introduction

Group Projects

Project 1: Is the United States Losing Its Innovation Edge? (Page 19)

The next time that you are at an electronics store, notice that most products are made in China, in the last several years, the United States has seen numerous industries disappear from its shores and locate in other countries. The United States has lost many industries ranging from smart phones to wind turbines, from solar panel technology to highly advance computer circuitry. Moreover, the United States may also lose technologies that would forester the development of future industries. Consider the cases of the Amazon Kindle. In 2007, in a Silicon Valley research facility, Amazon engineers and designers developed the Kindle electronic reader, a device that enables users to download and read newspapers, magazines, textbook, and other digital media on a portable computer screen. In 2007, when Amazon released Kindle to the market, it was sold out within five hours. However, Amazon had to look for another partner first within the United States, but eventually, it turned to Prime View, a Taiwanese manufacturer, to produce the screen. The Kindle, like other US invention, would be captured by the Taiwanese.

After reading the whole article and additional research:

a) What steps would you take in order to avoid such situation if you were an advisor to the US government?

b) In an open global economy, though the case of Kindle will not be the exception, there are some business strategists who would suggest that the following an appropriate firm’s management and market strategies could have prolonged the life cycle of the product. Discuss the steps that firm could have followed in order to keep the product in the United States and market share.

c) What are the lessons learned from this situation and what should be done in order to disrupt such damaging pattern?