Hewlett Packard: The Flight of the Kittyhawk, Case Study Example

Introduction

The business culture among organizations at present is surrounded by the assumption of how competition could be faced by operators as they go head to head against international business organizations. The field of computer development has long been considered to be among the most productive business options taken into account by operators worldwide. Hewlett-Packard, one of the pioneer operators in the computer development industries, has been among the first producers of new add-ons to handheld devices that wee slowly making it into the market in the early 1900s. It was the year 1992 when HP was able to create a more definite sense of small but highly functional Microdrive that was specifically expected to be added into handheld devices created during the time. In the discussion that follows, the supposed failed attempt of the Kittyhawk’s release in the market shall be given attention to especially in relation to the failed sense of financing that they have embraced which was a little bit ambitious, if not impractical, for the project they were aiming to accomplish.

Analysis

Business competition is a factor of organizational development that needs to be strongly given attention to by administrators especially for those that are engaged in international operations. Computer producing organizations are challenged to always rise to the demand of the market. For instance, as the increase of demand for handheld devices flood the market, the creation of highly functional computer add-ons to make such devices more functional also develops. It was the aim of HP administrators to find a more comprehensive possibility of engaging in such developments through making the most crucial add-on that would improve the function of available devises including those that are still under research and are still to be manufactured according to the availability of particular add-ons like that of a functional hard disk.

It was the problem of the handheld devices in the early 1900s that their point of functionality cannot be fully realized due to the unavailability of the needed capacity of hard drive that needs to be added into the system. The hard drive was first manufactured by Citizen Corporation which was noted in the past as one of the pioneers in manufacturing small devices. According to the first manufacturers, the one that they have created is one that is able to sustain a three foot drop and yet files are protected accordingly. It was sturdy and strong; and was rather practical for purpose it was made for.

The failure of the introduction of the product in the market is not because of its quality or its features. Instead, such failure was because of the fact that the said add-on to devices did not fit the planned for expansion on notebooks as they were being introduced to the market. In September 1994, the production of the Kittyhawk was finally discontinued because financing it seemed rather impractical for the organization already. Two years after the shut off in the production, there were at least 160,000 units sold compared to the supposed projected sales of 700,000 units. This caused a large account of loss for HP as it actually threw its investment to Citizen Corporation but did not get as much profit as hoped for.

In consideration with the assumption of better returns from investment HP decided to close the disk memory division completely. Somehow, the desire to create a more definite source of profit for the organization was hurt by the supposed ambitious desire of embracing a new sense of creating a device that did not fully meet up with the demands of the industry that the organization wanted to engage with. The innovation that HP took into account did not fit the demand of the market. They basically needed to realign their vision towards another path that would surely bring them better and more solid source of profit.

Recommendations

In relation to the case of HP and its untimely release of the Kittyhawk Microdrive, it was obvious that the organization took a lot of concern especially in determining the whole system of development that the company ought to consider in line with the industry it hopes to partner with. Although feasibility researches were already made beforehand the creation of the microdrive, it was obvious that making tight connection with partnering industries [who were likely to produce the handheld devices] was not strong enough to hold the production of the said item rather sufficient enough for the demand itself.

It was rather necessary for the organization to take on the consideration over determining the market demands at first and how the whole industry was taking on the challenge of responding to such demands. The rise of the demand for notebooks at the time made the microdrive production from HP rather untimely. This has caused the loss of several millions from massive production and lesser rate of sales than expected. For large companies like HP, closing down the production line seemed to be almost nothing. However, if precautions were held closely in a serious concern, perhaps these imbalances may have been avoided.

Conclusion

In facing new innovations especially in the computer industry, being precautious in research and feasibility studies is always a determinable factor that establishes the function of the new age development in the process of serving client demands. While failures are risks that ought to be fully accepted by the organizations, taking precautions would help to avoid great losses as did HP when it launched the Kittyhawk microdrive in an untimely situation in the market.

References

Christensen, C. (2006). Hewlett-Packard: The Flight of the Kittyhawk. Harvard Business School.

Sullivan, arthur; Steven M. Sheffrin (2003). Economics: Principles in action. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey 07458: Pearson Prentice Hall. p. 82.

FitzGerald, Valpy (2003). “The Instability of the Emerging Market Assets Demand Schedule”. University of Connecticut:Department of Economics. Society for Economic Dynamics.