Medtronic Case Writeup 1) What were the root causes of why Medtronic nearly lost its position as market leader in the 1970’s and 1980’s? Medtronic was not the market leader in the 1970’s and 1980’s because of a combination of unique industry factors and the lack of a sufficient product planning/development system in place at Medtronic. In the market, competition from other companies was rapidly increasing during this time. As such, technologies were always changing, and there were higher expectations [for product quality and differentiation] for newly released products. Meanwhile, at Medtronic, their product development was falling behind.
Proj 430 Week 1 Case 1 1. J & D accounting created an Information Services Division for studies and analysis to be able to compete against larger firms. With its increased employees and customers there is no structure keeping them in order. Projects are incomplete, customers do not know where to get answers from, and the director of ISD is forced to handle daily activities instead of strategic planning and policy formulation. The director will be reassigned and the systems manager will be taking her spot.
Due to the rapid evolution of technology during nineteen-nineties, the market Iridium was competing in was more and more competitive. Moreover, the market that they can sustain their competitive advantage in was becoming much narrower. Later by the end of their launch year, Iridium refocused on a new set of targets – the “corporate/industrial user” – encompassing industries such as the media, energy, electrical utilities, construction, oil and gas exploration, mining, forestry, shipping and fishing. Some successes were made, but still far beyond its original forecast. Failure to acquire sufficient number of subscribers contributed to its overall net losses.
Their top quality toys were very popular and that is why the company was among top 10 companies in the U.S. 2. How did it change beginning in the 1960 and going forward? Toy industry in the United States has changed very rapidly at the beginning of the 1960’s. Television and radio advertising became more popular bringing new products that were much cheaper and lesser quality than the A.C. Gilbert’s products. Toy stores were more interested in the low price products than a high quality products which made A.C. Gilbert company to lose their competitive advantage.
Investors investing in an IPO are aware that it takes time to see a solid return/profit when a company is expanding into new ventures and that risks are involved. Most importantly, investors know that a risk has to be taken for continued growth and for the health of the company. CanGo needs to offer an IPO so that they have the funding to expand and grow. Issue 4 Hidden costs The team at CanGo hasn’t even considered what the hidden costs to the business might be if they branch out into the new projects they are currently exploring. They are not adding additional staff, equipment, or software so spreading the resources out could cause the quality of the existing products to suffer.
By the morning of the third day, the Cobbs were starting to question the wisdom of launching the product at all; they had already invested a lot of time and money in the product, and without any substantial sales, there seemed little reason to continue. When Cabela’s expressed interest in the product, everything changed. At least one leading retailer was prepared to carry the product. For Russ, the opportunity was a clear win; while Cabela’s would need a retail price of $7.99, the product would be in the market and selling. Matt, however, wondered if the price was too
Reasons & Advantages The existing structure was increasing competition between Roche and Genentech as the product of the two companies were coming in direct competition with each other in multiple markets especially in US The existing ownership and operating model gave Roche little opportunities to address the increasing the overlap and duplication between these two firms (for example R&D work) The product licensing agreement between Roche and Genentech was set to expire in 2015. With the expiry of this agreement Roche will lose the right to develop and commercialize products of Roche which were major source of revenue for Roche After the expiry of the licensing agreement of product licensing agreement between Roche and Genentech a new arm’s length agreement would have to be negotiated where the product pipeline could be sold to the highest bidder Due to existing shareholding structure, in order to protect the rights of minority shareholders, Roche could not get access to intellectual property of Genentech High growth of biotechnology sector Not much innovation in Pharma sector which was leading to acquisition by larger companies leading to consolidation of industry Acquisition of Genentech will help Roche generate cost synergies of 60% of $750-850 Million by cutting costs and streamlining Genentech had large chunk of Cash ($ 9.5 Billion) which Roche could not access to ownership structure. The acquisition will provide a Roche access to this cash. Risks Possibility of Genentech’s scientists leaving the company due to the fear of loss of independence and entrepreneurial spirit of Genentech after acquisition by Roche Threat of potential intellectual property going out
Issue analysis and Information Summary: * The energy market is expanding rapidly and Moren Corporation must expand their operation in order to grab this demand * Traditionally they used towers to transfer the energy but not there was a new method using ornamental tubular poles which was more efficient. * They have never used this new method and the supplying companies they have worked with in the past have dealt with this slightly * a line using poles costs twice as much as the conventional towers * the tower companies and erection companies that Maren had dealt with in the past would not have the capacity to handle all the elements of the new pole concept * Must keep the engineering design phase at a budget of 1.5-1.8 million * two of the design companies: Travers and Bolton (T&B) and Crown Engineering (CE) Moren had worked with in the past and they have performed satisfactorily. The third company they are looking into is Pettigrew Associates which they have not worked with in the past but they are a large company, with many employees and a great credit rating. 4. Alternative Solution i) Travers & Bolton: * This company has some experience with the new tubular transmitting lines, and they have worked with Moren in the past performing satisfactorily.
There are different approaches to explain this phenomenon, as originally it was seen that the incumbent firms had much more resources and capabilities to succeed in innovation (Schumpeter 1934). Underinvestment of the new technologies by the big firms is introduced as one of the reasons (Henderson, 1992). The existing market players pursue the goal to receive the return on their investments in the technology, which made them prosper and put significant efforts into its further improvement. Such behavior results in the incremental innovation of the existing product. In
* The potential resignation of Robert Spinks if the project is not funded. * If the project were to be funded, the extended time for development and the 30% chance that it might not be a success. 2. Causes * Organizational culture is not consistent throughout all the departments. Accounting and manufacturing departments focus on increasing profits while R&D and marketing departments are open to new innovation and growth.