Today is Thursday , three days before your meeting begins. You are on-site in Rio de Janeiro , and all is going well so far. Your destination management company (DMC) has been keeping track of the inevitable arrival changes. Your team is getting welcome packets together, incorporating last-minute changes into the day-by-day schedule, checking VIP amenities, and preparing for the next morning's arrival of your boss and several other senior managers.
Good news! Your project coordinator has just verified that all the printed material shipped from the United States has cleared customs and will be delivered to the hotel tomorrow. You were concerned about this shipment , since it was sent directly from the printer and not through your office. Fortunately, the shipping department did every thing right and the local company you have hired to receive, store, and transport the materials has come through.
You congratulate yourself on choosing a company whose affiliated customs broker once worked as a customs inspector. This person is more connected than a chain-link fence and clearly knows the ins and outs of the system. As it turns out, the customs agents and federal police are threatening to go on strike, and things are even slower than usual. You are particularly grateful that all your materials are safely in your possession.
Your major challenge at the moment is to get the learning center constructed on time. This combination exhibit and training area has been specially designed and will be constructed by a local company in one of the hotel's two ballrooms. The only components being shipped from your home country are the computers that will be the one of this high-tech learning center. Your information technology (IT) manager, Tony is in charge of this equipment and has made all the shipping arrangements directly with a freight forwarder in your home city that has been recommended highly by several colleagues.
Your company has invested over half a million dollars in the development of the new computers that will be introduced in the learning center. The CEO, who will be in attendance, considers both the learning center and the new state-of-the-art hardware to be the cornerstone of a new corporate image campaign. Both local and international media have been invited for a special preview demonstration of the company's new training resources. Because your company will be manufacturing the machines in Brazil for distribution throughout South America, your country's ambassador and the Brazilian minister of commerce will be in attendance. There will be significant local press coverage of the event and a global press videoconference to announce the new product to the North American, European, and Asian markets.
When you go over to the exhibit site, you note with satisfaction that the construction of the learning center is proceeding on schedule. Tony is scheduled to test each unit in situ this afternoon, but you know the machinery is delicate, Murphy's law knows no boundaries , and the stakes are too high to leave anything to the last minute . Everyone is nervous about the computers because they are the CEO's pet project, and expectations are very high for their debut.
By the way, where are the computers? You realize that with all your running around the past few days, you haven't actually seen them. They should have arrived and been cleared through customs by now. You assume that this is the case and make a mental note to check with Tony.
You ask the construction supervisor when he thinks the computers can be installed for testing. He gives you a blank look and says, "Whenever Tony tracks them down. Didn't he tell you they got lost somewhere en route to Rio de Janeiro? He's been going crazy for the past two days trying to find out what got screwed up."
At 10:00 that same Thursday, you locate Tony and he tells you the following:
• The six cartons of computer equipment were shipped from your home base three weeks ago.
• The cartons were shipped to Rio de Janeiro via common carrier and should have arrived within a week , plenty of time to clear customs even with the work slowdown.
• He has been in constant contact with the shipping company, and his contact there has traced the container with the cartons to Santiago, Chile.
• He's really sorry he hasn't said anything up to now, but the guy at the shipping company promised him that everything would work out, and so he decided not bother you about it.
• He just spoke to the guy at the shipping company, who is really sorry about the screw-up, swears this has never happened before, and says don't worry, the car tons should be leaving on a plane to Brazil tomorrow morning , once the other contents of the container finally have been released.
You make a valiant attempt to neither shriek at Tony nor physically injure him. You consider first homicide, then suicide, then both for a moment. None of these are viable alternatives at this juncture, and so you take a deep breath and start mobilizing your resources.
After a sleepless night worrying about the wayward computers, you receive a fax at 10:00 on Friday morning, informing you that they are on a plane bound for Brazil and are due to arrive at 13:30 that afternoon. That's the good news. The bad news is that they will arrive in Sao Paulo and you are in Rio de Janeiro. The even worse news is that the equipment must clear custom s in Sao Paulo because it is the initial port of entry into the country. After being trucked to Rio (approximately four hours' transit time if road conditions are favorable), the shipment will then have to clear customs again, since Rio is the original port of entry noted on the official paperwork.
You will have to pay significant customs duty on the equipment in both Sao Paulo and Rio, but this is the least of your problem s at the moment. Customs offices shut down for the weekend at 18:00 everywhere in the country and do not open again until Monday morning the day the meeting begins with a media breakfast to show off the new hardware.
You are now racing against the clock and about to blow the meeting budget into the stratosphere. Your boss is in a panic and is suggesting that you "call out the big guns." The senior VP of administration has contacts at your country 's embassy, and the CEO has played golf with the Brazilian secretary of commerce. One call from him to the appropriate official and the equipment surely will be released immediately. Your boss is adamant. The company's reputation and your jobs are on the line. It's time to throw some weight around and use your company's influence as a global, multimillion-dollar firm to salvage the situation.
At the same time, your local support team is advising against the "big guns" option. They ask you to trust their experience and judgment and give them some more time to do what they do best. They have mobilized all their contacts within the sys tem in both Sao Paulo and Rio and are hopeful that they will be able to work some thing out, even though customs will technically shut down for the weekend at 18:00. Your local colleagues cannot guarantee that they will be successful, but they can guarantee that if the big guns are called in, the computers will be held in customs indefinitely or be released at an exorbitant "duty" many times greater than what is currently being negotiated.
As project team leader, you have to make a decision now. Your very nervous boss respects your experience and judgment enough to follow whatever course of action you recommend, but you had better be right. If you are not, you will be looking for a place to make copies of your resume within a matter of days.
The critical issues, which need attention of the project manager are as follows:
In my views, missing computer equipment is the most critical issue and must be addressed on priority. The project manager can back trace the movement of the computers to realize their current status. Also the project manager needs to take certain steps to ensure that the customs at Sao Paulo and Rio get cleared as fast as possible. Leaving everything on free flow can be disastrous and hence the project manager is required to address this concern on priority.
Today is Thursday , three days before your meeting begins. You are on-site in Rio de...
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