HP KittyHawk

Assignment 1: Reaction Paper of Hewlett-Packard: The Flight of the Kittyhawk (A) (HBS # 606088) Tanveer Ahmed Number of words: 600 (Excluding heading) Date: 27th October 2014 Rick Seymour led Hewlett-Packard's "Kittyhawk" team isolating from other teams, reserving special care for this project, to transform their company to a significant industry leader. In 1992 Spenner's project charter focused on five parameters for launching the project successfully. The introduction phase was scheduled to take 12 months from start to finish, with revenue from the two-year period expected to hit $100M. They were the first to introduce a 1.3-inch drive to the market with18-month development cycle and maintaining a 35% stringent growth rate to hit the target and reach break-even within 36 months. HP's organizational culture deeply valued innovation as a key to success. The team was split from the rest of the company to minimize resistance from other groups. Meticulously engaging bright employees of the organization, avoiding in recruiting the members who had existing HP cultural bias and were asked to sign a creed to work distinctively. The top-level management was a constant bolster for the autonomous project team, which was cross-functional. The team had the flexibility to make quick decision like a start-ups. They focused on one niche to escalate market positioning. However, there were challenges starting with manufacturing and ending in retail pricing. The segmentation in project group was not felicitous, as the development team had additional responsibility to market the product. Goals were set up before market research, and had high expectations of $100 million revenue and failed in projecting the right technology. The market timing was precarious having tight window. Team relied heavily on the success of the OEM's delivered products. The rest of DMD team felt like, working on trivial projects as they...