Erik Peterson Case

Top 5 Challenges

Erik Peterson confronted numerous challenges soon after accepting the position of General Manager with Green Mountain Cellular Telephone Company. We have identified 5 of the principal barriers that deterred Erik from a successful project.

Inexperience: The first barrier of inexperience was embodied through several components of the entire project and was likely his biggest challenge. This case takes place in the early nineties, which was a time that the cellular industry was in its infancy so there were few human resources available that had extensive working knowledge of how to successfully build a service area. This inexperience was both in the operations and implementation segment of the business and the actual construction of the towers that would be the backbone of the service area. Additionally, CelluComm (parent company of GMCT) had very little familiarity in the cell-space and had recently just combatted many startup issues in the Sacramento market.

The actual workforce at GMTC also had little experience in the cell industry and there were also recent college graduates, which obviously lacked a successful history in that industry. Jeff Hardy was Peterson’s direct supervisor and even he was a recent graduate from college with no experience in system operating. Many of CelluComm’s hiring decisions and Erick hiring decisions were not well thought out which accounted for project issues. Below is a summary of the onsite team at GMTC.

Erik Peterson- General Manager, had no experience in the cellular industry but was tasked to set up operations.

Curt Andrews - Chief Engineer, also held no cellular or start-up experience but was responsible for many planning and organizing activities that could control the fate of the project.

Jeff Hardy - Director of Budgets and Plans, was essentially the individual with the highest authority over GMTC but he had no system operating experience.

Jim Wescott - Director of Marketing, and he was only a recent college graduate and would assume he had no experience.

Trevor Burns - Customer Service Supervisor, was 27 years old with no cellular experience and very little additional experience.

Stevana Hanes - MIS Department Supervisor, was from outside the industry and the case has no mention of cell, MIS, or construction experience.

Issues With Curt: It took very little time for Peterson to realize that Curt Andrews’s skillset and attentiveness made him a poor candidate for Chief Engineer. Curt had responsibilities for much of the coordination of tangible materials that would be needed to build the system, which will alter the start up date. Peterson attempted to help Curt