Need help on the Discussion Questions CASE APPLICATION #3 Saving the World used

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Need help on the Discussion Questions

CASE APPLICATION #3 Saving the World used to be able to tell who the bad guys were, But in our ties facing many organizations today--quickly shifting custom digital online world, those days are long gone." Now. the er expectations and continuously emerging g competitors and global threats. Managing talented people in such an envi do inflict all kinds of damage on individuals, businesses, govem ronment can be quite challenging ments, and other organizations. Surveys show that data breach at Symantec's virus hunters around the world deal with some tacks are happening with alarming regularity And while your home 20,000 virus samples each mont th, not all of which are unique, and school PCs are hopefully well protected from data theft and stand-alone viruses. To make the hunte jobs even more inter viruses, don't think that you're in the clear. The newest targets for esting is that computer attacks are increasingly being spread by data thieves are smartphones and other mobile devices. However, criminals around the world wanting to steal informati on, whether the good guys are fighting back. For instance, security technology corporate data or personal user account information that can be company Symantec Corporation set up a recent sting called Opera- used in fraud. Dealing with these critical and time-sensitive is tion Honeystick in which it distributed 50 smart phones in Silicon sues requires special talents. The response-center team is a diverse Valley, Washington DC, New York, Los Angeles, and 0rtawa, Can- group whose members weren't easy to find, "It's not as if college ada. "The devices, loaded with a buffet of juicy, fake data, were left are creating thousands of anti malware or security experts every restaurants, elevators, convenience stores, and student unions' year that we can hire. If you find them in any part of the wor Oh, and one other thing, the smartphones were equipped with mon you just go after them" The response center team's makeup re- itoring software so the security flects that. For instance, one experts could track where the de Managing talented people in senior researcher is from Hun gary: another is from Iceland: vices were taken once found and what type of information was ac- a work environment that's and another works out of her sed by the finders. This is just quickly shifting can be home in Melbourne, Florida one example of how Symantec's quite challenging But they all share something in employees are trying to "save common: They're all motivated the world one step atatime,not by solving problems. an easy thing to do The launch of the Blaster-B worm. a particularly nasty virus, magine what life would be like if your product in late summer 2003 changed the company's approach to dealing finished, if your work were never done, if your market shifted viruses. The domino effect of Blaster-B and other viruses 30 times a day" sounds pretty crazy, doesn't it? However, the spawned by it meant that frontline software analysts were work computer-virus hunters and security experts at Symantec don't around the clock for almost two weeks. The "employee burn- have to imagine-that's the realiiy of their daily work. For in- out" potential made the company realize that its virus- stance, at the company's well-obscured Dublin facility (one of team would now have to be much deeper talent-wise. Now, the three around the globe), operations manager Patrick Fitzgerald response center's team numbers in the hundreds and managers must keep his engineers and researchers focused24non identi- can rotate people from the front lines, where they're responsible flying and combating what the bad guys are throwing out there. or responding to new security threats that crop up, into groups Right now, they're trying to say ahead of a big virus threat, where they can help with new-product development. Others write Stuxnet, which targets computer systems running the environ- temal research papers. Still others are assigned to develop new mental control facilities. such as temperature tools that will help their colleag ues battle the next wave of threats. Power plants, pressure in pipelines, automated timing, and so There's even an individual who tries to figure out what makes the forth The sequences of someone intent on doing evil gettin virus writerstick-and the day never ends for these virus h ntrol over such critical functions could be disastrous. When Dublin's team finishes its day, colleagues in Santa Monica Symantec, which de signs content and network security take over. When the US. team finishes its day, it hands off to the software for both consumers and businesses, reflects the reali in Tokyo, who then hands back to Dublin for the new day team

Explanation / Answer

41. Virus hunters at Symantec deal with around 20,000 viruses each month. As these viruses are not unique, the virus hunters are motivated by actually solving the problems. Symantec managers keep rotating talent from front lines and expose them to new product development or to writing of research papers or towards development of new tools.

Managerial competencies that might be important for these managers are that they should be able to create a well defined process for their teams. Secondly, the managers should have the ability to spread the workload evenly amongst all the three facilities of the company.

42. (a) during the conference calls, Patrick will be playing the interpersonal as well as the informational role. Patrick is playing the interpersonal role as he is interacting with people within the organization. He is playing the informational role as he is enabling the receiving and disseminating of information through the conference. (b) He is playing the decisional role as he has to take a decision regarding adding of a new service. He will have to consider the cost benefit analysis, the risks involved etc with regards to the new service. (c) He is playing the role of a leader as he is leading and motivating the employees to focus on committment to customers.

43. The website has a section called "customer trust portal". This shows that Symantec values its customers highly and places a premium on the trust bestowed on them by their customers. The organization supports its employees in being innovative abd in servicing customers by publishing white papers, intelligence reports. All these helps the employees stay ahead of the curve. The company has a different section dedicated to new ideas as well, which helps in innovation.

44. Other managers can learn and imbibe the various managerial qualities of Patrick and from Symantec's approach. They will learn why it is important to be a leader, to be an educator, to be a mentor and to be a decision maker all at the same time. They will also learn the importance of creating well defined processes within the organization.

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