Activity 5: Minto Pyramids and WIIFT (understanding the audience): Making the Case at Craigstone.

Part 1:

Using the case facts below, select a preferred travel provider. Identify the situation and the conflict. Then, craft a Minto pyramid outlining the argument in favor of that travel provider. Submit one Minto Pyramid.

Case background

Craigstone is a fast-growing management consulting firm that employs roughly 250 people with offices in North America, Europe, and Latin America. The company's headquarters is in Boston, Massachusetts. The company experienced consistent growth over its first three decades. The first year of declining revenue in over a decade was in in 2020, due to the economic impact of COVID-19. Craigstone emerged from the crisis with its core business intact, but it is now more focused on controlling costs than ever before.

Even though Craigstone's travel expenses are 60% lower per person than they were before COVID-19, client complaints about travel costs have doubled. Clients pay Craigstone employees’ travel costs in addition to the fees they pay the firm. Craigstone has always allowed employees to book airline flights, hotels, and rental cars on their personal credit cards through whatever website or travel agent they choose. The firm's largest client, which is also its only Fortune 100 client, has threatened to end its growing relationship with the firm as travel costs have started to exceed 15% of their consulting fees. The company's growth plan requires the firm to add other very large clients to its client roster. Though travel costs have traditionally been passed on to clients, competitive firms are increasingly absorbing travel costs in their fees and attempting to reduce the cost to clients without lowering prices.

To address travel costs, the firm has created a committee of five partners and an analyst to analyze the firm's travel policies. The goal is to recommend ways to reduce costs and streamline policies that have until now been handled in an ad hoc manner.

The committee's findings

After some initial discussions within the committee's membership and with others across the company, the analyst compiled the data and presented it to the partners on the committee. The data suggests that consolidating travel spending through a single partner could allow Craigstone to realize substantial savings. After talking to several large travel vendors, the committee has come to a consensus that the choice is between two serious contenders: LanaTravel.com and Canadian Express. Both offer savings on travel for firms that book at least $5M worth of business through them. With both services, consultants would continue to select their own itineraries and have access to all major airlines, hotels, and transportation services.

In comparing the travel agencies, the analysts compiled the following facts

1. LanaTravel.com: Lana is a four-year-old fast-growing start-up that combines a travel booking app for users with a reporting app for Craigstone's finance team. The app is exceptionally well-designed, and even though the company is not profitable, it has been funded by prominent venture capital firms.15 The younger employees at Craigstone have expressed strong enthusiasm for the app's usability, since they prefer to book and manage travel via a phone app. Many like that the app also allows them to manage all their travel reward programs in one place. Lana offers live phone support during East Coast business hours but only guarantees 24/7 support via the chat function in their app. Consultants frequently change travel plans and have complex itineraries. More senior members of the firm say that they need to be able to call a live human any time of the day or night. This is a major concern for them. Lana negotiates discounted rates with airlines, hotels, and other large travel providers. They say the average company saves 6% on travel costs by using them, and they guarantee at least a 4% savings. User reviews report that the app is slow and glitchy in China, which is a major growth area for the business, but many firms similar in size to Craigstone have adopted the service and report that they are satisfied with it. Some Craigstone partners have expressed concern that Lana may not be around long term. They don't want to go through this process again.

2. Canadian Express: CanEx, as it is known, is a major financial services company with a global credit card business in addition to its travel business. It is a large and stable company that has been in business for over 170 years. They are the industry standard for the world's largest consulting firms. They have a full-featured website for booking and changing travel (though it is not as robust and easy to use as Lana) and excellent live support. Agents are available by phone 24/7 from anywhere in the world. The company guarantees a 5% discount on travel booked through them and has another, related feature that could save Craigstone even more. Craigstone could gain an additional 1% reduction on all travel expenses charged through CanEx credit cards. Finance says that moving the company to CanEx cards would automate travel reimbursements. These currently take over a month, which is a substantial burden on many employees. CanEx says its credit card perks are competitive with the best reward cards on the market, but switching between credit cards to take advantage of different rewards from different companies is a hobby for a meaningful number of consultants. They consider it an important employment perk.

Case adapted from a case originally developed by JoAnne Yates and the Management Communications Group at the MIT Sloan School of Management.

Part 2: 

Choose two of the audiences below and create a Minto Pyramid for each one. Identify and state the situation and the conflict. Focus your main idea around a WIIFT that would appeal to that audience. Make reasonable assumptions about what each audience would care about. Then adjust your key points and supporting evidence (lower levels of your pyramid) to support your revised WIIFT and new main idea. Submit two Minto Pyramids.

