- short essays max 10-12 and in depth.- I do not want same text book answers as copy paste- I sent the questions with book(author ) answers to get the same goal but different synonyms and easy structure.
Case Studies Chapter 12 49. Explain the value of the stage-gate process of new product development. Answer: The stage-gate process will address the problem of a manager becoming more and more committed to a project and not abandoning it when it is a lost cause. Before making more resource commitments to a given project it is evaluated for its worthiness to continue being developed at various stages of its development. At each stage a decision is made to go with the project, kill the project, or recycle the project. This method forces the company to repeatedly make the decision regarding whether or not to continue developing the product and prevents it from getting carried away by enthusiasm or momentum. Difficulty: Moderate Page: 247 50. Joe attended a workshop where the Quality Function Deployment (QFD) method of new product development was explained. During the workshop he asked the following question, “This all seems very complex and quantitative to me. I prefer qualitative checks instead. They are less confusing.” If you were the workshop leader, how would you address Joe’s concern? Answer: The QFD method along with the “The House of Quality” does involve quantitative and sometimes complex factors. However, the real value of this approach is that it leads to improved communication and coordination among engineering, marketing, and manufacturing personnel. It provides a common language and framework within which they can interact. These are certainly important qualitative factors and you should find them appealing. Difficulty: Hard Page: 250-252 Chapter 13 49. What are the advantages and disadvantages to having a heterogeneous new product development team? Answer: Heterogeneous teams (members from different backgrounds) possess more information and diverse perspectives, are usually more creative, and more effective. The disadvantages of such teams is that they are more likely to have conflict and lower levels of cohesion on account of team members’ diverse objectives and views. Coordination and communication issues can be overcome if the group maintains long-term contact. Difficulty: Easy Page: 267 50. Dr. Askew was the chairman of the Freshman Program Committee at Mountain Home University. This committee was designing a new curriculum for freshman. Explain how Dr. Askew might perform all three boundary-spanning activities. Answer: In terms of ambassador activities, Dr. Askew will be the gatekeeper that protects the committee from others who try to tell them how to do their job. She may require that all communication go through her and may speak on behalf of the committee at faculty meetings. In performing the task coordination activities, she may negotiate with the Dean of the University that committee members have no other service assignments so they can concentrate on this project and that the team be given 12 months to complete its goals. For the scouting activity she may conduct an Internet search of the websites of other colleges and universities to discover what type of freshman curriculum they have developed. Difficulty: Hard Page: 268 51. The CEO of Cromwell Electronics has put together an autonomous new product development team. Now he is trying to decide what type of a leader to appoint to head the team. What should he look for in the leader of this team to improve its chances of success? Answer: Due to the nature of the autonomous team, the team leader should be a senior manager with significant experience and organizational influence. He or she will have to champion the product concept within the organization, resolve conflicts, and be able to communicate with personnel from different functional areas in terms they understand and identify with. He or she will also have to exert influence on the engineering, manufacturing, and marketing functions to get the project completed. Difficulty: Moderate Page: 272 52. What is a project charter and a contract book? Explain their purpose and how they are related to each other? Answer: The project charter summarizes the mission and goals of the project. It will usually explain why the project is important, who is on the team, and how long they will remain on the team. How much of their time is to be spent in team activities is also specified. It may also include the team’s budget, reporting timeline, and key success criteria. Its function is to clarify the purpose and priorities of the team and to facilitate cooperation. The contract book is based on the project charter and personalizes it for team members. It provides the action plan for goal achievement including the resources needed, time schedule, and results. The method of monitoring and evaluating performance is also included. Its purpose is to elicit commitment to and a sense of ownership over the project among team members. Difficulty: Hard Page: 272-273 53. Marion has argued that with modern information technologies, collocation of team members is no longer important. How would you respond to this claim? Answer: Information technology has perhaps decreased the role of collocation by providing more ways for non-collocated individuals to communicate, however it has probably not rendered collocation unimportant. Collocation still helps individuals to interact more regularly, and more informally, and it likely helps individuals generate a greater sense of shared identity. All of the challenges faced by virtual teams such as difficulties in developing trust, resolving conflict, and exchanging tacit knowledge