The Power of Product Platforms by Marc H. Meyer Alvin P. Lehnerd

Author:Marc H. Meyer, Alvin P. Lehnerd
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: The Free Press

Avoid Pseudo-Ownership

Perhaps no organizational sin is more demoralizing to teams than what we call “pseudo-ownership.” Pseudo-ownership is a condition in which teams believe they have the authority to make critical decisions, when in fact others have reserved that authority for themselves. Pseudo-ownership is typically revealed at the interfaces of the project and the corporate functions that assist it: R&D, design, test and evaluation, marketing, cataloguing, product service, quality control, and purchasing. Each function has its rules and procedures and assumes authority over all decisions within its own jurisdiction. Each serving function seizes temporary control. For example, a team that assumed it had effective ownership of a development project might find that marketing had unilaterally made decisions about pricing and distribution. Such practices are antithetical to the notion of ownership and must be eliminated by senior management.

We return to Takeuchi and Nonaka’s analogy of the relay race to suggest a solution to the problem of ownership. But here imagine a relay race in which management handcuffs the baton to the team members. When the baton (project) needs input or service from a specific function, say, pricing, the team visits the pricing group to discuss pricing strategy. The baton is not uncoupled and left in the pricing team area but remains securely attached to the team member. The final decision on pricing is made by the team and not by the pricing function.

Thus, the team moves from function to function, attaching itself by turn to the resources needed for the project. Using this approach, the team can remain small and can move with speed and efficiency through the corporation. The team keeps the involvement of outside functions to a minimum, keeps meetings small, and prevents the jockeying and second guessing that can easily disrupt its progress.

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