Flextronics Case Analysis

Flextronics Case Analysis Team Member: Kerry Cunningham, Feng Hu, Tian Tian, Shuo Zhang Nov. 5th 1. Cause of McCuster’s Dilemma Several organizational factors haves contributed to McCuster’s dilemma: First, the Flextronics’s decision makers failed to appropriately evaluate the ability and condition of the organization in bidding for Xbox project and assigning tasks. While it is enticing that this project would bring about good reputation as well as substantial financial gain, decision-makers should consider more than financial benefit1.Managers are paid to make good decisions not risky decisions or conservative decisions1: Flextronics decision makers was too optimistic about the project so that they promised Microsoft the IT solution Flextronics did not have yet despite the fact that it was Flextronics first global project and first foray into sophisticated software. This promise has put Flextronics in risks since now it has trouble coming up with the IT solution .Although group and external pressures (social, political, economic) impact the alternatives we select and biases we have in decision-making1, in Flextronics case, Flextronics could gain cutting edge and good fame from the succeed of the project, and many parties are closely watching this project, decision makers still needs to be objective when making decisions While Xbox project needs the two facilities designated to work closely, decision makers assigned the project to Mexico facility and Hungary facility, two groups that are both geographically and relationally distant.This decision has led to ineffective communication between the two facilities. Second, Flextronics’s CEO’s over stress on culture decentralization and the fact that Flextronics’s acquisition led to culture acquisition caused lack of communication1 and trust1 between facilities. Lack of Communication has led to different systems in two facilities. The two plants function separately and have the ir own respective cost control, this leading to conflict about which system to adopt.If the Hungary facility has communicated with the headquarter about which system to adopt in the first place, the headquarter would probably have suggested Hungary facility to adopt Datasweep like Mexico facility did, and Flextronics would not have this dilemma at all. Now that the facilities are having problem in switching system, they still refuse to trust each other’s system, they are even unwilling to communicate with each other about the system. This lack of trust and communication has worsened Flextronics’s situation. 2.Criteria in Decision Evaluation The most prior criterion in decision evaluation is whether the ultimate decision enables Flextronics to make profits in the long run. Since profit enables enterprises to survive and developlast. Profit is also the reason for the establish profit oriented enterprises. However, in individual tasks such as Xbox project, the priority ma y be developing cutting edge and enhance reputation rather than financial gain, but this project would be valueless if it cannot bring about financial benefit in the long run.The second most important criterion is customer satisfaction. In this case, customer satisfaction means whether Flextronics produces Xbox in good quality, right quantity, with reasonable price, and in timely manner. Flextronics also needs to meet Microsoft’s requirement in system adoption and production control. As Microsoft is an important customer and the project’s success could bring about substantial benefit for Flextronics, it is important to stick to the contract with Microsoft. Another important criterion would be whether the ultimate decision leads to good team work.Now that the Hungary facility and Mexico facility have inconsistency in production and refuse to compromise, decision makers need to come up with a solution to involve the two facilities in close cooperation, which is the key t o success in launching Xbox in two markets at the same time. As good teamwork in Xbox would lead to enhanced work efficiency and good example for future projects, it is important for decision makers to let the two facilities willingly reach an agreement. 3. Actions to Take In order to satisfy the criteria mentioned above, Mr. McCusker should take the following actions before he reaches a decision.First of all, in order to make sure the company can benefit from this project, he need make comprehensive analysis on every aspect including costs, potential profit, customer satisfaction and future influences on market share of all those three possible scenarios. The first decision alternative is putting Datasweep in both Mexico and Hungary. This fits to both the philosophy of Mark, the CEO of Flextronics and the requirement of Microsoft. Moreover, Datasweep is a scalable solution over Visual Factory, thus facilitating future projects on a global view.On the other hand, the cost is a big i ssue. Besides, the uncertainty to operate the new system may disorder the normal operation for Hungarian for a period of time. Well, decision-makers should consider more than financial benefit1. As this is a global project, McCusker should view it as a whole. If this solution does meet the criteria of the company, those two branches should share the total cost and profit. Furthermore, the Mexico factory should send some engineers who are familiar with Datasweep to Hungarian to make it operate well as soon as possible.Because the Xbox will be built first in Mexico, there is still some time for Hungary to adopt the new system. In this case, Flextronics will become more and more global-orientated and get ready for tremendous future projects. However, there is still some uncertainty exists, because the management team in Hungary is self-important. They are quite unwilling to switch and would only do so if the CEO commanded. They may have some psychological issues which will have bad eff ects on carrying on the project. The second one is to set up Visual Factory in Mexico.It will save a lot of money, which is a big issue in this industry. This system has been well self-customized by the Hungarian team and they believe that they have already discovered and fixed most of the bugs. But the fatal defect is that Visual Factory has no credibility outside of Hungary. It is extremely hard to convince Microsoft and the executives and IT team of Flextronics to trust this new system. Moreover, because of the build of Xbox starting from Mexico, time is another critical issue. The third option is allowing each branch uses their own software system. This will benefit both plants without any risk.Nevertheless, there is also a fatal drawback of this option that is it can hardly meet the basic requirement of Microsoft for a single software platform. What’s more, it lacks global synergies which will be a barrier for Flextronics to develop in the long run. The second action McC usker should take is talking to Michael Marks, the CEO of Flextronics, putting all three options and all the pros and cons of them according to the comprehensive analysis and asking for his advice and even help. In this case, this is indeed needed, though it is not recommended to refer to boss for help.Because this is a global project which need close cooperation of the big two branches, it’s hard for McCusker, the project manager, to deal with those senior executives. Furthermore, Humphrey Porter, president of Central Europe, and his team even claimed that they would switch to Datasweep only if Michael Marks ask to do so as an order. In this case, without the approval of Michael Marks, it’s useless for McCusker to reach any decision. The third one is to hold a conference with all the key people including Humphrey Porter, Matt Ryan, Jim McCusker, Mike Webb, Robert Dykes and Michael Marks.Because one of the biggest problems of Flextronics is lack of communication, this conference will help those key people in this project to know the situation better and build trust and familiarity among them1. After they consider and discuss all the pros and cons of every option face to face without any communication barrels, they stand a good chance to reach an optimal decision. A good teamwork among different branches would also benefit a lot for the future development of Flextronics as a global company.

