...Holding fast. Gourville JT. Source Harvard Business School, Boston, USA. jgourville@hbs.edu Abstract CEO Peter Walsh faces a classic innovator's dilemma. His company, Crescordia, produces high-quality metal plates, pins, and screws that orthopedic surgeons use to repair broken bones. In fact, because the company has for decades refused to compromise on quality, there are orthopedic surgeons who use nothing but Crescordia hardware. And now these customers have begun to clamor for the next generation technology: resorbable hardware. Resorbables offer clear advantages over the traditional hardware. Like dissolving sutures, resorbable plates and screws are made of biodegradable polymers. They hold up long enough to support a healing bone, then gradually and harmlessly disintegrate in the patient's body. Surgeons are especially looking forward to using resorbables on children, so kids won't have to undergo a second operation to remove the old hardware after their bones heal, a common procedure in pediatrics. The new products, however, are not yet reliable; they fail about 8% of the time, sometimes disintegrating before the bone completely heals and sometimes not ever fully disintegrating. That's why Crescordia, mindful of its hard-earned reputation, has delayed launching a line using the new technology. But time is running out. A few competitors have begun to sell resorbables despite their imperfections, and these companies are picking up market share. Should Crescordia join the...
Words: 496 - Pages: 2
...BUS 223: Principles of Management HBR Business Case Assignment – Holding Fast by John T. Gourville Issued: September 10, 2012 Due: October 19, 2012 NLT 9:00pm in Blackboard Points: This assignment is worth 50 points towards course grade Format: Student papers will be submitted online in Blackboard as a Word document attachment. Your essay must be double-spaced and be at least 3-4 pages in length. Requirement: Students will read the case and provide (as a minimum) responses to the information listed below: 1. A summary of the case (synopsize all the players, the business environment and the major (key) issues in the case). Make sure you leave no stone unturned when identifying all the major players (who are they, what job title, what’s their take on situation, etc.) and issues. But, do not parrot…put in your own words. Be concise. 2. What are the drivers of the tension related to Crescordia offering “resorbables”? Identify and comment on some of the financial, ethical, quality, management “tensions” wrought by competing viewpoints in the case. 3. Given your understanding of the situation, do you think that Crescordia should launch resorbables? (Take a stand. No wishy-washy fence sitting.) A. If yes, in what manner should the launch proceed and with what guidelines? B. If no, what will your (alternative) approach be for this market? Be specific. 4. What are the pros (advantages) and cons (disadvantages) of your chosen approach? (Even...
Words: 307 - Pages: 2
...CEO Peter Walsh faces a classic innovator’s dilemma. His company, Crescordia, produces high-quality metal plates, pins, and screws that orthopedic surgeons use to repair broken bones. In fact, because the company has for decades refused to compromise on quality, there are orthopedic surgeons who use nothing but Crescordia hardware. And now these customers have begun to clamor for the next generation technology: resorbable hardware. Resorbables offer clear advantages over the traditional hardware. Like dissolving sutures, resorbable plates and screws are made of biodegradable polymers. They hold up long enough to support a healing bone, then gradually and harmlessly disintegrate in the patient’s body. Surgeons are especially looking forward to using resorbables on children, so kids won’t have to undergo a second operation to remove the old hardware after their bones heal, a common procedure in pediatrics. The new products, however, are not yet reliable; they fail about 8% of the time, sometimes disintegrating before the bone completely heals and sometimes not ever fully disintegrating. That’s why Crescordia, mindful of its hard-earned reputation, has delayed launching a line using the new technology. But time is running out. A few competitors have begun to sell resorbables despite their imperfections, and these companies are picking up market share. Should Crescordia join the fray and risk tarnishing its brand? Or should the company sit tight until it can offer a perfect product...
Words: 288 - Pages: 2
...HBR CASE STUDY Crescordia’s products are respected the world over. Now, rivals have launched a radical–albeit still buggy–new technology. Can the company afford to sit out the revolution? Holding Fast by John T. Gourville “N DANIEL VASCONCELLOS ow remember, with every blow of the hammer, you’ve got to feel the femoral nail advancing through the bone. If you don’t, then for heaven’s sake, stop. It might be impinging on the cortex or it might be too large for the canal. Keep whacking, and you’ll fracture the cortex.” The trainer’s calm, authoritative voice boomed out across the room as a dozen orthopedic surgeons toiled away on the cadaver limbs laid out before them. Pausing to observe the technique of one of the surgeons, he glanced up to see his boss, CEO Peter Walsh, crack open the door and squeeze through, trying his best to be unobtrusive. The trainer glanced at the clock.“Okay, let’s save some of this fun for the afternoon,” he called out. “We’ll meet in the lobby in ten minutes and walk over to lunch.” In addition to making a range of products from artificial hips to scalpels, Crescordia was one of a handful of major companies that developed, manufactured, and sold the steel and titanium plates, nails, and screws – known as fix- ation devices – that surgeons used to repair broken bones. At least twice a month, Crescordia hosted training sessions like this one for orthopedic surgeons who used the company’s products. Walsh joined the group for lunch as often...
