Advanced Systems LLC (ASL), a High-Technology Company with 20,000 Employees

question 130

Essay

Advanced Systems LLC (ASL), a high-technology company with 20,000 employees, has just acquired the company you work for, LiteForce Corp.LiteForce is a 5,000 person company where you work as a photonics (fiber optics) engineer.ASL mainly acquired LiteForce to reduce its competitive threat in the marketplace and to increase its number of engineers and researchers in lightwave technology.You and five other engineers and scientists at LiteForce were working on new technology that would dramatically improve lightwave transmission to communicate data across the Internet.Your team's discovery occurred just before the acquisition and was not well known in the organization.Also, the key executives who strongly supported your team's research have left the company through generous buyout packages during the acquisition.ASL offered share options to encourage you and other engineers and researchers to remain.As a result, only your team members and a few other people are aware of the potential benefits of the project.Your team has similar education and experience as other engineers in the combined organization.Moreover, your team's authority is limited to expenditures within the existing project budget which ends in a few months.Further support would require executive approval.Describe the sources and contingencies of power that you and your team have in this situation to continue the project.

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Definitions:

Profitable

A financial state or condition where income exceeds expenses, leading to a net gain.

Retailers

Businesses or individuals that sell goods directly to consumers for their use and consumption, acting as the final link in the supply chain.

Vertical Contracts

Agreements between companies at different levels of the supply chain, such as between a manufacturer and a retailer, to govern the terms of purchase and sale.

Manufacturer's Belief

The perceptions or convictions held by manufacturers regarding the market, product quality, or the effectiveness of production processes.