Comportamiento Organizacional

CARTER RACING A
What should we do?

John carter was not sure, but his brother and partner, Fred Carter, was on the phone and needed a decision. Should they run in the race or not? It had been a successful season so far, but the Pocono race was important because of the prize money and tv exposure it promised. Those first year had been hard because the team was trying to make a name for itself.They had run a lot of small races to get this shot at the bigtime. A successful outing could mean more sponsors, a chance to start making some profits for a change, and the luxury of racing only the majors’ events. But if they suffered another engine failure on national tv…
Just thinking about the team´s engine problems made John wince. They had blown the engine seven times in 24 outings thisseason with various degress of damage to the engine and car. No one could figure out why. It took a lot of sponser money to replace a $ 20.000 racing engine, and the wasted entry fees were no small matter either. John and Fred had everything they owner riding on Carter racing. This season had to be a success.
Paul Edwards, the engine mechanic, was guessing the engine problem was related to ambientair temperature. He argued that when it was cold the different expansion rates for the head and block were damaging the head gasket and causing the engine failures. It was below freezing last night, which meant a cold morning for starting the race.
Tom Burns, the Chief mechanic, did not agree with Paul´s “Gut feeling” and had data to support his position (See Exhibit 1). He pointed out thatgasket failures had occurred at all temperatures, which meant temperature was not the issue. Tom has been racing for twenty years and believed that luck was an important element in success. He had argued this view when he and John disused the problem last week; “In racing, you are pushing the limits of what Is known. You cannot expect to have everything under control. If you want to win, you have totake risks.
Everybody in racing knows it. The drivers have their lives on the line, I have a career that hangs on every race, and you guys have got every dime tied up in the business. That´s the thrill, beating the odds and winning” Last night over dinner he had added to this argument forcefully with what he called Burns first law of racing: “Nobody ever won a race sitting in the pits”.
John, Fredand Tom had discussed Carter Racing´s situation the previous evening. This first season was a success from a racing standpoint, with the team´s car finishing in the top five in 12 of the 15 races it completed. As a result, the sponsorship offers critical to the team´s business success were starting to come in. A bug break had come two weeks ago after the Dunham race, where the team scored itsfourth first – place finish. Goodstone tire had finally decided Carter Racing deserved its sponsorship at Pocono – Worth a much needed $40.000 and was considering a full season contract for next year if the tram´s car finished In the top five in this race.
The Goodstone sponsorship was for a million a year, plus incentives John and Fred had gotten a favorable response from Goodstone´s Racing ProgramDirector last week when they presented their plans for next season, but it was clear that his support depended on the visibility they generated in this race.
“John, we only have another hour to decide”, Fred said over the phone. “If we withdraw now, we can get back half the $ 15 .000 entry and try to recoup some our losses next season.
We will lose Goodstone, they will want $ 25.000 of theirmoney back, and we end up the season $ 50.000 in the hole. If we run and finish in the top five, we have Goodstone in our pocket and can add another car next season. You Know as well as I do, however, that if we run and lose another engine, we are back at square one next season. We will lose the tire sponsorship and a blown engine is going to lose the oil contract. No oil company wants a national...