Size and Skill Capabilities

The Institute of Applied Computer Science (introduced in Chapter 3) was negotiating a contract with a European Union research agency. This contract would be the single largest contract in the history of the company. The contract required Applied Computer Science to employ about forty people and to be the coordinating unit for a number of research teams located in other European countries. Benny Mortensen was not worried about the scientific and technological aspects of the new project but expressed concerns about running a company that would be twice its current size. He realized that he no longer would be as heavily involved in every project and that more traveling and time spent on recruiting would leave him less time to have detailed knowledge of how projects were doing. To a large extent, the success of the company depended on his ability to utilize resources efficiently, thus cutting cost and time, by using knowledge from one project to improve another project.