Words: 2985 - Pages: 12
...Oleg Lisovskiy 3/03/12 HBR Business Case Assignment 1. This case starts out in a lab that is located in a building that is operated by Crescordia. Crescordia is a company that makes a range of products such as artificial hips and scalps but also is one of the few companies that sell fixation devices. At the beginning of the case Crescordia holds a seminar for orthopedic surgeons so they can better familiarize themselves with the products and procedures that are needed when dealing with using these fixation plates. During this seminar the CEO Peter Walsh enters excitedly to see what is going on. You can tell right from the start that he is a very big people person and is incredibly interested in finding out the needs and what surgeons are saying about the products that he puts out. After Peter Walsh enters the seminar is put on hold and they all go out to lunch. During lunch one of the surgeons launched into a story about having to remove a resorbable plate, which are fixation devices that instead of having to be removed by doctors after the bone is healed these would just disintegrate after the bone had been healed which would mean that you would not have to have surgery again to remove the plate. The story however takes a sad turn as you find out that most resorbable plates have a lot of problems that have not been figured out and is still a technology that is not capable of doing what it says. The surgeons asked Peter Walsh when Crescordia would plan to launch its own...
Words: 1436 - Pages: 6
...Institutional holding and market friction Ping-Wen Sun Louisiana State University psun1@lsu.edu Abstract This study investigates the relationship between the institutional holding and the stock’s market friction measure. According to Sun’s (2007) findings, I use Hou and Moskowitz’s (2005) price delay measure (D1) and Liu’s (2006) liquidity measure (LM12) to proxy for a stock’s market friction. I find that a higher total institutional holding tends to decrease a stock’s price delay measure, but institutional holding exhibits a U-shaped relationship with a stock’s LM12 measure. However, as the number of institutions increases, the stock’s market friction decreases. In terms of different types of institutional holdings, higher total block holding or higher top five institutional holding of a stock increases a stock’s market friction level. Furthermore, in contrast to Agarwal’s (2007) findings, higher independent long term institutional holding and risk averse institutional holding tends to decrease a stock’s market friction level. Institutional holding and market friction Abstract This study investigates the relationship between the institutional holding and the stock’s market friction measure. According to Sun’s (2007) findings, I use Hou and Moskowitz’s (2005) price delay measure (D1) and Liu’s (2006) liquidity measure (LM12) to proxy for a stock’s market friction. I find that a higher total institutional holding tends to decrease a stock’s price delay measure, but institutional...
Words: 6255 - Pages: 26
...lessons earlier. They indicated that many announcements in everyday make them feel this is wasting times. And they have said that frankly, these were nothings of their businesses, because they barely joined any clubs or competitions. If any schoolmates really need information from those announcements, the clubs or competitions instructors should announce them privately, but not do it in the morning assembly that holding other students’ times. Or if there are businesses all students ought to know, it is better hold during breaks in order to not deferring lessons. Schoolmates prefer join it at classrooms. Despite in summer or winter, we, students are all stand on the playground for the morning assembly without any shield. We stood under severe sunshine and we trembled with chilly wind. Further more, we need to be prepared for rainy day, and to worry if the rain fell. Moreover, it spends us a lot of times taking turn to go to classrooms. Therefore, we would like to ask to change it into conducting morning assembly at classrooms. Finally, schoolmates ask for holding morning assembly alternately is also regarded. Each form of students is also bustle with the process of syllabus. Meanwhile, we need to spend about 30 minutes on the morning assembly each day, inevitably. And 30 minutes are doubtless helpful to our progresses on the syllabus. If...
Words: 405 - Pages: 2
...Caso 3er Parcial Nike, Inc: Cost of Capital Equipo número 3 Karen Saavedra A01128884 Margarita Menéndez A0112 Ana Karen Jáuregui A0112 Diana Reyes A0112 INTRODUCTION History and Background of NorthPoint Group Founded as an importer of Japanese shoes, Nike has grown to be the world's largest marketer of athletic footwear, holding a global market share of approximately 37 percent. In the United States, Nike products are sold through about 22,000 retail accounts; worldwide, the company's products are sold in more than 160 countries. Both domestically and overseas Nike operates retail stores, including Nike Towns and factory outlets. This is a mutual fund management firm that invests money mostly in Fortune 500 companies. Its top holdings include Exxon mobile, General Motors, McDonalds, 3M and other large-cap. The stock market declined over the last 18 months. NorthPoint large-cap Fund performed extremely well, actually, in 2000, the fund earned a return of 20.7% even as the S&P 500 fell to 10.1%. At the end of June 2001, the fund`s year to date returns stood at 6.4% versus -7.3% for the S&P 500. It was considered the athletic shoe manufacturer. Since 1997, its revenues had landed at around $9 billion dollars. On the other hand, the net income had fallen from almost $800 million to $580 million. The market share in U.S. athletic shoes had fell from 48% in 1997 to 42% in 2000. This was caused by the adverse effect of a strong dollar...
