Harvard Case Study- "Curled Metal Inc.—Engineered Products Division”

                               “Curled Metal Inc.—Engineered Products Division”

Elevator Pitch: This case talks about Curled Metal Inc. specialized in manufacturing of curled metal-based technology products wants to actually diversify and expand into new markets in order to reduce its reliance on one product and industry. Curled Metal Inc. developed a new product called cushion pads which improves the efficiency and safety in pile driving operations. The conventional pads which are used in current trends are more known to be commoditized and cheaply available in the market. The Cushion pads market has an uncertain customer base as many players in the value chain drive and make the purchasing decisions. Even though CMI cushion pads provide a great value to customer by improving the efficiency of operation, the manufacturing costs of the pads is high and it is very important in the long run to price the product profitability by making sure that there is sufficient demand for the product. I strongly recommend CMI to target the large company contractors’ segment because it not only makes bulk of the total market size but also because this segment derives value out of using the CMI’s cushion pads. CMI should implement a Open Innovation model in order to think of the company’s processes internally and as well as externally in order to get to the market.(2) And such are efforts to implement direct sales experts and also industry experts for the sake of promotions would be some key elements in order to ensure the success of this product in a disconnected market. I think that CMI should price the product around $750/ unit, which would return 70% of the grass margin to CMI and shall also reduce the operations cost to the customers who are using the product overall. One of the key elements in the implementation if successful strategy is the amalgamation of bringing techniques, tools and technological tools together in order to progress towards innovation and CMI should follow these steps in order to be a successful organization by partnering with companies and identifying key skills and areas for improvements. (5)

1) Apply the four/five criteria for new product success to the new CMI pad which appear at the end of the assigned reading (Chapter 6) using a high/medium/low scoring scheme using the summary below.

As per Chapter 6 assigned reading on new product success model, I have given below scoring for the new CMI pad:

• Customer perception of product advantage- High/Med/Low (?) _High__ (90) :The CMI management was pleased by the performance of cushion pad product as they eliminated the downtime required for changeover.(Case Pg 5)
• Protocol (product & marketing requirements)-High/Med/Low (?) _High_(90): CMI pad performance of 300 piles driven per set was a huge improvement a strong evidence for protocol, by aligning with R&D and Marketing factors on the innovation model. (Case Pg 5)
• Proficiency in marketing activities- High/Med/Low (?) ________Low__(40) ___
• Strategy for the project- High/Med/Low (?) __________Medium__(70) ___

2) Given that the average success rate (multiple return on investment) of introduced new products success is 60%, what is your prediction of the success rate for the new CMI pad?

My prediction of the success rate for the new CMI pad is 70% as per my scoring given to the first question for four/five criteria for new product success. My Average score for all the given four criteria is 72.5 % (90+90+40+70) as explained in the reference “Chapter 6 in Ettlie (2007) Managing Innovation on New Products and New Services” that “Product family is the unit of analysis and it is used to guide decisions in R&D such as when a firm should renew their underlying technologies and designs of new products.” Therefore, Curled Metal Inc should function on this aspect to evolve new products such as CMI pad as their product families in order to ultimately achieve the new product success in that share common technology and shall address a related set of market applications. (1)

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