Strategies for Building Effective Relationships Research Paper - 1

Strategies for Building Effective Relationships - Research Paper Example Is it possible to add new features to the existing product or entirely a new product needs to be developed? Where do the company’s products stand in comparison to competition in terms of overall acceptability? While marketing department’s feedback will help ascertain the key features required for a new product, the design department will help develop a product with those features. Developing a product with good aesthetics is also the responsibility of the design department. The costing department will put its efforts in keeping the cost as low as possible because that is the mantra for enhancing its acceptability. While marketing department emphasizes on ‘optimal pricing of the product’ as one of the essential requirements, the production and process department of the company will assess whether the current setup of machinery and equipment is sufficient to produce a new product commercially or any further investment on capital equipment is required. If addi tional investment is necessary, the finance department will have to explore whether it is feasible to manage those funds at all and if yes, then at what cost? The point is that while developing a new product, the project leader needs to coordinate with numerous departments and extract their expertise successfully. It is indeed a challenging job as none of the department directly reports the project leader. The project leader needs to exhibit exemplary leadership qualities to complete the task given by the company management. He needs to resolve conflict situation that may arise time to time between the departments of the company and their office-bearers, especially when it is known that the last project leader failed to resolve conflicting situations with peer managers and supervisors. While developing a new product through participatory management, the role of a project leader is multifaceted. Primarily, they need to be creative and innovative with good empathy for the customer so that they can develop a product at an affordable cost that is unique and no one else offers in the marketplace. At the same time, they must assess the company's strength accurately to deliver such a product on a commercial scale within a stipulated period. They also need to take some key decisions on final product design or features after great deliberations within the organization that may have long-term repercussions on the company. That is where they need to be visionary too. Prima facie, it may appear that the project leader functions as a coordinator and facilitator in the development of a new product but their success will largely depend upon how accurately and precisely, they can resolve all issues that may crop up during the developmental phase and in that sense, their leadershi p role takes over all other roles.