4.7.1.1 Experts Comment: Reverse Engineering

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From the course by University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Leadership and Influence

20 ratings

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Leadership and Influence

20 ratings

Course 3 of 4 in the Specialization Professional IQ: Preventing and Solving Problems at Work

The only thing you get to change is yourself, and in the prerequisites to this course we’ve given you real tools to do that. Now, use those tools to influence the course of your future, your team's future, and your organization's future. Make a plan for yourself that will help you help others, and learn skills to make it happen. Listening and being sure of your values underpins everything that comes with professional influencer and leadership soft skills. We’ll go on to look at self-assessment and leadership planning, negotiation, addressing and resolving conflict, and successfully identifying and promoting circumstances you want. After this course, you will be able to: - state your own mission and plan with confidence - negotiate and persuade - deal with difficult people - contribute to crafting a working environment you want to work in The prerequisites for this course are Courses One and Two of the Specialization "Professional IQ: Preventing and Solving Problems at Work".

From the lesson

Week 4: It’s Your Life - Live it Well

Pull together skills and knowledge from throughout the courses while examining the importance of your alignment and fit in an organization. Reflect on the importance of learning as a leader and plan for what happens next in your professional career.

4.7.1.1 Experts Comment: Reverse Engineering5:31

4.7.1.2 Experts Comment: The Essence of Professional IQ8:35

4.7.2 Coming Back to Values; Learning Moving Forward4:19

Meet the Instructors

C. K. Gunsalus
Director of the National Center for Professional and Research Ethics (NCPRE), Professor Emerita of Business, and Research Professor at the Coordinated Science Laboratory

[MUSIC]

The two minute challenge for

this course overarching the entire course was reverse engineering.

And it boils down to a question of how you frame the situation.

Are you only looking at the short term financial implications?

Or are you looking at the longer term relationship issues and

how this affects your interaction with a very long term supplier.

Let's hear what some of our experts have to say about this one.

>> I think this problem actually requires a two part conversation.

So, I think the first part is an outward facing conversation with a long time

supplier.

And I think that can be a simple as, hey I been having a conversation with

the product team and we have some concerns about cost.

And we're wondering if there's actually any wiggle room on your side.

Is it possible for you to do something with us?

It's not at all necessary to lead with a threat or lead with the, you know,

maybe we can get around your patent.

It's really not their concern as to why you have a product,

why you have an issue with the cost of the widget.

You might just lead in a friendly way saying hey, got some issues with the cost,

wondering if you might be able to do something about that.

And then that's followed immediately with a set of conversations internally.

So, one of them is with the R&D saying, you know,

this thing we're considering replacing is patented.

Are we really really sure that we are able to do this without stepping on any

intellectual property?

That itself is a complicated subject.

But more than that I think we have to have a conversation with the product team,

maybe the marketing team.

Saying okay it is perhaps possible to replace this widget with one

of lower cost, but are we optimizing a tree but messing up the forest?

Is the cost of this widget the only thing we really care about?

Do we value the relationship with the supplier?

Have they been a good partner?

Do they deliver things on time?

If we make a change in the specification of the product,

do they work with us as a partner?

If we overnight ask for a doubling of the supply in the supply chain,

do they actually show up and do it with us?

If we were to replace this supplier to get a widget with a slightly better cost,

are we actually maybe incurring some more costs?

Because we're going to have to build another set of relationships with whoever

makes this thing for us, even if it's our own team.

So, two sorts of conversations.

One, looking outward, maybe can you do this for us in a little cheaper manner?

One looking inward, how serious are we that just reducing the cost of this

one part is the only thing we care about in the life of this product?

>> If it's possible to go to the supplier partner and

let them know that you are contemplating this change.

And see if they have any suggestion about how to move forward, and how they

might continue to deliver value in light of the materials change, process change.

You give them the opportunity to do that.

So you go to them with that question.

And maybe they have a satisfactory response.

Or maybe they tell you that they don't, and that they can't contribute,

and that they understand why you would move forward without them.

Progress is being made all the time in technology,

in business practices, in all aspects of commerce.

And everybody has to anticipate change.

And while loyalty, in my mind,

means that you will communicate, but

everybody's business has to move forward.

And if I insist that by moving to, on an automobile,

I'm going to put my horse supplier out of business.

And so I continue to stick with the horse and buggy approach.

Well, pretty soon I'm going to be out of business and

then my horse supplier is also going to have no customer.

So I'm not helping him by protecting him.

>> As a small business operator and a provider of patented technology that

may not necessarily be Xs and Os or black or white.

When I develop relationship with my contractors or

with my client base, there's a high level of relationship that's developed there.

And there's a trust that is developed whether it's spoken or not spoken.

In my area, if I was going to think about adapting a technique or adopting a product

or finding a better way or an easier way to deliver a set of circumstances.

I would most certainly open a conversation with the provider and

say, let's look at different ways that we could possibly bring down my costs.

And one of the specifics that comes to mind right away is if you can do a high

volume end run for me, and only use a substitute material that doesn't affect

the quality of your delivery.

Could you do that for me so

that I could absorb the 10% savings in bringing that product to market?

[MUSIC]

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