Acer America: Development of the Aspire
Harvard Business School
9-399-011
Rev. April 9, 2001
Acer America: Development of the Aspire
In early 1998, Stan Shih, CEO of Taiwan-based personal computer (PC) manufacturer Acer, Inc., was reviewing the first estimates of 1997 year-end results. With revenue of $6.5 billion from own brand and sales to original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) such as IBM, the company was now acknowledged to be the third largest PC manufacturer in the world. Although the performance was respectable in the wake of a dramatic drop in memory chip prices that had plunged the company’s semiconductor joint venture into losses, Acer’s extraordinary growth period of the mid-1990s was clearly over. (See Exhibit 1.) The ever-restless CEO was wondering how to re-ignite the fire. Shih was convinced that Acer’s mid-1990 successes were due at least in part to the revolutionary “client-server” organizational structure he had introduced in 1992. The concept was inspired by the network computer model, where “client” computers—the strategic business units (SBUs) and regional business units (RBUs) in Acer’s organizational metaphor—were capable of complete independence but could also take on the “server” role, adding value for the entire network. To Shih, proof of the client-server structure’s potential had come with the 1995 introduction of the Aspire multimedia home PC. Created by Acer America Corporation (AAC), Acer’s U.S. marketing subsidiary and one of Acer’s five RBUs, this new product confirmed Shih’s belief that major initiatives with global potential could be led from any part of the organization without centralized headquarters control. But Aspire’s difficult development experience and its less-than-successful global rollout had also highlighted some of the deficiencies in the client-server model. Business unit independence had resulted in problems in communication, project ownership, product proliferation, and transfer pricing—and, in the end, had led to Aspire’s $100 million of
9-399-011
Rev. April 9, 2001
Acer America: Development of the Aspire
In early 1998, Stan Shih, CEO of Taiwan-based personal computer (PC) manufacturer Acer, Inc., was reviewing the first estimates of 1997 year-end results. With revenue of $6.5 billion from own brand and sales to original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) such as IBM, the company was now acknowledged to be the third largest PC manufacturer in the world. Although the performance was respectable in the wake of a dramatic drop in memory chip prices that had plunged the company’s semiconductor joint venture into losses, Acer’s extraordinary growth period of the mid-1990s was clearly over. (See Exhibit 1.) The ever-restless CEO was wondering how to re-ignite the fire. Shih was convinced that Acer’s mid-1990 successes were due at least in part to the revolutionary “client-server” organizational structure he had introduced in 1992. The concept was inspired by the network computer model, where “client” computers—the strategic business units (SBUs) and regional business units (RBUs) in Acer’s organizational metaphor—were capable of complete independence but could also take on the “server” role, adding value for the entire network. To Shih, proof of the client-server structure’s potential had come with the 1995 introduction of the Aspire multimedia home PC. Created by Acer America Corporation (AAC), Acer’s U.S. marketing subsidiary and one of Acer’s five RBUs, this new product confirmed Shih’s belief that major initiatives with global potential could be led from any part of the organization without centralized headquarters control. But Aspire’s difficult development experience and its less-than-successful global rollout had also highlighted some of the deficiencies in the client-server model. Business unit independence had resulted in problems in communication, project ownership, product proliferation, and transfer pricing—and, in the end, had led to Aspire’s $100 million of