Scenario 1: The founding partners

You are the analyst on the committee. You and the chair of the committee have done most of the analysis and have decided that CanEx is the best choice for the firm. The chair has asked you to present the findings and recommendation to the other four partners on the committee.

All five of the partners on the committee have been at the firm since its founding thirty years ago. Three of them are in their later sixties, and the rumor is that they will retire soon. Building this firm has been the most significant accomplishment of their careers. They consider its continued health their personal and professional legacy. During the research process, one partner asked you to show her how to book a flight on her phone. She commented that the last time she personally booked any travel was 1999, right before they hired a full-time assistant for her.

Scenario 2: The junior partners

You are the analyst on the committee. You and the chair of the committee have done most of the analysis and have decided that CanEx is the best choice for the firm. The chair has asked you to present the findings and recommendation to the other four partners on the committee.

Most of the partners on the committee are in their late thirties, and all of them were promoted to partner within the last three years. The rumor within the firm is that membership on the committee is both a privilege and a burden. Only partners recognized as rising stars were asked to participate. The firm policy is that new partners have five years to prove their ability to sell new business, or they are asked to leave the firm. These meetings represent time that could be spent cultivating relationships with existing clients and pursuing new ones. In every meeting you've attended, most of the committee members are on their phones for most of the meeting.

Scenario 3: The future firm leader

You are the chair of the travel policy committee and the most senior partner on the committee. Working with the analyst, you've determined that CanEx is the best choice for the firm. You are addressing the other partners on the committee to get them to approve your choice.

In the past year, you were responsible for 20% of the firm's revenue, more than any other partner. You are in line to be the next leader of the entire firm. Since you are on the partner promotion committee, you know all the other partners on the committee well and were involved in their promotions to partner. You consider two of them to be protégés. You hope to see them become the future leaders of the firm (after you).

You asked to head this committee because you run the relationship with the firm's largest client. After the client's CEO threatened to end its relationship with Craigstone, you promised that you would get travel costs under control. You're convinced that runaway travel costs are going to limit the ability of the firm to sell projects to other Fortune 100 companies. Over the years, you've seen clients focus more and more on travel expenses. You are tired of taking calls from third-year accountants just to ask you about a Sam Adams some twenty-two-year-old expensed on a 10 p.m. flight back to Boston after a week in Omaha.

Scenario 4: The analyst meeting

You are the analyst on the committee. The committee has recommended the firm adopt CanEx as the company's official charge card, and the full partnership has approved the decision. Since you were on the committee, the partners have asked you to explain the decision to select CanEx at the Boston office's analyst meeting. Presenting at this meeting is an honor and a signal that you have a bright future within the firm.

The committee chair implied that your real job is to convince your peers to adopt and use their CanEx credit cards for all business expenses. The firm's official policy is that only charges on CanEx cards are reimbursed, but no one believes it. The announcement was buried in a monthly email newsletter, and partners have been telling their teams that no one is going to make someone one year out of school shoulder the cost of a $3,000 business trip, regardless of the card it goes on. Besides, gaming credit card offers and points programs is considered both a common hobby and one of the job's perks. It helps make up for the punishing amount of travel required.

There are twenty other analysts in the Boston office. You are generally on good terms with all of them, but your close relationships with partners on the committee has caused some jealousy. Being the one to explain the policy doesn't seem like it will help your reputation as a sycophant.

Scenario 5: The analyst lunch

You are the analyst on the committee. The committee has recommended that the firm adopt CanEx as the official charge card of the company, and the full partnership has approved the decision. The monthly email newsletter contained an announcement of the policy, but the meetings to explain the policy don't start until next week.

It's one of those rare Fridays where everyone is in the office. All the analysts who started with you at Craigstone try to get lunch together whenever most of you are around. If you can get to Aceituna—the Middle Eastern place around the corner—before 11:45, you can usually assemble enough tables for all eight of you to sit together.

When you're midway through your shawarma, someone asks, “So what's the deal with this CanEx nonsense? First this job steals my evenings and weekends, now they're taking my credit card perks. Is this because the partners who have assistants to do everything for them can't even figure out how to book a hotel room on their phones?” As you put down your pita, you notice that all the side conversations at the table have stopped. Everyone is looking at you.

You will be submitting 3 pyramids on total for this activity. You may use any technology to build the pyramid, keep it simple, make sure the text is legible. 

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