1. The opportunities and/or gaps facing MEPD are: * MEPD has been unable to keep up with the competitiveness inside the telecommunication market because they have not developed new products to maintain and increase their operating margins. * The lack of communication and poor relationship between the different departments inside the company occurred as result of the changes in the division’s market and the management team. The natural differences between functional groups, the absence of mechanisms for bringing them together, and the historical competitive atmosphere of the division are the reasons why these poor relationships were developed. * MEPD’s employees do not have a common understanding of the division objectives, strategies, and business philosophy. They differ about what the primary markets are and about realistic profit and growth expectations. * The General Manager, Guido Spichty, is not involved enough in the problems that arise from differences in the goals of functional departments; even though he started attending the Product Development meetings since 2009, and he often became involved in the discussion of a new product, particularly its technical aspects. Spichty still lacked on his managerial skills because his strong personality and superior intellect almost always assured that he was a dominant force in meetings.
2. The MEPD’s strategy was affected by 3 managerial decisions that impacted the company’s performance. These strategic moves were: * The disintegration of mechanisms that existed in the past. Like the case of marketing groups, which were previously located at the plant and then they were moved to Bienne because of a decision made by Guido Spichty. This decision affected the communication between marketing and manufacturing, generating conflicts at the time to make decisions and increase the time to