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Chapter 7
BIOSONICS INCORPORATED House D ; Grasby EMA 9B03M022, Ivey Case Teaching Note: 8B03M22, 13 page(s) Description: Biosonics Incorporated was a rapidly growing entrepreneurial company specializing in the application of high frequency technology as a measurement tool for medical research. The president and one of the founding partners must determine the future direction of the company in the face of several possible options: continue to sell the company's measurement system; introduce the system into new, related markets; develop application technology for the clinical market; sell the company's intellectual property; sell the rights to the technology; or sell the company. Eli Lilly and Co.: Innovation in Diabetes Care; Christensen, Clayton M.; Harvard Business School Publishing; 02/08/1996; (16 pages) Reference Number: 9-696-077 Revision Date: 04/15/2004 Description: Summarizes Eli Lilly's history of innovation in its business, describing how the dimensions along which innovations have been made in the industry have changed. Lilly's innovation strategy has been to pursue ever higher performance products, while others in the industry have pursued more convenient products. At the time of the case, Lilly is contemplating offering services, not just products, to diabetic patients. Teaching Purpose: May be used in courses on managing innovation and managing new product development. Mercury Computer Systems: The Evolution from Integrated Technology to Open Standard Publication Date: Aug 14, 2003 Author(s): Rebecca Henderson , Nancy Confrey Product Number: 9-704-424 Length: 23p Description: For 20 years, Mercury Computer Systems has thrived, providing products and services that support ultrafast processing of real time data. Now Jay Bertelli, the CEO, faces a critical question: How can the firm compete once the standards on which its products are based become publicly available? Teaching Purpose: To stimulate discussion of the strategic choices that must be made when historically "private" standards become "public." NTT DoCoMo: Marketing I-mode Publication Date: Jun 7, 2002/Revision Date: Jul 17, 2002 Author(s): Youngme Moon Product Number: 9-502-031 Length: 25p. Teaching Notes: NTT DoCoMo: Marketing I-mode, Teaching Note (5-503-097) 25p Description: i-mode is a wireless Internet service offered in Japan by NTT DoCoMo. In just 3 years, the service has won over 30 million subscribers and achieved a 60% share of Japan's mobile Internet market, making it the most successful mobile data service in the world. It is now early 2002 and Keiichi Enoki, managing director of NTT DoCoMo's i-mode service, faces two challenges. On the domestic front, i-mode must fend off two strong competitors while managing the migration of i-mode's existing customer base to DoCoMo's new 3G (third-generation) wireless service. On the international front, the company must figure out a way to bring the i-mode model to U.S. and European markets, where consumers appear reluctant to adopt the mobile Internet. Teaching Purpose: Allows for an examination of the factors that contribute to the successful launch and rapid diffusion of a radical innovation. The discussion is made compelling by the fact that many of the key decisions behind the i-mode launch--including decisions about target market selection, pricing, promotion, content provision, and technology standards--completely belied conventional industry wisdom at the time. X-IT and Kidde (A); Bagley, Constance E.;Lane, David; Harvard Business School Publishing; 09/26/2002; (13 pages) Reference Number: 9-803-041 Revision Date: 05/20/2003 Description: Involves a start-up, X-IT Products LLC, whose founders had designed an innovative, lightweight, and easy-to-use--yet strong--escape ladder. After X-IT had filed a patent application for the ladder in the United States, X-IT was approached by Kidde PLC, one of the largest vendors of fire protection products in the world. Negotiations to license X-IT's invention or to buy X-IT ensued. The parties entered into a confidentiality agreement, which gave Kidde's patent counsel access to X-IT's confidential patent application for the narrow purpose of reporting to Kidde whether the patent claims were weak or strong. After the X-IT founders saw Kidde representatives displaying a ladder at a major trade show that was almost identical to X-IT's ladder, X-IT's CEO had to decide what to do next. Although suing Kidde for violating the confidentiality agreement was an option, X-IT barely had sufficient cash to fill orders, not to mention pay attorney fees. Return to Instructor Resources