The Winslow Clock Company Case Analysis

Luis Daniel Ruiz Lozano   ENTR 400-001 Professor Curt Moore 26 September 2016

Case Analysis Report

Textbook: The Business Plan: Creating and Starting the Venture

Case: The Winslow Clock Company

The case "The Winslow Clock Company" talks about the dilemma that has Dr. Winslow regarding its business plan and if it would have exposed properly. The chapter of the book covers how to create and starting a successful business plan. He had an innovative invention, the watch market has a growth of 8 to 10% each year, but a market where alarm clocks have a decrease of 29% a year, is a big risk for investors, Does his business plan would be successful? The relationship of the chapter with the case is adequate, because we can properly analyze the strategies that Dr. Winslow made, so we can predict if the product is going to be successful based on a well-structured business plan.

Dr. Winslow did a good job getting support from students and small business for the production plan, business plan and marketing plan. Based on this support, he can estimate a reasonable cost of production. In addition, he contract consultants in the legal field, finance, accounting, design, marketing and production for better results in your business plan.

The clock had a very good market acceptance with retailers; it is considered a mature market and retailers seek more technological products for sell. In addition, the product has a good supply company, Seiko. We can see that their sales strategies with retailers and catalog sales will work well but how long? The problem with this market segment is that large manufacturers could match the invention in a short time and this would be replaced by the most important brands.

The description of venture is quite a promising product with intelligent technology design that is giving people a new option in this market. I think the product is for a target market of 20-30 years people who would have the attitude of "revenge to alarm clock," What happens after you throw it? Will you go to pick it up? Will it be fun for a long time or will be routine?

It is planned that the first year the clock sales recover overhead costs as quickly as possible. In a market with many competitors, the price of the clock could be lower dramatically for 3 or 4 years; the price of the watch is $ 85, which causes me a great question, an alarm clock with such a high price may be popular enough to dominate the market?

The case is from 2004; when you can pay $ 10-20 for a common clock, and as we have seen from 2004 to 2016 each year new alarm clocks appear with new designs and features at affordable prices, so it would be an obsolete model in a very short time. In addition, most people use the phone to wake up with them favorite song. The first iPhone went on sale in 2007, which makes me think that the clock Winslow had a lifetime in the market for maximum 3 years.

They plan to sell the product in the Christmas season for higher sales, but is it really adequate investment? They should take more time to analyze the business plan, until they are sure that start the business in Christmas is the right thing to do. When you are doing a business plan, you may take your time for make better decisions. Probably they can recover their investment, but the owners of the equities of the company should consider that the product will only generate profits for a period of 5 years probably. Considering this, invest in Winslow clock would be a safe investment but would not give expected profits over a period of 10 years because of the market to which it belongs.