e-mailed to you earlier, we'reexperiencing declining sales with our Critter Comb, which is veryworrying.
>> I saw the report, Amy. I can't believe how quicklysales have fallen.
>> Yeah. The competitor's combo kit really took off afterthey launched it last month.
>> Yes. They are really eating our lunch on this one.
>> Well, wasn't our Critter Comb one of the most popularitems last year?
>> It sure was.
>> I wish we'd recognized the threat sooner. We knew theywere coming out with a competing product.
>> Yeah. But we never believed that their combo kit wouldbe more popular than our item.
>> It would take at least nine months for us to get asimilar combo set out there.
>> I agree. They absolutely trumped us on this one. Ifonly we'd seen the combo set coming, we could have done somethingto counter it. Or at least have been better prepared. We lost outon a lot of money here.
>> So what can we do to prevent something similar fromhappening again in the future? It's a real concern that we didn'tsee this coming. Okay team, what can we do to best keep up with thecompetition?
>> I think a better way to keep up with what ourcompetitors are up to is through a little corporate espionage.
>> Really?
>> Interesting.
>> You mean planting spies?
>> Sure. You know, maybe we can interview some of theiremployees. And ask them details about their products and whatthey're working on.
>> Well, I can see how that would give us betterinformation.
>> Yeah, sure. And companies do it all the time. It's thebest way to collect industry intel.
>> We do need a better way of learning what our, you know,what our competition is up to.
>> I think we should also try to get some Happy Timepeople hired by our competitors too. That way we wouldn't have towait for the right job applicant to get information. We'd get it alot faster.
>> That's a good point.
>> We could do both.
>> Okay, I'll run it by the leadership team and see whatthey say. Sorry for the short notice, everyone. I wanted to let youknow to expect a call from our ethics officer.
>> Why?
>> When I ran our ideas for improving competitorintelligence past the leadership team, they were shocked. I heardan earful about how unethical we were being. Once they said it, itwas pretty obvious that we were out of line. So they're calling usto make sure that we know our company's code of ethics. And that wefollow it more closely in the future. This behavior is notconsistent with our company's culture or ethics code.
>> I guess that wasn't a very good idea after all.
>> We deserve the reprimand. We won't make that mistakeagain.
>> Okay team. Should we be worried?
>> I don't think we should worry. It's probably just afluke that we didn't see the competitor's product coming.
>> We do try to stay informed about potential threats inthe industry's up and coming products. We just underestimated thisone.
>> I think Alex is right. You know, maybe we shouldn'tworry about it.
>> All right. I just wanted to get your thoughts on it.Back to work. Have a great day, everyone. Okay, the only item onthe agenda today is the sales of the Cavity Crusher. Since ourcompetitor released the Dual Defense a year ago, we've been quicklylosing market share.
>> Kids definitely seem to prefer theirs.
>> I'm more concerned that we underestimated thepopularity of the Dual Dental Defense. We were caught totally offguard by this.
>> Just like the Critter Comb, remember?
>> And it's so obvious now. But we really should have paidattention to what happened during the Critter Comb slide. We reallyshould have learned from that situation.
>> That's what I'm thinking. We need to figure out how toprevent this problem in the future. I hate repeating mistakes. Andthe company can't afford to have this happen. I think it's totallypreventable.
>> Absolutely.
>> Yeah.
>> I agree.
>> Yeah.
>> So.
>> It shouldn't, it should never be --
>> Okay team. What can we do to improve our productlaunching?
>> We should consider after action reviews every time welaunch a product and a year afterwards. You know, a competitoranalysis would also help us understand our relative position ineach market too.
>> Yeah. We did those at my last company. They were reallygreat at helping us understand why some things succeeded or failed.And they helped us anticipate and handle similar situations moreeffectively.
>> All right. And it doesn't have to take very long. It'sa very simple process. First, we identify what should havehappened. And then what actually happened. And then we see whatdifferences occurred and what we learned.
>> What do we think actually happened here?
>> Well, we wanted to maintain or enhance the Critter Combsales in the face of the new competition. But we reallyunderestimated the popularity of the combo kit.
>> That's an understatement. We knew about it, but wedidn't recognize its popularity. We were over confident about theCritter because it was selling so well. We didn't really evaluatewhether the combo kit would be better or more popular.
>> Right.
>> You know, maybe we should have collected some of ourown market information. And also we should have been more open tothreat. And less arrogant about our product's ability tocompete.
>> We might be able to require product teams to includeoutside members when reviewing possible competitive threats. Theirdistance from the product might enhance their objectivity. And theymight have some good insights.
>> I agree. You know, and hopefully what we learn willkeep it from happening again.
>> Great. I'll get this moving. Thanks, everyone.
>> Hey, guys. What's the news?
>> Our Cavity Crusher is really dominating the market. Didyou see our latest sales numbers?
>> Oh, wow. They look great.
>> With the success of the Cavity Crusher, I think weshould make after action reviews a part of our culture here. Weshould do them for every product.
>> I agree. They don't take much time. But, when we're allso busy and ready to move onto the next project, it can be easy tomove on without reflecting on what could have been done better.
>> Well, that's also a great way of making mistakes stop.And these after action reviews are perfect for preventing that. Andmy team has been very engaged in doing them so.
>> Thanks, folks.
>> Thanks.
>> Let's keep this up.
>> Yeah.
>> All right.
>> You got it.
In what ways might culture influence how responsive Happy TimeToys is to competitor threats?
How are ethics illustrated in these videos? What is the best wayto ensure decisions are made ethically?
Based on the chapter, what other suggestions would you make tochange the culture to enhance responsiveness to the environment andwhy would you suggest them?