Technology Life Cycle

All new technologies goes through a technology adoption life cycle in which certain market groups adopt the product before others are willing to do so. Here is each of the market groups: Innovators, early adopters, early majority, late majority, and laggards. Innovators in a general sense, is a person or an organization who is one of the first to introduce into reality something better than before. That often opens up a new area for others and achieves an innovation. They pursue new technology aggressively, learning about and evaluating new products in an effort to be first.They’re also relatively few in numbers—so for marketers, they represent a major key to the marketing campaign. Next down the list, early adopters are visionaries, not technologists. They are found at ease when imagining, understanding, and appreciating the advantage of new technology. When it comes to high-tech products, they’re looking for vital breakthroughs, not minor improvements. They rel y on their own intuition and vision to make their buying decisions, which make them the key to opening up a high-tech market group.Following, early majority customers are centered on the linking of practice and theory. The early majority know many of the upcoming inventions are just passing fads. They let the early adopters test the new technologies and post their experience with it to establish solid references. Approximately one-third of the adoption life cycle is early majority that is why this market group is the key to substantial profits and growth. Next, late majority adopters are conservative. They’re content to be followers, and often are not comfortable in their ability to handle new technology.They tend to wait until something has become standardized and seen a lot of support. Like the Early majority the late majority comprise about one-third of the entire buying population. This makes for high profitability, while its profits decrease as the produce matures, so do the selling costs, and virtually all the R&D costs have been amortized. Last of the cycle is laggards, this group are considered skeptics. They are very late adopters and in some cases they never adopt. If they do end up buying a new technology they tend to overlook it because it is a bi-product of another product.Realize that you’re not going to sell to this audience until very very late in your product life cycle, most likely when your product has become well accepted. In summary of the technology adoption life cycle, this cycle shows that technology is accepted in the community in stages which relates to the mental and collective understanding of the five groups that make up the community. The high-tech marketing model is a strategy that uses the technology adoption life cycle as the source to examine ways to market a product.It works by starting with the innovators by building a reputation and then moves to the next group, the early adopters, in hopes of the innovators c ompelling the early adopters to get on the â€Å"bandwagon†. The process continues all the way to laggards. The key to keep this process moving smoothly is to maintain a momentum, which makes it more natural for the next group to buy into the product. Another key is to keep up with the current technology by taking in the phrase â€Å"window of opportunity. † Competitors can easily overtake your market if the momentum is lost.The high-tech marketing model is a smooth transition that goes through stages of the technology adoption life cycle. If you can get there first, and establish a standard through the beginning of the cycle you gain a monopoly over the market in which you could gain high profits throughout the cycle and establish a sustained product. A good example of the previous concepts being used is the Lotus 1-2-3, which was the first spread sheet for IBM PC. The Innovators first started using lotus 1-2-3, stating that it was â€Å"slick† and â€Å"fastà ¢â‚¬ .Subsequently, the early adopters started using it because the new things they can do with it, such as the â€Å"what if† analysis. Next on the bandwagon, the early majority, they started using it because of its uses with common business operations. As it started to become standardized the late majority eventually fell into line. By the end of the 1980s it was pretty much the only standard program used for spreadsheets. There are several cracks in the technology adoption life cycle, from the innovators to the early adopters, from the early adopters to the early majority.But the latter happens to be the most challenging and an unrecognizable division chasm. The transition goes unnoticed because that in both groups the customer list and the size of the order can look relatively the same. The products that the early adopters buy, is some kind of change agent. Being the first in the industry gives a head start on the competition. When we move on to early majority they want to buy a productivity improvement for their current operations. Ultimately, they want evolution. This eventually leads to a catch-22.In a catch-22 situation the early adopters have already caught on and it has been publicized. In the end the product seems to never get past the early adopter group. When the promoters of high-tech products try to move on from their early adopters group, they leave the early majority without a reference and support. This chasm has made many marketers fail in the past. The early market is what the staff members interpret as sales of increasingly smooth curve, but in reality it is an initial blip and not an emerging mainstream market unfolding.Companies can fail when their managers don’t notice the transition from early adopters to early majority. This leads to high expectations and too much time spent on expansion rather than husbanding resources. This result in an illusion of high-tech marketing, which is the belief induced by the high-tech mark eting model that new markets unfold in a continuous and smooth way. While trying to avoid perils of the chasm, a new state needs to be established to examine and correct the flaws that are associated with the technology adoption life cycle. In turn, this provides a secure basis for marketing development with minimum problems.

