Product Launch

1. Recent company news

Identification

• Read recent press about your assigned company.
• Find an issue (e.g. lawsuit, decline in sales, failed product launch, controversy, unethical behavior, etc.) or company development (e.g. new product announcement, merger, expansion effort, positive financial performance, etc.) that is both relevant and recent (within the last 12 months).
• Describe the issue or development using clear and concise business language.
• What are some of the reactions to the news?What are experts/analysts/company executives saying about it?
• Summarize the content of your sources. Do sources agree or disagree?
• Analyze the situation: How does this affect your company? Has the company responded to this situation? If yes, how? If not, why not? Should the company respond? Why/why not?

Question 2

Write an email message to be distributed to the entire workforce, explaining that the automated monitoring program is about to be expanded to include employees’ personal social media accounts.

Explain that, while you sympathize with the employee concerns regarding privacy and freedom of speech, it is the management team’s responsibility to protect the company’s intellectual property and the value of the company name/brand. Therefore, employees’ social media accounts will be added to the monitoring systems to ensure that employees don’t intentionally or accidently expose company secrets or criticize management in a way that could harm the company.

Respond to this message with sufficient detail to answer their inquiry.Follow the guidelines and components for bad news messages in “Chapter 11: Bad News Messages” in the textbook.In Chapter 11, there is also a good example of a “More Effective Delivery of Bad News to Employees” that you should read.