Terrence Robinson is a newly hired associate engineer at Cascade Engineering. His role is to provide estimates for new products and programs as well as for customer-specific orders or modifications to current projects. In his position, Terrence played a key liaison role among the sales, engineering, and manufacturing teams. During the first town hall meeting since being hired, Terrence heard Cascade Engineering’s president, Mark Miller, discuss the company’s financial results, and executive vice president Kenyatta Brame discuss its social programs and B Corporation certification. Almost every slide, regardless of topic, displayed the triple bottom line of people, profit, and planet. Terrence was inspired and recalled a TedX talk that discussed the WaterWheel, a device that could provide access to clean water in the developing world.
Carefully read the case and answer the following questions:
1. Describe the vision, mission, and culture of Cascade Engineering (5 Points)
2. How does WaterWheel align with the mission, vision, and culture of Cascade Engineering? (10 points)
3. How does WaterWheel align with the strategy of Cascade Engineering? (10 points)
4. Who are the key stakeholders within Cascade Engineering, and what were their roles? (10 points)
5. Who are the two most important stakeholders who might support Terrence Robinson the strongest, and what is motivating their support? (10 points)
6. Who might require more persuasion so they do not create roadblocks? (10 points)
7. What are the rational, i.e. fact-based, and emotional arguments for the WaterWheel that Terrence can use with his stakeholders? (15 points)
8. If you were Terrence, who would you look to first to discuss your idea? Why? What messages would you communicate to persuade this key stakeholder? (15 points)
9. How will you measure the impact of the WaterWheel program if it is approved? Define the Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s) for measuring the efficacy of that program, how you would collect and verify the data needed for each KPI, and how you will report the performance of the program to internal and external stakeholders. (15 points)
