
Andy and Laura work for Saltonica, a maker of cell phones. Sales have been slow lately, so Andy is recommending the company adopt a new strategy.
Andy: My team has come up with a new strategy. We can't continue being fast followers. We need to start developing our own cutting-edge technologies.
Laura: Why? We've been fast followers for the past ten years. Why mess with success?
Andy: Success? Get with the program. Our sales are way down. Our cash cow, the Model 8B, only sold 900 units last month!
Laura: I can understand why. That phone's a relic. It's been around for over three years. What about our new phones?
Andy: Our latest model cell phone was a real dog! It sold only 20 percent of our sales forecast.
Laura: Any idea why?
Andy: Product life cycles are much shorter now than before. New technologies are developed at a much faster rate.
Laura: So what are we supposed to do?
Andy: We need to become much more innovative as a company. Instead of producing me-too products, we need to leapfrog our competitors.
Laura: How do we do that?
Andy: For starters, we need to beef up our R&D department. We need to develop differentiated products which we can sell at a premium.
Laura: As a next step, let's get buy-in from our marketing and sales directors.
Andy: Right. We should get everyone on the same page.