The fundamental issue in the case “In Search of a Second Act” is that Alexis Products is currently standing at a crossroads; the owner, Steph, must decide whether to create a new gadget to attract the public’s attention or whether to focus on increasing the language learning technologies that could boost the Brrrd’s sales back up. It is worth noting that though the Brrrd was initially successful, it was created on a lark, and Steph’s primary realm is not business but programming and engineering. Stef’s lack of business acumen and her inability to determine the direction that she wants to go are both important concerns in the analysis of the case; I feel that because of these symptoms, Stef’s business will never go far under her leadership.
The critical issue in this case is whether to work to develop another gadget about as effective as the Brrrd, which is to say only moderately effective in communicating basic vocabulary, or whether she should work on what she is supposedly best at, programming, learning the best way to program language learning software so that the Brrrd becomes not only more effective at teaching others a language, but also so that it becomes worth its high end price tag.
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"In Search of a Second Act".
Based on my interpretation of the problem and my analysis of the critical aspects of the case, I feel that the best course of action in this instance is to send Stef back to the drawing board. She conceptualized the Brrrd on a lark as she was out with a friend, she was never meant to be a business person, or she would have addressed the flagging sales long before her company got this far down the road. Stef must reprogram the Brrrd’s language software in order to keep the company afloat. I would put this strategy into action by first notifying the board members of the decision, creating a timeline for the program, writing the program, beta testing, and implementing the program, followed by a timeline of development for the next item if this version of the Brrrd does well in order to ensure that I resolved not only the problem at hand but each of the different symptoms as well.
