Applied Research Technologies - Case Study Example

Sur Supervisor Case Analysis Applied Research Technologies (ART) has been able to foster innovation through brainstorming sessions, thinking outside the box and experimenting with new ideas. ART supports innovation through not only its R&D efforts but instilling a culture to practice it across all levels. The company is also known for its entrepreneurial spirit and the same can be gauged from the fact that the company currently owns 60 different business units, many of which are acquired in last 2-3 decades. Decentralized decision making is their strength to bring solution to the issues and speed up jobs across all business units. The company’s innovative strength can be assumed from the fact that almost 30% of the company’s revenue from each business division comes from the products that has been developed in the last 4 years. The company constantly strives to find new business opportunities and inspires business units heads and others to come up with fresh business ideas and proposals that can maintain its leading position and competitive edge in the market. To continue with the spirit of innovation, the company taps talent globally without any restriction or regional bias and accordingly, the company opens India Technical Center (ITC) under the auspices of the corporate R&D group of the company. While working as a general manager at the Filtration Unit of the company, Vyas is in the process of developing a prototype mini water-oxidation product with an aim to exploit the product commercially that can purify waste water. Previously, over the past three years, two such attempts have been unsuccessful in developing the product. So far, the Filtration unit has only one profitable line of business and it has failed to bring new products in market in keeping with the company’s image of innovativeness. In a way, the Filtration Unit is quite vulnerable and so is the position of Vyas, if he fails to launch a new product successfully in the market third time. Vyas is quick to realize this and that is why he has formed a team full of entrepreneur-minded individuals. Though ITC technologists develop a promising product that is approved by Wagner, its first generation version is rejected for its foul odor and the second version of the product is rejected for its high power consumption. Without getting perturbed from these failures, Vyas harps on the true entrepreneurial spirit of the company taking clue from the CEO David Hall’s entrepreneurial concept that states: “I expect all our managers, and particularly those on the front line, to create, promote, and back promising ideas. But we understand that when you go for the big leap, you won't always clear the bar. So there is no shame in failure when you are stretching for big objectives. Around here we routinely celebrate what we call "worthy attempts"—even when they are unsuccessful” (Bartlett & Beckham, 2010). Though Vyas has been managing the global challenges quite well yet it appears that Vyas has missed something in the beginning – on deciding about some essential minimum requirement pertaining to the features of the product under development while giving a brief to the ITC technologists. Had the required features of the product been streamlined earlier then the valuable time spent on developing two versions of the product would have been conserved. Any new product needs to be made available at not only affordable cost but also it should have minimal operating and maintenance cost (minimal fuel consumption, power etc.) maintaining ease of operation for the users. It is true that all this will depend upon what kind of customers or which segment of the market is going to be catered; however, the fact remains that clear guidelines were not given by Vyas to the technologists on required features of the product that eventually resulted into the failure of two products and loss of resources. As front-line manager, Vyas has been effective in managing people as he forms a team full of entrepreneurial-minded individuals. His selection of Janice Wagner as a team leader – a proven executive with the marketing background clearly shows his recruitment acumen. Not only this but also he takes initiative and establishes a technology evaluation team early so as to identify correct technologies for developing a new product. He also motivates ITC technologists to develop a suitable small-scale oxidation system as Div Verma, in charge of the ITC team, says, “We believe this project can make a huge difference to the lives of millions" (Bartlett & Beckham, 2010). Jackson himself calls Vyas an excellent talent manager on recruiting and building motivated teams in the US and in India. He takes his team’s work forward and convinces management successfully to exploit the product commercially. When differences surface between two development teams at the US and India, Vyas mediates between them to sort out their differences successfully. Jackson though is not involved in day to day operations of filtration unit yet keeps track of all development. She is right when she states, "the unit lacks discipline" (Bartlett & Beckham, 2010). She agrees that the team has been able to develop a promising technology but unable to put the development in right perspective. In order to help Vyas, She provides a three-phase process that associates technological development and market analysis to business planning. With the phase I presented before her, she goes to the minutest details of the project and draws attention of the team on lack of data on target markets. She also advises to choose only a single kind of system – residential irrigation (RIMOS) or agricultural irrigation (AILOS) oxidation system and not both. That is how she helps Vyas and his team to short out selection of the product system that has more chances of success keeping with the constraints of budget. Jackson' expertise comes handy in making several design changes and developing production specifications that reduces manufacturing cost. Thus, Jackson has been quite effective in streamlining the product development in two ways: one, by providing her guidance in developing its prototype and second, by going into the minutest details of the project before its launch to eliminate any chances of its failures. The expenditure request to the company management for the re-launch of the mini water oxidation system is to be handled by Vyas in such a manner that expenditure on this new product is fully justified. Risk analysis report on this product specifies three major risks (Exhibit 6). For the risk related to market acceptance, it becomes important that HVAC Residential Market Division provides full support to this product. Regarding risk associated with product design flaws, Vyas and his team needs to be sure that all teething troubles are sorted out before actual launching of the product. That means field trial is important in diverse conditions to eliminate any kind of operational failures. In order to mitigate risk about customers' perception on higher initial cost of the product, they needs to be convinced how slightly higher cost can be recovered in the short period by saving fresh water on daily basis. Cynthia Jackson needs to approve the request of Vyas for expenditure only when she is satisfied on two counts. Firstly, the product design is totally flawless supported by actual operational data on field trials at different locations on diverse conditions. Secondly, the product should not fail due to lack of proper marketing backup and therefore involvement of HVAC Division is extremely necessary to exploit a good synergy with them. Jackson needs to ensure that executives from HVAC division are fully convinced on the validity of this product; otherwise, it will not be possible to garner their support and cooperation while launching RIMOS. Recommendations for Vyas 1. Before putting the expenditure request to management for launching RIMOS, Vyas needs to ensure that there are absolutely no design flaws and for that he must run the product in varied conditions at diverse locations for at least 12 weeks period. Only lab trials are not sufficient. 2. A go-to Market Plan must be in place and he must ensure full support of HVAC Department while making use of their distribution channels. 3. Product cost reduction program must continue and for that he must involve other experts available within the organization. This is essential for developing and maintaining a competitive edge in line with the company philosophy. 4. The product needs to be promoted as environment-friendly device that conserves huge quantity of water on daily, monthly and yearly basis. Works-Cited Bartlett, C.A.; Beckham, H. (2010). Applied Research Technologies, Inc.: Global Innovation’s Challenges. Harvard Business Publishing. Boston. Read More