Program Management for Improved Business Results

Appendix A. American Shogun

Bjoern Bierl and Andrea Hayes-Martinelli

GETTING STARTED

It was in late May 2002 when Jan Vesely, sales manager for Southeast Asia and the Pacific region at International Instruments, Inc., received a call from RisingSun, one of its key accounts in Japan. "They told us that they were interested in our 1001-series monitors if we were able to provide audio capability—a feature that our competitor already had implemented in their product," Vesely said. "Additionally, RisingSun wanted us to deliver the product in 11 months, which was an aggressive time-to-market goal. Since RisingSun was one of our most important customers, we jumped into action." International Instruments, Inc. was a global market leader in the field of monitoring systems, and the 1001 series was their main-product line of monitors addressing the biggest segment of the overall market.

The audio capability for the 1001-series monitors was previously discussed because, as mentioned, a major competitor had already brought a monitor with audio capability to the market. But Manuel Scriba, the segment manager for the 1001-product line, found the market too small to justify adding the audio feature, but the telephone call from RisingSun changed everything. As Scriba recalled, "Suddenly the program, named Shogun, would help us to meet our financial, market share, customer relationship and competitive business goals," he said. "First and foremost," he commented, "a new program had to fulfill our business ...