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    Crown 2

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    Karthik Mkp
    The relationship between Crown and its sole design consultant FRS should be altered by developing an in-house product design team and retaining external consultants only for new products. An in-house team would improve existing products faster and help Crown gain core competencies that are hard for competitors to imitate. It would also expedite development and help groom designers familiar with Crown's technologies. Using multiple external consultants would reduce FRS's influence and leverage Crown's design budget to gain competitive advantages through alternative partners. External consultants should still be engaged for new products to bring fresh ideas and skills while countering risks of an insular in-house team.

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    Crown 2

    Uploaded by

    Karthik Mkp
    27 views1 page
    The relationship between Crown and its sole design consultant FRS should be altered by developing an in-house product design team and retaining external consultants only for new products. An in-house team would improve existing products faster and help Crown gain core competencies that are hard for competitors to imitate. It would also expedite development and help groom designers familiar with Crown's technologies. Using multiple external consultants would reduce FRS's influence and leverage Crown's design budget to gain competitive advantages through alternative partners. External consultants should still be engaged for new products to bring fresh ideas and skills while countering risks of an insular in-house team.

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    The relationship between Crown and its sole design consultant FRS should be altered by developing an in-house product design team and retaining external consultants only for new products. An in-house team would improve existing products faster and help Crown gain core competencies that are hard for competitors to imitate. It would also expedite development and help groom designers familiar with Crown's technologies. Using multiple external consultants would reduce FRS's influence and leverage Crown's design budget to gain competitive advantages through alternative partners. External consultants should still be engaged for new products to bring fresh ideas and skills while countering risks of an insular in-house team.

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    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    27 views1 page

    Crown 2

    Uploaded by

    Karthik Mkp
    The relationship between Crown and its sole design consultant FRS should be altered by developing an in-house product design team and retaining external consultants only for new products. An in-house team would improve existing products faster and help Crown gain core competencies that are hard for competitors to imitate. It would also expedite development and help groom designers familiar with Crown's technologies. Using multiple external consultants would reduce FRS's influence and leverage Crown's design budget to gain competitive advantages through alternative partners. External consultants should still be engaged for new products to bring fresh ideas and skills while countering risks of an insular in-house team.

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    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    of 1

    2. Based on the above evaluation, should the relationship be altered? If yes, how & why?

    If not,
    why not?

    Crown should focus on developing an in-house product design team that is integrated into the
    R&D function of the organizational structure and focuses on existing product improvements. The
    external consultant services are to be retained only for new product design and development
    activities. It should also alter the current relationship that has FRS as the sole design consultant to
    include additional players for consideration in future projects. The reasons are as below:

    a. Crown has a clear need to refine and improve majority of its existing products indicating a
    considerable volume of forecasted work for the in-house team. Historical data (for TSP
    project) showed new product development and product update timelines during Crown’s past
    collaborations with RS to be significantly longer than its current target of 2 years and 1.5 years
    respectively. Moreover, an in-house team will significantly elevate Crown’s core competency
    in product design which will make it difficult for competitors to imitate owing to the
    comprehensive pattern of internal coordination and learning that it envisages.
    b. In-house design teams can help shrink design / prototype and review timelines and expedite
    product improvements owing to better coordination with engineers and thereby a closer
    integration with the overall product development process. In the long-term, this approach will
    help to groom well-rounded designers with innate knowledge of Crown’s product & process
    technology and who can be considered for future NPD projects. It will also protect Crown
    from rejection of its projects (low-volume work), forward integration and other such threats
    by its design consultants (suppliers).
    c. The presence of an in-house design team and competition in the external consultancy project
    space will enable Crown to mitigate some of FRS’s recently acquired clout and supplier power
    to influence contractual terms and conditions in its favour. Crown’s substantial design budget
    of USD 1M supports this as it can look for alternate consultants with whom Crown can have
    a better leverage on contractual terms and skill expectations to gain long-term competitive
    advantage despite search costs & other challenges. It can also help Crown to diversify its risk
    of relying on single external party for all its product design needs & allows flow of fresh ideas.
    d. To ensure product designs are creative and cutting edge, it’s recommended to engage external
    design consultancy services for new products as it will counter the risk of having a stale in-
    house design team that’s habituated to working on very homogeneous product types and help
    improve the competencies of internal design team which can learn and absorb skills of its
    design consulting partners in due course.

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