Linking Strategy and Innovation: Materials Technology Corporation

Position statement

MTC should have a formal process for choosing development projects, therefore Spencer Quinn and the management team should formulate an appropriate aggregate project plan. Such a plan is a prerequisite for creating a sustainable development strategy. The main criterion of this plan should be a good mix of breakthrough, platform and derivative projects. If projects exceed the working capacity of a product development group, management should adjust the size or composition of the product development group accordingly.

Why?

The decision making process at MTC results in an unbalanced mixture of development projects. The uncontrolled acceptance of new orders is currently based on short term financial prospects and individual preference instead of long term growth prospects. This approach results in a workload that exceeds the capacity of existing product development groups , which results in missed deadlines. This is a structural problem that cannot be solved by hiring more engineers or technicians. Previous staff increases have only resulted in accepting in even more projects, without taking into account sustainable development strategy.

How?

Because no single project can guarantee long term success, MTC should take into account their entire portfolio of development projects when deciding on a new project. Additionally, the management team should plan the evolution of their project portfolio over time; which projects to accept and when to accept them so that new projects fit MTC’s sustainable development strategy.

Currently, MTC has too many derivative projects and too few platform projects. The workload is also distributed unevenly across product development groups. All current running derivative and platform projects are based on the molding technology platform.

MTC have a