The company had compiled an impressive growth record, especially during the past several years. It was no stranger to high technology and enjoyed an enviable reputation as a supplier of high-performance, dependable, and cost-effective products for hospitals and medical research facilities. Its new product, the Unitech, a machine that combined several monitoring functions and also performed sophisticated analysis of the data, represented a technological breakthrough that would give the company a clear competitive advantage for at least three years. But the project began on a shaky note—and went steadily downhill.
At the outset, there had been two competing design configurations. One, with a key component based entirely on a new concept in buffered circuit design, was the strong favorite of the engineering and marketing departments. Manufacturing urged a somewhat more conventional approach and persisted in its arguments even after the company president made a “final” decision in favor of the more advanced design.