Failed product presentation - Iridium Case
-
Upload
andres-quintanilla -
Category
Business
-
view
197 -
download
1
Transcript of Failed product presentation - Iridium Case
Failed product presentation -- Iridium
Group 5 Andres QuintanillaJianyu Yang
Xiaohui Zhong
September 2015
Product
Background The vision of Iridium was conceived in 1985
after the wife of Motorola Chief Engineer, Bary Bertiger, complained that she was unable to use her cell phone while vacationing in the Caribbean.
Bary Bertiger envisioned a technology that would allow effortless communication from and to any corner of the earth
Product
RECEIVER ANDRECEIVE ANTENNA
TRANSMITTER ANDTRANSMIT ANTENNA
SOLAR PANELS
ORIGINATINGGROUND STATION
DESTINATIONGROUND STATION
Figure1 : Typical satellite communication architecture
Based on satellite communication technology Provide communication coverage for mobile phone users anywhere on the planet Be one of the first movers in the satellite
communication industry
Target Market
Forestry
Aviation Construction
Disaster relief
Leisure travel
international business
executives
Satellite phones
Iridium Historical Timeline
Source: Diane Stamp, Iridium Satellite – March 2005. Slide 2, Company Presentation. Taken from web on 12-24-2009: www.es.gsfc.nasa.gov/ses_data_2005/050802_Stamp.ppt
8 success factors
Speed Counts!!
Unique superior
Preliminaryassessments
Sharp & early definition
Spiral development
Build the voice of the customer
Critical success factors at a project level
8 success factors
Speed Counts!!
Unique superior
Preliminaryassessments
Sharp & early definition
Build the voice of the customer
Critical success factors at a project level
Spiral development
A unique superior product is the number one driver for success
1. Main benefits are important to customer (quality of audio, phone calls everywhere)
2. Offer customer new & unique benefits (any location, data services)3. Better value for money for customer (3,000 for the phone, 3 – 7
USD / minute)4. Superior to competing products in meeting customer needs (no
product in the market could do that…in 1987)5. Superior quality vs. Competitors (audio quality)
Begin Middle End Description ofKey issues 1987 1993 1998 the issues
1 Hi Med Low Eventually, traditional cellphones did something close to what Iridium proposed
2 Hi Med Low
3 Med Low Low Expensive phone & service
4Hi Med Low Eventually, traditional cellphones did
something close to what Iridium proposed5 Hi Hi Low
Quality of execution at the fuzz front end
Initial idea screening
Preliminary Mkt / Tech / Operation assessment
Voice of customer
Concept test with customer
Financial analytics
Quality of execution at the fuzz front end
Initial idea screening
Preliminary Mkt / Tech / Operation assessment
Voice of customer
Concept test with customer
Financial analytics
Critical success factors at a business level
Motorola had all the requirements identified by Robert Cooper as a Critical Success factors at a business level, but something completely different happened… Escalating commitment
Key failure factors
Product Marketing Manufacturing Sale
Imperfect product brought a biginconvenience to the users.
The markethad changed dramatically after the long concept-to-developmentyears
Instable supply chainHappened when Iridium launched its service
Unreliable partners delayed setting up marketing teams and distribution channels
Key failure factors
Iridium Failed to:
Consider the time to build and implement the infrastructure to support its system
Truly understand the changing demand for the service and product it had to offer
Recognize how its ”escalating commitment” to the project blinded Iridium to actual costs and potential revenue
Conclusion
•Execution: Standard project management advices to recognize all
deliverables prior to launch any project: test product, capacity
assesment 6
•Innovation framework: Motorola lacked a proper understanding of
the macroenvironment level (service providers and distribution
channels across the world) 6
• Complex projects should be evaluated as real options 7
•Project should have been executed as a technology development
project updating the relevance of it and the business case and
along the years 3
• Technology landscaping should be used to sense what other
technolgies become alternatives against project scope 5
•Management compensation must be tied to long term success of
projects 7
Conclusion
1. Bird, J. (1985). “Cellular Technology in Telephones,” Data Processing, vol. 27, no. 8, p. 37.
2. Christensen, C. (2013). “The Innovator's Dilemma: when new technologies cause great firms to fail”. Harvard Business Review Press.
3. Cooper R, (2006) “Managing Technology Development Projects”, Research & Technology Managment Journal, Industrial Research Institute
4. Fan Difu (2010) “Iridium international management case for Seminar in International Business” Tunghai University http://www.slideshare.net/Laoshi_Steve/iridium-20th-century-case
5. Johnston R, Bate D. (2003) “The power of Strategy Innovation”, American Management Association
6. Kahn L (2013) “The PDMA Handbook of Product Development”, John Wiley & Sons,
7. Kerzner, H. R. (2009). “Project management: a systems approach to planning, scheduling, and controlling”. John Wiley & Sons.
8. Lim, J., Klein, R., & Thatcher, J. (2005). “Good Technology, Bad Management: A Case Study of the Satellite Phone Industry”. Journal of Information Technology Management, 16(2), 48.
Reference