Information from James St Cloud Memorandum

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1. Gathering More Information

Write a document to Techniks managers E. F. Black and J. St. Cloud that will be attached to an email message that explains your situation and need for information.

Maggie pokes her head into your office at 2 p.m. and asks, "How are you coming?"

You explain the fact that you are waiting to hear back from Techniks and show her the email attachment you sent. "Well, I was hoping to have a rundown of all of these folks by tonight so we could maybe have all of the information we gather in some sort of decipherable table before tomorrow morning's meeting. I won’t really be able to read long memos during the meeting, so give me the information in a format that is easy to digest so I can present it in a coherent fashion to our group. But if you don't hear back from these folks by 5, why don't we just scratch them off our list?"

Luckily, you receive a phone call from James St. Cloud in New York at 4 P.M. Because he is between meetings and you are facing a deadline, the conversation is brief but cordial. You are convinced, based on his genuine enthusiasm on the phone, that St. Cloud is indeed interested in the potential for teamwork on this project. St. Cloud gives you the following information:

? His firm was established in 1984 and employs 22 full-time engineers; 20 architects (five of whom are contract employees who come on for specific projects); seven city planning/participation experts; and six management staff with professional backgrounds in engineering, architecture, and city planning.

? St. Cloud believes that the firm's specialties lie in downtown development and urban planning. He cited several successful redesign projects in cities like Stratford, Ontario; Vancouver; Park City, Utah; and Reno, Nevada.

? Techniks has successfully teamed up with a wide variety of firms on different projects including numerous public walkways and three suspension bridge projects. St. Cloud noted that several engineers employed with Techniks had a "moderate to considerable" experience with suspension techniques. In fact, he noted, one employee had been called in by the Kansas City Star to consult on the failure of the Hyatt Regency suspension walkway in 1981.

? If Lowe & Company is interested in meeting to discuss a team approach, Techniks could send representatives no sooner than late next week, because the firm is tightly booked at the moment with pressing jobs. 

Your general sense from the phone conversation is that St. Cloud is amiable and interested in the project. However, your concerns are twofold. First, you worry that such a large firm could easily "swallow" Lowe & Company in a project such as this. While you need their expertise, Lowe & Company cannot afford to lose the high-profile potential for this job. Therefore, Lowe & Company needs to team up with an organization willing to share responsibility. You cannot discern from your brief conversation with St. Cloud whether this is possible with Techniks. Second, Techniks seems to be established or at least in particularly high demand at the moment. You worry a little about the firm's availability.

2. Summary Task

Write a memo to Maggie Lowe detailing the information you gained from James St. Cloud as well as your assessment of the phone conversation. Because Maggie has told you she wants to draw this information together in some sort of readable format such as a table for the morning's meeting, pay special attention to designing the memo so that she may easily extract the particulars and details during the meeting without having to read a great deal of text.

3. Formal Correspondence

After a discussion at your morning meeting, Lowe & Company employees agree that the best plan, at least tentatively, is to pursue the team approach with one of the firms you and your colleagues have contacted. Bids for the city project are due in City Hall in three weeks. Maggie has agreed to fly James St. Cloud and an associate to Milwaukee to discuss the partnership further. Write a letter to Techniks (attn: James St. Cloud, Manager) explaining the importance of a face-to-face meeting and the urgency of the impending deadline. Explain the offer to fly St. Cloud and an associate to Milwaukee. You may make up street addresses for your formal correspondence, though do be mindful as to the cities in which the firms are located.

