Real-Life Decision Making
You've been making great toys for kids for several years. Some of the largest toy makers in the world buy and distribute your designs. You have a reputation for building clever, thoughtful toys -- and being thorough in your research.
Much of your research is done with your own children. When you make prototypes in your workshop, you bring them home to let them try them out.
You're in the final stages of developing a new toy, a simulated futuristic city complete with little people and flying cars. The project has taken a lot of time because of all the detail involved -- you can even see ultra-modern kitchens inside some apartments!
One problem -- your city doesn't meet your kids' approval. After being wowed briefly by the size and scope of the city, your children quickly lose interest. After moving some people and cars around for a few minutes, they begin to search for something else the city will do.
You explain to them that it's a toy of imagination -- that it will require them to be more active in their play. But they're not convinced. They look the city over again and then go back to some of your earlier inventions. Within a week, a thick coat of dust sits on top of your city.
Unfortunately, you were too confident the toy would be a hit. You've already signed a manufacturing agreement with a major toy maker. The firm is currently designing plastic templates and setting up a factory assembly line to produce 200,000 of the toys for the upcoming Christmas season.
You eye the telephone on your desk and consider your options.
You could allow the product to go into full production. Even though your three children didn't like the toy, thousands of other kids might. Or you could inform the toy maker that your own tests have proven the product to be a failure. Perhaps the production schedule should be delayed or cut back.