In the Fall of 1971, a major International Cosmetics and Fragrances Company introduced a system, which enabled it to monitor and respond to Change in its Business Environment. The system was called ‘VIPER’, which is an acronym of the system’s key activity stages (Vigilance: Information: Processing: Evaluation: Response). The scheme was piloted by establishing three VIPER teams from the Marketing, Scientific Services and Engineering Divisions.
At the end of 1971, just before the break for the Holidays, a round of VIPER team meetings took place. The teams were charged with predicting Change, for the short to medium term future and making appropriate recommendations.
The teams presented their recommendations.
- The Marketing team recommended that the company should move away from its traditional floral-based fragrances towards more abstract fragrances.
- The Scientific Services team, particularly, in view of Marketing’s proposed new fragrances, recommended that more time should be devoted to the development of new products. As a result, R & D timetabling protocols were changed.
- The Engineering team came up with, perhaps, the most prosaic recommendation. The team suggested that the company should invest in three heavy duty electrical generators. Ever trusted to spend their budgets wisely, the Engineers were authorised to lease the new equipment. It was to give rise to an extraordinary outcome.
On 9 January 1972, as a result of a pay dispute, the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) called a national strike. Coal production ceased, at all of the 289 pits, throughout the United Kingdom. As a result, power stations were forced to rely on existing stocks of coal, with the inevitable reduction in the electricity supply. Because of this reduction, from 9 February, the supply of electricity, from the National Grid, had to be ‘rationed’. A three day working week was imposed on businesses, throughout the UK. That is to say, on most of them.
In their Environmental Analysis session, the Engineering VIPER team had foreseen that the negotiations, over pay, between the NUM and the National Coal Board, would end in deadlock. As a result of this anticipated outcome, the Engineers had proposed the acquisition of the electrical generators, as a contingency plan.
Because of the Engineering VIPER team’s foresight, the company was equipped to produce its own electricity and so remained, largely, unaffected by the outages.
It simply ‘switched on’ and ‘carried on’
This event contributed to the DNA of the following Training Package: