HP Kittyhawk case study analysis
BA 569: Advanced Strategic Management
Case Write-ups—Hewlett-Packard: The Flight of the KittyHawk(A)
Two years after launching the Kittyhawk in mid-1992, Rick Seymour, the Kittyhawk project leader, was facing a dilemma to continue the project with the three possible options or to recommend to abandon this project. Due to the comparatively small market share in disk-drive market, Bruce Spenner, the general manager of the Disk Memory Division, decided to enlarge Hewlett-Packard’s market share by launch an innovational product - Kittyhawk. However, plans can never keep pace with changes. Kittyhawk didn’t acquire the expected customer segments, which caused the dilemma.
To analyze the internal and external situation of Kittyhawk project, a SWOT analysis is conducted as follows:
Strength
High storage capacity
Early to the market
Access to best team members
Well-established brand image
Emphasis on project parameters
Strong support from top management
HP culture (deeply valued technical innovation)
Weakness
High product cost and price
Late to future storage requirements
Fail to predict the market
Lack of agility and entrepreneurial
Opportunity
Access to unexpected customers
Technology improvements
Make changes to meet potential customer
Threat
Well-established competitors
Influence of other two technologies
Difficulties of implementation
Uncertainty of technology development
Uncertainty of market needs
From the external and internal analysis, it showed that Hewlett-Packard’s Kittyhawk project had a great chance to succeed in the market, especially with plenty of strength. In fact, in terms of an innovation, Kittyhawk was very successful. The design won several prestigious technology and new-product awards for 1992, which got much attention from the market. But to drive growth, innovation also needs to be useful and successfully implemented. So, did Kittyhawk achieve that? That’s the key to success.
Good Strategic Decisions
Case Write-ups—Hewlett-Packard: The Flight of the KittyHawk(A)
Two years after launching the Kittyhawk in mid-1992, Rick Seymour, the Kittyhawk project leader, was facing a dilemma to continue the project with the three possible options or to recommend to abandon this project. Due to the comparatively small market share in disk-drive market, Bruce Spenner, the general manager of the Disk Memory Division, decided to enlarge Hewlett-Packard’s market share by launch an innovational product - Kittyhawk. However, plans can never keep pace with changes. Kittyhawk didn’t acquire the expected customer segments, which caused the dilemma.
To analyze the internal and external situation of Kittyhawk project, a SWOT analysis is conducted as follows:
Strength
High storage capacity
Early to the market
Access to best team members
Well-established brand image
Emphasis on project parameters
Strong support from top management
HP culture (deeply valued technical innovation)
Weakness
High product cost and price
Late to future storage requirements
Fail to predict the market
Lack of agility and entrepreneurial
Opportunity
Access to unexpected customers
Technology improvements
Make changes to meet potential customer
Threat
Well-established competitors
Influence of other two technologies
Difficulties of implementation
Uncertainty of technology development
Uncertainty of market needs
From the external and internal analysis, it showed that Hewlett-Packard’s Kittyhawk project had a great chance to succeed in the market, especially with plenty of strength. In fact, in terms of an innovation, Kittyhawk was very successful. The design won several prestigious technology and new-product awards for 1992, which got much attention from the market. But to drive growth, innovation also needs to be useful and successfully implemented. So, did Kittyhawk achieve that? That’s the key to success.
Good Strategic Decisions