Scenario You are the global marketing vice president at Dyson. You have been asked to attend a meeting with James Dyson, the company's founder. Dyson's CEO and the head of Dyson's New Product Innovation department will also be in attendance. "Thanks for meeting with me today," James says. "Market intelligence has shown that our major competitors—Hoover, Shark, and Bissell—are all developing new cordless vacuum cleaners with a longer battery life than what's currently available." James Dyson looks to you: "I need you to participate in a new cross-functional product development team that will research the feasibility of creating a cordless vacuum cleaner that works for one hour on a single charge. We also need to know if there's even a market for this type of vacuum," he says. "We envision that this new vacuum will be used primarily in the home, but keep in mind, we want to be able to adapt it easily and cheaply for light commercial use. One way of doing this is by using swappable battery packs." "Have an actionable marketing plan ready for me in three weeks," James says. You know that to give the CEO the most thorough report, you'll need to conduct an internal analysis of Dyson and an environmental scan for the new vacuum cleaner. You'll need to have a detailed plan for identifying marketing opportunities, and you'll need to research the home and commercial vacuum cleaner industry, market trends, and Dyson's major global competition.
Your financial analysis should include average unit cost, average unit price, number of units per batch, any outsourcing costs, a breakeven analysis, a sales forecast, and an expense forecast (including marketing and sales expenses). In addition, explain your schedule for implementation, the controls you intend to put in place, and how you intend to proceed (i.e., contingency plans) when your benchmarks are not met.
Milestone 6: Submit a one page document explaining your financial analysis and implementation for the startup of a new Dyson vacuum cleaner.