Words: 1746 - Pages: 7
...processed with these changes At receiving plant no. 1 (RP1), trucks would arrive randomly throughout the day, with a random amount of berries, anywhere from 20 to 400 bbls. In order to utilize transport vehicles more effectively, there should be crews scheduled differently on peak days. It only takes 5 to 10 minutes to unload a truck into a Kiwanne dumper, but the backup would occur when the holding bins were full, causing drivers to have waits up to 3 hours. The backup is not occurring in receiving, so now additional crews are necessary at that station. All feed conveyors are in use during peak times so no new crews need to be added there. However, there seems to be a backup occurring in the bagging station. Instead of keeping the fourth bagging machine as a spare, they should add another five-member team to operate the fourth bagging machine during peak hours. This would result in an additional 2,667 bbls per 12-hour period, or a total of 10,667 bbls per 12-hour period. The additional crews and adding of a bagging station would reduce the number of berries that need to be in holding, and cut down on wait time for the transport trucks. Calculations: 8,000 bbls/3 bagging machines = 2,667 bbls per machine per 12-hour period 4 bagging machines times 2,667 bbls per machine = 10,667 bbls per 12-hour period 10,667 bbls per 12- hour period means 21,333 bbls per 24-hour period 2. Would the installation of a berry grader positively impact the farmers’...
Words: 1194 - Pages: 5
...ebony blanket, not a single glittery beads or shining emerald could be seen. Then my gaze flicked on the alarm clock beside me. 0330 was the number plastered on the plastic surface of the square alarm clock with red lights. “Papa should be here” I uttered the words with my little child voice. As I laid myself in a fetal position, holding close to my chest the picture-perfect moment captured by the piece of paper, was my beloved family. Mummy was wearing a vermillion dress that showed her slender figure smiling timidly with her eyes closed as daddy land a kiss on her forehead, standing handsomely with the black tuxedo. I stood in the middle, focusing on the camera with my eyes widen as big as I could as I feared that the flash of the camera make me blinked my glistened jovial eyes. Out of the blue, I heard footsteps coming from downstairs and before I could move, the light from outside loomed into my bedroom as he door has a slither opening. I ran towards the door with my small steps and the seconds I hold the knob, there standing in front of me was my father. “I’m sorry dear, I should read you a bedtime story now” he said with a penitent smile, holding me inside his embrace. Sunlight kissed my eyelids and soon my retinas started accustomed to the piercing ray of the eye of heaven. The tranquil ambiance filled my bedroom as I land my gaze to the lush green leaves dangling from the pine tree next to the window. I darted to the veranda, slamming the door open to see if the sleek...
Words: 977 - Pages: 4
...estratégico de la compañía, interpretar la estrategia corporativa, aplicarla en la cadena de suministros de tal forma que se logre la rentabilidad esperada por la compañía. La planeación estratégica es el proceso secuencial que debe realizar la empresa para proyectarse y lograr desarrollarse en un ambiente turbulento, veloz, exigente y violento. Para poder afrontar el reto de competir en los mercados, deben adaptarse e interactuar de manera armónica con el entorno. Ejemplo: Holding Se refiere a la compañía socia o dueña de un grupo de empresas con fines comunes, éste se conforma con el fin de controlar sus actividades de un mismo mercado, lo cual asegura que las empresas que forman parte del Holding tengan acceso a materia prima, logística, transporte, financiación, etc. Los Holdings son considerados como una forma de integración y colaboración empresarial, pueden controlar toda la cadena o proceso de un bien o servicio, teniendo en cuenta que se deben minimizar riesgos y maximizar utilidades. Holding dedicado a la fabricación y comercialización de productos de construcción, se aplicará el modelo de planeación estratégica logística. Una vez analizado el direccionamiento estratégico de la compañía, es importante las macro actividades de cómo deben interactuar para lograr las utilidades esperadas por los socios. Siendo estas: planeación para el cliente, abastecimiento, producción, almacenamiento, distribución y transporte donde cada una aportara con actividades como conocer...
