Janet and Gilbert hear through the grapevine that their most fierce competitor, Soft Sales, is also planning to go public, somewhere late May 2009.

Janet and Gilbert hear through the grapevine that their most fierce competitor, Soft Sales, is also

planning to go public, somewhere late May 2009. They fear that if InterCat does not complete its

initial public offering before Soft Sales, the price investors are willing to pay for InterCat stock will

drop. Janet and Gilbert therefore decide that they want to move their planned IPO date forward to

Monday, 18 May 2009. This allows only 22 weeks for the entire project. They think such a goal is

possible if they throw more resources (people and money) into some activities. They list activities that

can be shortened, and the cost of the activity if they decide to shorten it (see table below). Can

InterCat meet the new deadline set by Janet and Gilbert? At what minimum cost this could be

achieved?