The Midsouth Chamber of Commerce

Midsouth Chamber of Commerce

Date: September 5, 2016

Course: Management of Technology Resources

Instructor: Robert Burdwell

Introduction

The Midsouth Chamber of Commerce was created in the early 1900's in order to deal with the transportation issues with the midsouth area.  Due to the lack of access to transporting services, the the businesses and their productions were being greatly affected. Because there was not anything being done about the situation it sparked the people to form the Midsouth Chamber of Commerce (MSCC).  After a half-century of establishing their credibility, the MSCC grew to much larger and dealt with many added issues under a man named Jack Wallingford. These issues included state banking laws, transportation, industrial development, and business taxes. The MSCC began to grow much larger and faster than that of their Technology department.  They no longer had the adequate power/speeds to keep up.  Their security was lacking which limited the Organization.    

Background

With this growth came problems and with these problems Wallingford brought in a man by the name of Leon Lassiter in order to help take care of the situation.  Lassiter came in and completed a full analysis of the company.  He wanted to find out what the problems were that were hindering the company. He did not find much in the marketing support,  but he did however find his issues with the information system.  They no longer had the adequate power/speeds to keep up.  Their security was lacking which limited the organization's ability to access the full data potential needed to operate at maximum capabilities.  After Lassiter finished his analysis he concluded that eventually he would have to construct a new information system.  

At first, instead of Lassiter changing everything up, he worked with what he had. It did not take long for Lassiter to want an upgrade so he pushed to purchase a whole new system from UNITRAK.  Lassiter had a vision that included training his staff how to navigate in and out every part of the new system.  As great of a vision as this was to Lassiter, a man by the name of Simon Kovecki strongly disagreed.  Kovecki stated that he thought training the entire staff on the entire system was opening Pandora's Box.  Kovecki believed that the management would lose control over the system if people were taught how to navigate into areas where they did not belong.  Lassiter purchased the system and asked Kovecki to help set up the system, learn it, and train the staff.  Well the transformation did not go as smooth at Lassiter hoped for.  

Discussion

What were some of the reasons that we can see made it difficult to make a smooth transition into the new system? Lets take a look.  For starters even though Lassiter had a vision and believe one hundred percent it would work, he was not able to establish a leadership role to motivate those he put in charge.  This is what can separate a good manager and a great manager.  Kovecki did not have the drive to install the new system nor did he seem like he was enthused to train the rest of the employees.  Maybe we can attribute this to lack of consideration given to himself by Lassiter when purchasing UNITRAK.  When you are in a managerial position it is important to communicate and show that you respect the opinions of the employees that will be expected to have the largest part in any important decision.   This does not mean that every opinion has to be agreed with or followed but it shows that you respect him/her/them enough to listen.  This will help when you need they're help along the line.