What happens next...? (#2242)
Lorne Mitchell
MD @ Objective Designers; Business Strategy Consultant Specialising in Rapid and Effective Go-To-Market Strategies for Tech Companies; Facilitator @ Circle of Creativity; Charity Mentor; Campaigner; Organic Beekeeper.
I’m conducting an experiment. In the following article, you’ll find a fictional case study centring on two passions of mine. The first is about product leadership, and the second introduces an insight I’ve gleaned from the natural world of the honeybee. Once you’ve read the case, it would be great if you could comment on “what happens next”. This could be based on your experience, your gut feeling or simply be humorous - whatever takes your fancy!
Background
Rainbow Pharma is a global pharmaceutical company. They recently announced plans to spin off their vaccine research division, VioVac. This move will allow VioVac to address one of the key challenges in modern vaccine development - “reverse vaccinology”, which uses computer-based analytics to assess a pathogen’s genetic information to accelerate the understanding of pathogens and their antigens. This research has become even more pressing following the Covid-19 global pandemic.
The Swarming Instinct
Honey bees are social insects, and the honey bee colony is an organism in its own right. The colony reproduces itself by swarming by splitting itself in two. We still aren’t exactly sure why honeybees swarm. It seems to be due to a combination of factors, including the colony, becoming overcrowded, the age and virility of the queen, and some even say the phase of the moon!
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Swarming normally happens between April to June in the Northern Hemisphere. It’s a risky time for the colony as the swarm needs to find a new home, and the bees left behind need to produce a new queen, which needs to get mated. And all this needs to happen before the winter sets in; otherwise, either or both colonies (old and new) will likely die off.
Three Candidates for CEO of VioVac
There are three possible internal candidates for the new CEO of Vacofin. They are:
Please comment below on your ideas for "What Happens Next?"
Follow the best architectural practices and think in various ways: Enterprise Architect and Manager, Solution Architect, Cloud Architect, and devoted mom.
2 年They decide to work together, Blue as a CEO , because everything needs to start with customer in mind, Purple as CTO , because technology is his forte and Orange as CFO…
Director and Principal Tutor, Avancier Limited
2 年At a three-way meeting, Vanessa (to be CEO) and Lee persuade David to be CMO. David and Vanessa persuade Lee to be CTO with a position on the board of governors (in future if not now)..
A practitioner of game-based methods to help you make more impactful decisions.
2 年Interesting idea - for me because I advocate for using analogies to problem solve, but paying attention when they break, I think that can be a useful way to illustrate new solutions. I.E. in this case, the bees need to develop a queen from their existing swarm, they can't talk to a queen recruiter, or put an advert on the local... er... tree? But in the business case, there's no need for Viovac to recruit internally, and to me none of the candidates seem suitable - Purple and Blue are obviously very well suited to their current positions so why take from their current work? As for Orange, an employee driven policy for promotions is not only a bad idea in general, but once you've allowed it work what else will Orange demand? So in summary I'd look elsewhere for the CEO, , and I really like the clash of two ideas as a way to think about the problem. ( and I'm assuming this isn't a "disguised scenario", and we're not making a decision for one of your customers... ?? )
Enterprise Architect | Integration Advisor | Change Facilitator | Founder of How 2 Integrate
2 年If ViVac is at its early stage of product development in a growing market, I will vote for Blue. If the value of VioVac lies in its research capability or patents, I may go Purple. If VioVac needs a turnaround, I may go with Orange.
Estate Manager: Leader / Project Manager / Corporate Communicator / Corporate Collaborator / Security Advisor / HR Manager / Relationship Builder / Wildlife Manager
2 年Can Orange take Blue with her?