The case describes an attempt Steve Gundrum, CEO and President of Mattson, to improve the innovativeness of the company. Mattson, located in Silicon Valley, California, is an independent developer of new products for the food and beverage industry. Mattson, develops and markets new drinks, snacks, frozen meals, and many other foods and beverages as a contractor for large manufacturers in the industry. Gundrum said, there is an opportunity to improve their innovation system by borrowing from advanced software firm that surround it. To test new methods of product development, Gundrum creates competition - develop the best cookies - and the commissions of three teams: one with a traditional hierarchical command structure Mattson, one using open source (OS) development, and the third using extreme programming (XP). Mattson Project Delta (A), (B) and (C) cases to explain what happened. Learning objectives: the study and discussion of this case can help students better understand the importance of the creation and structure of the innovation process. It also shows the strength to achieve industry boundaries to find new ideas, not only for products but also for the business processes and structures, as well. Basic lessons in this case is the fact that: 1) the structure of the group and management can make a big difference in both creativity and productivity. 2) Problem Solving (internal generation of new answers to questions), and finding a solution (foreign intelligence existing solutions) can be useful in different situations and at different stages of the life cycle of innovation. 3) Managers have many choices when selecting the structure. In addition, the case provides a good language to talk about the team structure. 4) The prototypes can be applied not only new products but also new structures and processes for innovation. "Hide
by David Robertson, Robert J. Crawford Source: IMD 3 pages. Publication Date: November 22, 2006. Prod. #: IMD312-PDF-ENG
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