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ENGL 286 -- Case 1 -- Architectural Risks: Lowe & Company’s Dilemma Lowe & Company is a relatively new architectural firm with a strong desire to land a local suspension walkway job. With little experience in suspension walkway engineering, Lowe & Company seeks to forge a collaborative relationship with a firm that can help fill the experience gaps. This case asks you to write a series of letters and memos as elements in the longer-term negotiations of partnerships. Note: You may make up any street addresses you use on your documents. Background Lowe & Company is a new architectural firm located in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Struggling to get off the ground financially, Lowe has worked hard to offer reasonable, honest bids for potential clients in order to establish a name for the firm. To date, their competitive edge has been Lowe & Company's ability to accomplish relatively large projects for less money than the competition. Lowe &Company was founded 26 months ago by architect Maggie Lowe and her brothers, Patrick and Shawn. Patrick is a mechanical engineer, and Shawn received his M.RA from the University of North Carolina last May. Together with six other young architects and four engineers, the three siblings have managed to land two substantial accounts and five short-term projects since they opened their modest office downtown. Clearly, competition in the area is stiff. The first substantial account involved designing a public space for a downtown redevelopment project. The public space included a brick walkway, a koi garden, landscaping, and an entry arch, as well as strategically placed public art commissioned by the city. While the work itself was not difficult, it was noticeable. It was because of this public work that the city council asked Lowe & Company to offer a bid to design and build a suspended walkway system for the ongoing downtown redevelopment project. The system would include five strategically placed suspended walkways between major structures in the main business district. Lowe & Company was the only small-scale architectural firm in the area asked to compete; to win the business would mean an enormous boost for the firm. The Situation You were hired three months ago as an engineer with Lowe & Company, and your work has been limited to the shortterm projects involving home additions and landscape design. Maggie Lowe has called a special staff meeting to discuss the city project. "I have to admit," Maggie begins, after circulating the copies of the city's request for bids, "I feel a little out of my league here. I have never worked on a suspension project before, and the only experience I do have comes from what I learned in the classroom-and that was several years ago." "Curt and I worked on that small suspension bridge project in Minnesota back in 2012, which will probably be helpful," offered Patrick. Curt Jackson, seated next to you, nods. Jackson was one of the original engineers hired by Lowe & Company because he and Patrick Lowe had worked together in Minnesota prior to the Lowes' partnership two years ago. Jackson is quiet but meticulous in his work, and he has already given you some helpful insights in your own work. Maggie shakes her head. "I remember that project, guys, and I respect the work you did. But I don't think one project between thirteen of us makes us qualified to do this. I think we have a couple of options. Tell me what you think of them. First, I wonder how committed the city is to a suspended walkway. Seems to me that's pretty limiting in terms of what they might consider. One option might be to offer an alternative, something we do feel comfortable designing." Shawn let out an audible sigh. "Whew! I thought you were going to say that we ought to opt out of the competition. Frankly, based on the books right now, we really can't afford not to try on this one." Several heads around the table nodded as Maggie smiled ruefully. "Yeah, I'm well aware of our tight purse strings at the moment. At the same time, we certainly couldn't afford a major lawsuit if we designed something that failed because of our own inexperience. I don't want to be responsible for creating something like the suspended walkways that collapsed in Kansas City in 1981 because I was too inexperienced to see a flaw in the design detail or because I figured the safety factor wrong. Personally, I think the city has offered us the chance to bid only because we did a nice job on the public space earlier this year and we were cheap. I think it's unlikely we'd land this thing on our own, though. Too many liabilities." "What do you mean, 'on our own,' Maggie?" Your interest is piqued. 1 "Well," she responds, "I've scanned this call for bids over and over again, and there is nothing that says we can't team up with another firm. Wait. Before you protest, Shawn, let me finish my line of argument here. Since we don't have any real experience with suspension-but we do have several things to our advantage -- we might be likely candidates for the team approach. If we enlisted the experience of another firm to help construct a couple of viable models, we could not only draw on our own strengths in detailing and knowledge of the "larger picture" of the downtown redevelopment plans, we could also get some invaluable experience with suspension design." "But if we team up with another firm, Maggie, it means we're bringing home less money," Shawn argued. Maggie shook her head. "Not necessarily. I grant we might clear less from the outset, but imagine what landing this might do for business in the long run. It's a matter of weighing short-term versus long-term benefits." Shawn was unconvinced. "If we don't meet our short-term obligations, Maggie, we're not going to have to worry about long-term benefits." "But Shawn, I doubt we'd land this thing on our own anyway. Some money is better than none." "I have a suggestion," Patrick said. "Why don't we divide up into teams and do a little research? We could come back with some reports first thing tomorrow morning and from them make a decision about our approach to the city." Heads around the table were nodding at this point. He continued, "Could one team look into possible partnership angles and the other devise a couple of alternative designs for the walkway?" The Task and Your Role You are a part of the team that will research potential partnerships. This task is something you aren’t confident with since you have no actual experience with bridgework. You are dubious about Lowe & Company's undertaking such a challenging project, despite the fact that you realize the firm is in need of the kind of windfall another city project would ensure. You will be working with Maggie, Curt Jackson and two architects, Calle Emerson and Aaron Matthews. Despite Curt's limited experience with suspended structures, Maggie and Patrick both agreed that Curt should be tapped because of his contacts with the Minnesota firm, Urbana Design, at which he and Patrick were employed for several years. After speaking with his contacts at Urbana Design, Curt offers each team member the name of an architectural or engineering firm that Urbana has recommended