History of Cookies

The first cookies were created by accident Cooks used a small amount of cake batter to test their oven temperature betore baking a large cake, The earliest cookie-style cakes are thought to date back to seventh-century Persia. Persia was one of the first countries to cultivate sugar. The word cookie originally came from the Dutch keok]e, meaning â€Å"little cake†. Dutch first popularized cookies in the United States. The British incorporated them in the 19th century in their daily tea service and calling them biscuits or sweet buns, as they do in Scotland.Sometime in the 1930s, a Massachusetts Innkeeper ran out ot nuts vvhlle making cookies. she substltuted a bar of baking chocolate, breaking It Into pieces and adding the chunks of chocolate to the flour, butter, and brown sugar dough. The Toll House Cookie was then Invented and became a big hit. Ruth Wakefield was credited with inventing the chocolate chip cookie, an American Classic. Cookies are made with sweet dough or bat ter, baked in single-sized servings and eaten out-of-hand. Perfect for snacking or as dessert, cookles are consumed In 95. ercent ot u. s. households. Americans alone consume over 2 billion cookies a year or 300 cookies for each person annually. cookies are most often classified by method of preparation – drop, molded, pressed, refrigerated, bar and rolled. Their dominant ingredient, such as nut cookies, fruit cookies or chocolate cookies, can also classify them. Whether gourmet, soft or bite-sized cookies, new categories are always cropping up as the American appetite for cookies contlnues to grow. A drop cookle Is made by dropplng spoontuls ot dough onto a baking sheet.Bar cookies are created when a batter or soft dough Is spooned Into a shallow pan, then baked, cooled and cut into bars. Hand-formed cookies are made by shaping dough by hand into small balls, logs, crescents and other shapes. Pressed cookies are formed by pressing dough through a cookie press to form fancy s hapes and designs. Refrigerator cookies are made by shaping the dough into a log, which is retrigerated until firm, then sliced and baked. Rolled cookies begin by using a rolling pln to roll the dough out flat; then It Is cut Into decorative shapes with cookie cutters r d pointed knife.Other cookies, such as the German springerle, are formed by Imprinting designs on the dough, either by rolling a special decoratively carved rolling pin over it or by pressing the dough into a carved cookie mold. The Southern colonial housewife took great pride in her cookies, almost always called simply â€Å"tea cakes. † These were otten flavored with nothing more than the finest butter, sometimes with the addltlon of a few drops of rose water. In earlier American cookbooks, cookies were given no space of their own but were listed at the end of the cake chapter.

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