Words: 1178 - Pages: 5
...The Effect of Running on Holding a Plank For my groups experiment we decided that our experimental question is going to be “Can you hold a plank longer if you run.” Hypothesis- My hypothesis in this experiment is that if you run before you hold your plank, the plank will not last as long. I think that the plank will not last as long because you will be tired from the running and also you will not have that much energy left. Method and materials- In this experiment I did not really need that many materials because we were testing people to see if the hypothesis was correct or not. In this experiment the dependent variable would be how long you would be able to hold the plank when you were running and how long you were holing the plank without running. The independent variable would be to see how the running affects the amount of time you can hold the plank. To make the test consistent each person has to run for exactly two minutes and then immediately without taking a break go into a plank. To also make the test fair and true I would have to make sure that everyone is on the same type of surface when holding the plank. In this experiment there will four people testing my experiment. There will also be doing three trails. Everyone would be doing the same thing. First, they would run and then hold a plank and then the second time they will not run but just hold the plank. Discussion and conclusion-The conclusion was my hypothesis was correct. I thought that the plank...
Words: 485 - Pages: 2
...different motives. According to Keynes (1936) these motives are: a transaction motive, precautionary motive and speculative motive. Based upon these three motives we explain why U.S. firms hold a lot of cash. The first motive for holding cash is the precautionary motive (Keynes, 1936), which tells us that firms hold extra cash to be prepared for sudden uncertainty - a risk which cannot be hedged. Bates et al. (2009) states that an increase in idiosyncratic risk leads to an increase in cash flow volatility. This volatility increase evolves in an increase in the volatility of unhedgeable risk. A reaction to unhedgeable risk is to hold more cash. You want to have some savings when you have to do unexpected expenses. Research (Bartram, 2009) shows that U.S. firms are more exposed to idiosyncratic risk than foreign firms. This is due to several country characteristics. Because U.S. firms face larger exposures to idiosyncratic risks than foreign firms do, they will have more cash holdings. Moreover, there has been an increase in earnings volatility for U.S. firms over the past decades (Boileau and Moyen, 2012). This increase in volatility and, thus, risk is compensated by an increase in cash holdings and credit lines. So one might say that U.S. firms are holding too much cash, but this is seems quite legit when looking at their exposures to unseen losses/ sudden risks. Another precautionary motive (Keynes, 1936), but also a speculative motive, to hold cash is to use real estate. Real...
Words: 1067 - Pages: 5
...1. How do customers judge the quality of a supermarket? * The customers judge the quality of a supermarket in a highly subjective manner and in different ways, and this depends on their wants and needs. One way of judging the quality of a supermarket is the availability of goods and its wide range. It means that the supermarket should keep a wide range of products so that customers can pick and choose from them. Another is the quality of the customer service that they receive in the store. The behaviour of the customer care executives and to what extent they were eager to not only satisfy but delight the customers. Customers judge through the competitive price. A supermarket that can provide cheaper price with same product will attract more customers. Various products and services should be made available to the customers in one stop so that he gets a complete shopping experience in the supermarket. Another way they judge a supermarket is the customer friendly layout so that they can easily locate things in the store. From the point of view of customers location accessibility is very important. For example, if the supermarket is near their home or office they would find it more convenient to shop in the place. The quality of a supermarket is also judge through the additional services that they offer to its customers. Most of the customers are willing to buy products with high quality and with competitive price, so the quality of the merchandise also plays an important role...
Words: 701 - Pages: 3
...CASE STUDY – 1 BARILLA SPA IMPLEMENTATION OF JITD Submitted as a requirement for completion of Module 5 – Supply Chain Inventory Management of the SCMP Program. By: Iqbal Gill (Registration Number – 201501160004) Date: 14 February 2015 Table of contents Executive Summary 3 Statement Of Issues 4 Impact of Issues 5 JITD Implementation 6 Barriers 7 Recommendations 11 Conclusion 14 Executive Summary: The Italian Pasta Manufacturer, Barilla SpA, is experiencing a tremendous impact of the BULL WHIP effect (Appendix 1) causing inefficiencies and increases in cost due to variability in demand from its distributors. Giorgio Magialli, the Director of Logistics, wants to implement a Just-In-Time Distribution (JITD) system to gain more control. The new system is untraditional and is being rejected by both distributors and Barilla's internal departments. I have reviewed the reasons for opposition and have made recommendations to gain support for the new JITD system. I feel that with proper implementation and some tweaks; Barilla can garner leverage in the near future and can outgrow the pangs of the newly launched system. Although the case focuses on domestic (Italy) distribution-related operational issues, the Barilla management team should define their operation strategy for the near future that covers both domestic and international markets in alignment of Barilla’s market vision. The operation strategy should identify the order of importance...
Words: 2225 - Pages: 9
