Case1LastMileCopy - 1503 Words

Case Study 1 – LastMile (pg. 423) The case study on LastMile Corporation II: Choosing a Development Partner, is based around the fact that Tom Sherman, the president and CEO of LastMile Corporation, must decide on who to partner with for the development and launch of LastMile’s new product. There are many factors that Tom considered when determining which company would be the best fit and the main points discussed were carefully analyzed. In Chapter 8 â€Å"Developing the Product, Service, and Value of the Offering†, the product life cycle is discusses in detail. The development stage is the first of five stages in the product life cycle. As a result, important decisions must be made in the development stage and those decisions will have a†¦show more content†¦Micro Manufacturing would also have the ability to modify LastMile’s technology to better suit the needs of their customers, which eliminates several potential markets for LastMile and would focus primarily on the customers of Midwest Technologies. Ultimately, Tom did not want Micro Manufacturing to be considered one of their strong competitors at the end of the term of the license, so he was having some doubts on its legitimacy. With all things considered, I believe that Tom should come back with a counter proposal. He could state that he is willing to sign the agreement as long as it doesn’t allow Micro Manufacturing to modify LastMile’s technology to suit the needs of their customers. In order to maximize the benefits for everyone involved, the products could be modified in a way that attracts customers from all of the established markets in addition to potential markets. This would allow LastMile to exponentially broaden the potential market that the company will target once the company goes their own way. Of course, Micro Manufacturing might not be too fond of this idea because it is eliminating a huge benefit that they would receive as a result of entering this partnership. It also reduces the strong level of competitiveness that Micro Manufacturing would have coming out of the agreement. Perhaps Tom could also state that he would be