Lowe & Company look at in their search for a partner on this project. The name Curt gives you is Techniks, located in Vancouver, Canada. Your job is to locate background information on Techniks, including its size, its ability to collaborate on a project (particularly this far from its home base), its specialties, and specifically its experience with suspension projects such as this. You call the home office for Techniks, and the secretary, Sandy Davies, tells you that the firm's managers are out of the office for the next ten days on a job in New York City. You explain the situation and ask if there is anyone available you might discuss the matter with. Sandy assures you that only the managers make such decisions, but if you could attach your request letter to an email message right away, perhaps their office could forward the message and receive an answer by late this afternoon or tomorrow morning. You have little choice, so you agree to email your request for information right away. Background Development Consider the following questions as a way to evaluate what you've read in this case. You may use your responses to these questions to help you in subsequent tasks. This material is not to be submitted with your assignment. 1. Based on what you've read in the background section, how would you summarize Lowe & Company's strengths and weaknesses? Make a bulleted list of strengths on the left and weaknesses on the right. Using that list, now underline the strengths you believe will be most helpful to Lowe & Company as its employees try to win the bid for the city project. 2. Lowe & Company is interested in a cross-company collaboration. Make a list of questions that would help you to determine whether collaboration with Techniks would be positive. These do not have to be questions that you would ask a representative from Techniks, rather, they should reflect what you'd want to know about Techniks before embarking on a short-term partnership with the firm. You might revise this list into the actual questions you will ask of Techniks managers. 2 The following three sections must all be turned in to D2L. Although you will develop them as separate documents, when you finish, combine them into a single .doc or .docx file and submit it to D2L: 1. Gathering More Information Write a one-page document to Techniks managers E. F. Black and J. St. Cloud that will be attached to an email message that explains your situation and need for information. Maggie pokes her head into your office at 2 p.m. and asks, "How are you coming?" You explain the fact that you are waiting to hear back from Techniks and show her the email attachment you sent. "Well, I was hoping to have a rundown of all of these folks by tonight so we could maybe have all of the information we gather in some sort of decipherable table before tomorrow morning's meeting. I won’t really be able to read long memos during the meeting, so give me the information in a format that is easy to digest so I can present it in a coherent fashion to our group. But if you don't hear back from these folks by 5, why don't we just scratch them off our list?" Luckily, you receive a phone call from James St. Cloud in New York at 4 P.M. Because he is between meetings and you are facing a deadline, the conversation is brief but cordial. You are convinced, based on his genuine enthusiasm on the phone, that St. Cloud is indeed interested in the potential for teamwork on this project. St. Cloud gives you the following information: ● His firm was established in 1984 and employs 22 full-time engineers; 20 architects (five of whom are contract employees who come on for specific projects); seven city planning/participation experts; and six management staff with professional backgrounds in engineering, architecture, and city planning. ● St. Cloud believes that the firm's specialties lie in downtown development and urban planning. He cited several successful redesign projects in cities like Stratford, Ontario; Vancouver; Park City, Utah; and Reno, Nevada. ● Techniks has successfully teamed up with a wide variety of firms on different projects including numerous public walkways and three suspension bridge projects. St. Cloud noted that several engineers employed with Techniks had a "moderate to considerable" experience with suspension techniques. In fact, he noted, one employee had been called in by the Kansas City Star to consult on the failure of the Hyatt Regency suspension walkway in 1981. ● If Lowe & Company is interested in meeting to discuss a team approach, Techniks could send representatives no sooner than late next week, because the firm is tightly booked at the moment with pressing jobs. Your general sense from the phone conversation is that St. Cloud is amiable and interested in the project. However, your concerns are twofold. First, you worry that such a large firm could easily "swallow" Lowe & Company in a project such as this. While you need their expertise, Lowe & Company cannot afford to lose the high-profile potential for this job. Therefore, Lowe & Company needs to team up with an organization willing to share responsibility. You cannot discern from your brief conversation with St. Cloud whether this is possible with Techniks. Second, Techniks seems to be established or at least in particularly high demand at the moment. You worry a little about the firm's availability. 2. Summary Task Write a memo to Maggie Lowe detailing the information you gained from James St. Cloud as well as your assessment of the phone conversation. Because Maggie has told you she wants to draw this information together in some sort of readable format such as a table for the morning's meeting, pay special attention to designing the memo so that she may easily extract the particulars and details during the meeting without having to read a great deal of text. 3. Formal Correspondence After a discussion at your morning meeting, Lowe & Company employees agree that the best plan, at least tentatively, is to pursue the team approach with one of the firms you and your colleagues have contacted. Bids for the city project are due in City Hall in three weeks. Maggie has agreed to fly James St. Cloud and an associate to Milwaukee to discuss the partnership further. Write a letter to Techniks (attn: James St. Cloud, Manager) explaining the importance of a face-toface meeting and the urgency of the impending deadline. Explain the offer to fly St. Cloud and an associate to Milwaukee. You may make up street addresses for your formal correspondence, though do be mindful as to the cities in which the firms are located. 3
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Explanation & Answer

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Reference


MEMORANDUM
DATE: 5/6/2019
TO: MAGGIE LOWE
FROM: [NAME]
SUBJECT: INFORMATION FROM JAMES ST. CLOUD
PRIORITY: [Urgent]
I am writing to inform you about the conversation I had with James St. Cloud regarding their
firm; the firm was established in 1984 and currently has 22 full-time engineers and 20 architects
with five of them being contract employees.
The firm's specialty lies in downtown development and urban planning with successful pr...

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