Business Case Study: Xydon, The New Sports Drink

SUMMARY
XYZ Company wanted to launch GOON, the new sports drink in the next 6 months just before the Football World Cup which was approaching. A team of five members was formed to design packaging of the product headed by Alex, the designing head of the company. The launch got late due to concerns related to the design of the packaging of the product and had to suffer the opportunity cost due to the delay. The reader has to identify the communication problems and its implications on the Company.
INTRODUCTION
XYZ Company was the one of the emerging Food and Beverages Company in the US. They had planned to expand themselves across 4 other countries including India, China, UK and Canada by launching GOON, the new sports drink in these five countries

Alex was the senior industrial designer of the XYZ company and project head of the team. The team included Alex, Rajan, Chun, Thomas and Jacob who were independent renowned designers.
PROBLEM
Day 1 at the office
A brief about the company was given by the CEO of the company followed by the details of the task at hand was delivered by Alex. After that the team gathered in the office.
Alex: Hello everyone!
Everyone:

Her participation in the group had gone down from limited to negligible. She started to gain a feeling of not belongingness and isolation. She was facing problems due to the language barrier and lack of motivation. The intensity of group participation had also gone down.
IMPACT
3 of the group members left the job within 1- month of the project which resulted in a substantial delay in the finalization of the design of Goon and hence its launch. The XYZ Company had projected around $500000 revenue during the peak time. The company had to bear this opportunity cost and had to settle with 1 month delay in the products launch.
RECOMMENDATION
The team should have asserted and talked through Alex, the concern that they were being offended and should have reiterated the fact that they are his team mates and not his subordinates. They should have reported to a senior manager about the arrogant and aggressive behaviour of Alex and made their intensions of leaving the project clear in case the behaviour remains the same. They could have asked for changing the project head or just removing that post of project head as the group was fairly small and everyone was capable enough to work it through and that each liked the work he/she is doing. Also, in Chun’s case the group should have taken her along in every aspect of the workplace and beyond and made her comfortable and free in terms of communicating