MAJOR CASE STUDY:
INTO THIN AIR- ADVENTURE CONSULTANTS SYSTEM
Arnie Reinheimer
ISMG4600
5/8/2008
ADVENTURE CONSULTANTS
Adventure Consultants, a mountaineering firm, founded operations in 1992. Its previous, successful guides, for subsequent years, gained the company an association with a reputation for leadership focused on safety . Under the leadership of Rob Hall, a famous and respected mountaineer, known for his numerous summits on Everest and also for a philosophy that the mission of a guide was not necessarily to summit a mountain but to take clients up the mountain and return them safely back down .
On May 10, 1996, a poor system of coordination and communication existed to effectively delay an organized summit attempt by over 30 climbers on various expeditions that day. That delay, in addition to personal decision on the part of Rob Hall to break with his own turn around time at 2:00pm placed his descending expedition in grave danger as a blinding blizzard hit Everest. Rob Hall died during his return down.
The focus of this systems analysis paper is not to exploit or discuss the Mount Everest disaster of 1996 but instead to examine Adventure Consultant’s business system and processes at the time and contrast how they could be improved given current technology improvements and their impact on information systems. After explaining the known roles of key entities on an Everest Expedition climbing process, this report has been organized to give a general review of the previous information system and a context for which current technology could be applied to assist Adventure Consultants with preventing another Everest disaster like the one in 1996.
COMPANY ORGANIZATION
The key people in the Adventure Consultants ...