Sarah is the computer network manager at Oak Ridge Community College. She has held this position for two years and hopes to find similar employment in private business or industry eventually. This is Sarah's first management position; she graduated from Oak Ridge four years ago. The American Management Association, a national professional business organization, is holding a regional technology conference, which will be attended by representatives from business and industry throughout a ten-state area. The conference is being held at a hotel in Mason City located 200 miles from Oak Ridge. Sarah has been asked to give a presentation at the conference on networking and network management. She readily agrees to participate, seeing it as an opportunity to establish contacts with many business representatives who will be attending. These contacts could prove invaluable in helping her find a networking position in the private sector. Sarah uses PowerPoint to prepare her presentation. She decides not to write a speech but to speak spontaneously as she shows her PowerPoint slides. Sarah will take a laptop computer to the conference and use a digital projector to project the images onto a large screen. Sarah's session is scheduled from 1:30 to 2:15 p.m. on the first day of the conference. She arrives at 1:20 p.m. to set up her equipment. To her horror, she finds that she cannot boot the PowerPoint program on her laptop computer. The session moderator and several persons from the audience attempted to help her. Nothing works. As the room fills, Sarah is in a panic. Why hadn't she made transparencies and/or copied slides to distribute as a backup? How will she remember everything she was going to cover? In her flustered state of mind, she can barely remember her own name! The session, however, cannot be canceled. The show must go on. Now Sarah is seated on the dais, waiting to be introduced. She looks out over a sea of 200 faces. Her hands are trembling, and her knees feel weak. She would give anything to be somewhere else! The introduction is completed, and Sarah walks to the lectern. She takes a deep breath and makes a weak joke about being an expert in networking but not being able to run a laptop computera smattering of laughter ripples through the audience. She is glued to the lectern; her heart is racing; she has no notes to refer to, and her mind goes blank. Stark fear starts the adrenaline flowing, and her brain suddenly engages. She talks rapidly, jumping randomly from topic to topic. She peppers her talk with networking terminology and concepts that only an expert would know. Sarah is aware of puzzled looks on the faces of persons seated in the front row, but she forges ahead. The more nervous she becomes, the faster she talks. The audience becomes restless. Many people walk out of the room. The door squeaks each time it is opened and voices spill in from the hallway. Those audience members who are still trying to listen lose their concentration with each squeak of the door. After what seems like hours, Sarah glances at her watch. She has been talking for only 20 minutes, but she has nothing more to say. She asks if the audience has questions. There are none. The moderator thanks Sarah, and the audience gives her lukewarm applausemost people are already on their way out of the door. Sarah wants to fade into the woodwork. How could things have gone so wrong?

Questions:

1: Consider Relevant Information

2: Define the Case Problem and Write a Problem Statement

3: Analyze the Facts and Underlying Assumptions

4: List Possible Solutions to the Problem

5: Select a Solution and Prepare to Defend It

6: Decide How to Implement the Solution