are reasons that collocation continues to be valuable. Difficulty: Moderate Page: 273-275 54. When John Vegas contacted Dr. House about developing a marketing plan for Gerusa, a company that uses Photodynamic Therapy to treat cancer, Dr. House learned the following facts. Mr. Vegas lived in Kentucky. Dr. House was in North Carolina. The marketing expert lived in New Mexico. The medical director lived in Germany, and the scientist who had come up with this cancer treatment lived in Russia. What type of team would work for this far-flung organization? What problems might they encounter? Answer: This organization is ideally suited to be a virtual team. They all live and work in different locations and will have to interact via telephone, fax, email, chat rooms, video conferencing, or regular mail. It will be highly improbable that face-to-face meetings will occur. The potential problems are that the project may move slowly until all communications can be completed. Gaining commitment and loyalty to this team will also be a problem as it appears that they all have other careers and do not know each other. Developing a high level of trust will be a problem, especially since several cultures are involved in this project. Difficulty: Moderate Page: 273-275 Essay 47. Mallard Prosthetics was a leader in the prosthetic arm market and profits from its prosthetics were very high. Mallard developed a computerized prosthetic arm and is trying to decide when to introduce it to the market. What options does it have? Answer: One option is to withhold the computerized prosthetic from the market until sales and profits from its current offering begin to decline significantly. This will allow Mallard to maximize its investment in its current prosthetic. The danger in this is that the competition might introduce a computerized prosthetic that could steal market share from Mallard and cause the company to fall behind in the market. The other option is to introduce the product now and “embrace cannibalization” of its current product. This could help the company to increase its lead in the market and could create a bigger gap between itself and competitors. Difficulty: Hard Page: 289 48. When S.C. Johnson released Agree Shampoo in the late 1970s it was an innovative hair care concept because it repaired split ends. Since it was such an improvement why would S.C. Johnson enter the market with low prices and dealer incentives as it did? Answer: Low pricing was a way to penetrate an already crowded shampoo market. Offering dealer incentives helped the company to gain shelf space and the low price along with advertising helped S.C. Johnson “buy market share.” This helped the company to increase production and take advantage lower production costs to keep prices lower. Difficulty: Moderate Page: 291-292 49. Gary London is a retired race car driver who helped Dale Earnhardt, Jr. get his start. Gary London is writing a book and making a video about the early days of Dale Earnhardt. He is trying to decide whether to market these items direct over the Internet or to use intermediaries. To make this decision he needs to know the pros and cons of each route. Provide that information and make a recommendation to him. Answer: Mr. London can sell the book and video online. This will give him complete control over the product and the profits. He can establish a website and even sell on eBay. However, he will have to advertise to get customers to his website. He will have to have his own storage and shipping facility as well as personnel to handle the orders. If he sells through intermediaries, they may also sell his items via the Internet. Amazon.com may sell the item for him. Bookstores may sell the items both in their retail outlets and online. In this case he will ship large quantities to the intermediaries and they will break them down into single units and do the shipping. Of course, he will have to share his profits, but will also have reduced costs. The best recommendation seems to be to use intermediaries. Difficulty: Moderate Page: 293-294 50. Frankl Products is coming out with a new type of computerized refrigerator with a flat panel display that accesses the internet for recipes, nutrition information, etc. Which group (innovators, early adopters, early majority, late majority, or laggards) should the company target its promotion towards initially and what type of message and medium should it use? Answer: Not only are innovators and early adopters the first to adopt a new product, they are also often the opinion leaders for others, so they should be targeted first. They are most interested in a product that offers advanced technology and significant advantages so that is what should be emphasized in this promotional campaign. A medium that allows Frankl to explain in some detail the technological advances and advantages of its new refrigerator should be used. Magazines, trade journals, and newspapers are good media for this approach. Difficulty: Moderate Page: 298-299 51. Friction Technologies has come out with a new fuel-efficient engine for automobiles. Explain how Friction might use connectors, mavens, and salespersons to create an information epidemic about this new product. Answer: Friction might use research or consulting firms to identify these groups. The connectors, mavens, and salespersons could be given information or allowed to drive cars with this new engine in it. The connectors would then tell a large number of persons from diverse backgrounds about the engine. The mavens would tout the efficiency and cost savings of the engine to everyone they know and the salespersons would help to create enthusiasm for the engine. Difficulty: